Making a fundraiser a success means being able to create a strong identity for an event for a national or local community, while also engaging people in a range of different ways. These approaches can take in everything from mail outs and community collaboration to online social networking. Making a fundraiser a success, and making it fun, also means being able to know your audience, both in terms of what they expect from your event, and how you can best create a format that suits you and your charity. Charity work is difficult in this way, and requires patience and teamwork to get the most out of an event. The following list represents some general tips and ideas for how to make your fundraiser a success:
1 – Get Involved in the Community
Community engagement is one of the most important areas to focus on when organising a charity event. The relationship between a charity and local people, whether they are part of businesses, schools or other parts of the community, is one that can produce long term loyalty and significant fundraising. You want to speak to different people about their ideas for events, as well as making sure that plenty of people volunteer to help out on the day. How this might work will depend on the size and nature of your community, as well as whether it is better to go for a broad approach, or to target particular groups.
2 – Online Promotion
It is crucial to be able to promote your charity and fundraising events through the Internet. The many free resources that you can employ include Facebook and Twitter, where you can create fan pages and fundraising links, as well as informing your donors and charity community about the kind of events that you will be running. Having a dedicated fundraising page is also essential, and particularly if you are organising an event that has a certain capacity for live attendance. Live video feeds and Twitter streams can help to make the event reach a much larger audience.
3 – Knowing Your Audience
Being able to correctly market your charity to an audience means knowing where and when to focus your resources. A major national campaign may involve targeting different groups, or many people at the same time. A local community event might mean using a smaller campaign that emphases fun activities that can build on existing events like summer fetes, carnivals and sports days. Talking to your local community, and asking for online feedback, can also help you to get a sense of the kind of people who will be your main donors.
Knowing your audience similarly means that you can plan future events with them in mind, and tailor other mail outs and emails to specific people. Having this approach will mean that you can move from being simply a charity to a group that a donor can work with on a regular basis. Moreover, thanking people for their support through participation in events can also help to enhance loyalty.
Citations:
- cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Adrian MB
Patrick Hegarty is an experienced fundraiser, who likes to share his experiences with a growing community of followers and recommends Thirdsector Jobs for fundraising jobs and charity jobs.