How to Organize a Charity Fundraiser

There are many great nonprofit charities and humanitarian organizations doing important work and raising awareness and funds to help those in need--victims of famine, war, homelessness, hunger and disease. Organizing a fundraiser can be fun and is not very difficult to do. This article will offer some tips and ideas on ways to organize a charity fundraiser and help you to give something back to society.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ideas
• Connections
• List of your favorite nonprofit charities
• Paper and Pen

1. Find a charity or nonprofit organization that you would like to support, or start one yourself. Do some research into the creditbility and legitimacy of the charities and organizations. You can start by using the Internet and local libraries to find this information.

2. If you find a charity that is well-established and recognized in the community they will most likely have a website or local office that you can contact to find out who is in charge of fundraising and promotional advertising. You should get an authorization form from the selected charity or nonprofit before you proceed to organizing the fundraiser event. It would be even better if you can get the charity to collaborate and support your event.

3. Once you have the green light to proceed with the event you should decide on the theme and how and who should be involved in making the event successful. Try to get sponsors and donors to participate in the event by asking them to donate prizes and gifts for a raffle or silent auction. In return, you can inform them that the donations are tax deductible (if it's a nonprofit organization) as well as free advertising and promotion for their business or company.

4. If you are well-connected in the entertainment community you might consider putting together a show or performance with well-known performing artists and have the celebrities walk the red carpet.

5. Organize for the press and media to be present to give the event plenty of advertising and promotion. Try to get local radio and TV stations to advertise the event. Publicize the event in the local community papers and magazines, schools, colleges, houses of worship and clubs.

6. Set up a social website page for the fundraiser on popular Internet sites like MySpace and YouTube to increase visibility and promotion for the event.

7. It is relatively cheap nowadays to design and print flyers and posters to distribute prior to the event.

Tips & Warnings

• The key to a successful fundraiser event is preparation and organization. Make sure you have a team of reliable and responsible people who will give you support and their passion to ensure the event is successful.
• Communication is very important.
• Personally thank everyone who gave their time/energy and donations to the event.
• Don't take on more than you can handle. You will be so overwhelmed and fatigued from exhaustion that you will lose the passion and fun in the project.
• Make sure you donate all the proceeds made from the fundrasier to the charity you selected after the event is over.

Resources

• Jewell Productions TV
• DASH Foundation
• 10 Million Clicks for Peace

[kidneycancer]

on 8/20/2008 The Kidney Cancer Association provides these tips to everyone who visits our website asking for help in organizing a fundraiser. We've found this to be extremely helpful. Thanks! www.KidneyCancer.org

[Ladybugblue]

on 6/22/2008 Thanks, I have done this for private schools and other organizations and I find that there is such a lack of volunteerism. I enjoyed the article!