Organising your own event

Step 1 – Draw up a fundraising plan

A successful event needs to be well planned.  It is essential to set yourself goals and deadlines.   A fundraising plan will simply need to consist of what you are going to do, when you need to do it by and how you will go about it.

You could start by listing all of your potential sources of income, prioritising them in terms of which avenues will bring in the most funds.  From this you can decide which sources you will concentrate your time and effort on.

You should aim to have most of your plan and target achieved prior to the event.

Step 2 – Budget

Drawing up a simple budget listing potential income against predicted expenditure will help you establish;

• How much you hope to raise for Refuge
• What the expenses of hosting this event will be
• How much you should charge for tickets, raffle entry, etc
• If you need local businesses to donate prizes, refreshments, a venue
• Who you need to target for sponsorship and how much time and effort you will need to put into your fundraising

When you are predicting what you will raise for Refuge, aim high but be realistic and allow for setbacks so there are no disappointments.

Step 3 – Decide date and venue

The date and venue of an event are very important if you want to attract the right people and maximise success.  Allow plenty of time for organising your event, and book venues well in advance.  If possible, use local businesses to your advantage and ask for the use of a venue or other facilities free of charge.  Check the following;

• The facilities of the venue, incorporating any additional costs of equipment
• Licensing information
• Disabled facilities
• Fire regulations and insurance cover

Step 4 – Publicise your event

To publicise your event and to maximise its fundraising potential, you will need to consider who you want to target.  Depending on the nature of the event, you could contact local sports clubs and gyms, local pubs, shops and youth clubs.  Produce flyers and posters to advertise the event. 

Writing a press release to send to your local paper or contacting your local radio station are two fantastic ways to gain coverage of your event, and can be effective in raising further funds for Refuge.  The key to getting your fundraising activity noticed is to make your story stand out.  Many fundraising stories are covered each year, so a unique angle will make yours more attractive and newsworthy.

Whatever you do to publicise your event, ensure that you start early.

Step 5 – Fundraise

No doubt you will ask friends, family and everyone you know to get involved or to sponsor you.  When you have exhausted all of these options, however, there are plenty of other ways to raise money.

• Promote the cause – people will give more generously if they know more about Refuge and feel they are making a real difference.  It may also inspire them to organise an event for Refuge
• If you are working, ask your work to make a donation, help host an event, or even match what you raise
• Promote payroll giving to Refuge
• Set people minimum sponsorship levels with incentives for the most money raised
• Hold fringe events using the A-Z of fundraising ideas, or ask others to hold smaller events to raise money for your main event
• Contact us – for information packs, facts and figures about Refuge and details of the services we offer and promotional materials including posters, leaflets and balloons

Remember to take lots of photos of your event and we will put them on our website.  If you write a report of your event or send in any press clippings, you could get your own insert on our website.