How to Organize a Benefit to Raise Funds
Organizing a benefit fund-raiser is an effective way to raise a large amount of money for your charity or organization with one large event. A benefit often requires months of planning and a large number of people behind the scenes, but the end result is often amazing. Organizing a large event requires many aspects to be planned at the same time, which is why it is vital to the success of the benefit for the planning to start early and for there to be a strong support staff involved. Benefit fund-raisers can be fun and profitable for the charity or organization.
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Instructions
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How to Organize a Benefit to Raise Funds
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Choose an event to plan as your fund-raising benefit. Common events include golf tournaments, races or walks, auctions and concerts. Look at all your available resources and then decide the type of event based on what would cost the least to plan and what you feel would bring in the largest crowd of people.
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Pick a date for your event. Make sure you give yourself plenty of planning time for the event. Look into the needed venue for the event to see if there is a date or day of the week when you can get a reduced price on the fee or even get the venue for free.
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Pursue getting donations from local businesses and individuals.You can get donations of cash or products needed the day of the event. Donated items could include the venue, food, decorations, prizes, auction items, services, entertainment, etc. When asking for donations, you will want to meet the people face to face. Typically, solicitation letters in the mail do not work well. Go to the person you need to talk with and bring a letter verifying the event and where the money is going. Have extra copies with you just in case. When you are given a donation, offer donors a receipt for the monetary value of their donation to use as a tax write-off.
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Advertise the fund-raiser. The advertising should happen at the same time that you are getting donations and doing the rest of the planning. Don't wait until the last minute to advertise. See if you can get free advertising or get local businesses that are willing to pay for the advertising as a sponsor of the event. Advertise in community bulletin boards, church bulletins and community calendars. Send an event announcement to your local newspaper and write a letter to the editor announcing the upcoming event. Call your local radio station to ask it to make an on-air announcement.
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Buy anything that you still need for the event. Organize the volunteers, make copies of the schedule for anyone who will need it and delegate tasks according to parts of the day so that you don't need to be everywhere at once.
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Thank everyone at the event and send out thank you letters following the event. Thank all the people who volunteered with the planning and who worked at the event. Write a second letter to the editor of your local paper thanking all the businesses that donated to the event. It gives them free advertising, which will make them more likely to help with future fund-raisers.
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Tips & Warnings
The best advise is to start early. You can never have too much time when planning a large event.
Volunteers for the day of the event are critical. During the week of the event, you should call your volunteers to confirm the time they will be there. You don't want to be short-handed on the day of the fund-raiser.
