Sponsorship!
Sponsorship is the key to ANY charity function, be it a small event or a large one. If you can cover your initial costs with sponsorship, then everything raised on the night and through ticket sales will go to your charity.
Get your local press on board and make a mention of every company that sponsors your evening. You might also want to mention them on the banners, advertising posters, tickets,or a logo within the guest hand out or on a poster at the venue.
Although everyone hates begging, if you never ask, you never get.
So put yourself out there a bit. Ask around, offer companies that sponsor you a free ticket as thanks and ALWAYS remember to thank them twice. Once as soon as their sponsorship arrives, and again after the event to tell them how much you raised as a result of their support. Two letters of thanks will make it much more likely that you’ll get a positive response next time around, and also they are likely to display your letter to their customers which means your charity get’s publicity too.
Raffles
When it comes to running your night – don’t forget the additional revenue you can use towards your charity by running a raffle.
Again – sponsorship is the key. Write to your local companies, or ask around friends and family to obtain raffle prizes.
Also… and here’s a great tip… sell more than one colour of raffle ticket!
Strange but true… if you have 1 strip then people will buy 1 strip. If you have 3 different coloured strips then people will by 3 strips of tickets, if you have 5 different coloured strips then people will by 5 strips. It doesn’t seem to be dependent on the price of the ticket! It’s the colour! People feel they have more chance of winning if they have a selection of coloured tickets.
So NEVER have just one book of raffle tickets, always have 4-6 books! You can reuse any left overs next time around!
The KISS principle.
(Keep it Simple Stupid! – for those that aren’t familiar with the acronym.)
It’s easy to be talked into running an event. There are a host of reasons why a “big” event seems like the best plan. But cost it out!!
Don’t be flattered into running something!
If you don’t need the publicity for your charity – if it’s purely a case of raising a bit of money – then think simple. And don’t waste a lot of time organising something that will bring in a net profit of less then your time is worth!
You might make more money from simple sponsorship (e.g. sponsored silences) or selling name cards or quiz sheets, and they are far, far simpler to organise then a charity ball!
Where I live there is always a bunch of cryptic quizzes doing the rounds and we all get drawn into them. They promote lively discussion in the staff rooms and at 50p or a £1 a go, you can quickly make £50 with minimal effort.
