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How to Organise an Event for Charity

how to organise an event for charity

The fastest way to earn money for a charity is to organise an event. However, professional organisation of charity events is a long process that requires detailed preparations. For this reason, you want to know how to organise an event for charity and succeed. Let’s find out how.

Reasons to organise an event for charity

Volunteer fundraising is a global charity trend. Many event organisers expect to gain many insights from organising an event for charity. You don’t need to wait for the perfect opportunity to organise a charity event. You can plan it and offer it to your clients at any time for many reasons:

  1. Charity events provide a very unique and special opportunity for current high value donors to personally invite their friends.
  2. Fundraising events provide a method to bring together prospects, donors, board members, staff, and volunteers.
  3. These events drive awareness for your cause and can help you find new donors through different channels.

In a nutshell, organising charity events is the best way for an organisation to get noticed and to engage the right people with their charity.

What is expected of such events?

You can plan an event for charity and organise parties for the collection of donations in support of various funds: to help children, animals, the environment, human rights, people with special needs, etc.

Types of events

Apart from balls and grand charity auctions, there are other charity event formats as well. This is a good opportunity for a professional planner to consider the following types of fundraising events:

  • Fun run/walk
  • A-thon events
  • Non-sport competitions
  • Art exhibitions
  • Gala concerts/dinners
  • Festivals

Fun runs and walks not include marathons, half-marathons, 5Ks, or other high-profile races and so much more! Learn more about different types of fundraising events and how easy they are to organise. 

How to plan an event for charity in Asia step by step

Every event starts with a good plan. Here’s planning a charity event checklist:

Decide the budget

Project your fundraising income in advance. Forecast the estimated values for incoming revenue from your event ticket sales, sponsorships, online donations, and product sales.

Define the event objectives

Make your goals specific and measurable. Define the goals and objectives that will help you estimate your projected income, and establish financial goals for your next fundraising event.

Decide the format and the theme

Some event themes are better for charities, while others are better for businesses; so make sure to use the working ideas for charity events and the format that fits the concept.

Create a guest list

Include all of your guests on the list. Decide how you’ll divvy up the list before accepting financial help. Be realistic about the number of guests to avoid unneeded stress later on. 

Find a venue

Hiring event space for a charity event is one of the most expensive parts of running an event successfully, so find the most suitable venue for your fundraising event to avoid unnecessary stress.

Select your ticketing or registration platform

To better host a charity event, select your ticketing or registration platform. Do not forget to provide easy ways to accept donations.

Approach sponsors

Think of how to get sponsors for a charity event. Find and approach your sponsors beforehand, and also approach media, speakers, or hosts, if any.

Marketing and advertising

Organise appropriate marketing and advertising of your charity event. Use modern approaches to create a buzz around the event via email marketing, social media, etc. Choose the best tools for event promotion in Asian markets.

Identify and hire other vendors

Choosing a supplier or service provider for a charity event is not an easy task. Make sure the vendor you choose is the best one to provide the service or product you need.

Make the final preparations

When everything’s ready and you are finished with your plan, theme, and estimating and recording of expenses, revise and finish up the final organisational issues.

Things to do

During

Deciding on your core purpose and pinpointing your target audience is not something that you do during your charity event. You should be focused on getting donations and promoting your charity! Make sure that you are totally ready for a flawless event process. Even if digital fundraising isn’t your top choice, you can still create a sense of urgency with any of your other charity event ideas. 

After the event

Successfully retaining good participants will make your job easier the next year. This is your primary post-charity event task. Send thanks, gather feedback, monitor the feedback, and then adapt.

How to get sponsors for a charity event

Visit or contact a favourite local organisation that you support, and ask if they will donate something or sponsor your local event. Try to communicate with or visit a business during off hours so they can give you their full attention to help with your charity event planning. Make sure you reach out early and often. And don’t be disappointed if things don’t happen as quickly as you’d like. Huge businesses may delay their help with lots of appointments and back-and-forth replies.

How to manage your event

To develop a vision for your event, put your team together, create an event budget, and set up a smooth registration process as well as marketing and payment facilities to increase your fundraising event traffic. You will need a professional event technology platform that will boost your event fundraising.
If your charitable events have more than one goal, figuring out the details for your event will be easier with professional event assistance. Success will depend on knowing what goals you are trying to achieve and having the appropriate tools available to manage an event under these multitasking conditions.

Event planning checklist

Always use a checklist for planners to plan a successful event for charity:

  • Decide on your event format and theme.
  • Establish your event budget.
  • Choose the most powerful fundraising channel.
  • Determine the sponsors for your charity event.
  • Launch your marketing activities.
  • Nail down all the event logistics.
  • Continue to promote your charity after the event.

Most importantly, after choosing the topic and planning an event for charity, you will have a lot of organisational work left. Leave some spare time for emergency situations and contingency actions.

Best practices for organizing an event

The leaders in charity event management emphasise the following three best practices be applied to your organisation so that you can succeed with your fundraising event:
Recruit more effectively
Many organisations have a bias toward large attendance. However, it’s more important to invite individuals who will bring donors to participate in the fundraising event rather than to get the most participants. It’s a matter of value over numbers.
Empower registration fees
Ticket fees will moderate the investment of development. In the event that you truly need to get 5,000 individuals to your event, the easiest way to do that is to make it free!
Activate fundraising
As obvious as it sounds, it’s important to mobilize your fundraising event participants to actually raise funds. You can set minimums or e-mail prompts to make it easy and to let participants know there’s an expectation to raise funds.

Tips on how to make your event successful

Now you know how to organise a charity event so that you can achieve your goals. Here are some extra tips to follow:
If you have only a couple of ideas that not only inspire you to create your own unique events but also easily attract new donors, feel free to ask for help from event professionals.
If you are organizing a large-scale event, such as a race, festival, concert, or fair on your own, get ready to encounter a large number of administrative approvals, especially if event management will take place on municipal property.
If you want the media to be able to provide information about your campaign to the public in advance, do not forget to notify the local media a couple of weeks before the event, which will allow time to gather even more participants and some nice donations.

What are the main insights in organising the charity event?

You have to spend a lot of effort, money, and time while organising a charity event to make it a success, so feel free to get professional event help. The result will be worth all the effort. You will activate your participants, empower them to recruit more donors, and achieve your event goals. The energy of mass participation in fundraising events is the best experience for organisers.
Feel free to contact us any time you need worthy charity event ideas.
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