Hold Your Own Event

Organising your own charity event can take a lot of time and preparation. Firstly, you should decide on the type of event you want to run. You could host a bake sale in your workplace or a fun run at your local school. The key is to plan how you’re going to promote the event and encourage people to get involved or donate; you’ll also need to manage running the event and plan how to maximise the donations it raises for your charity.

To help plan a successful charity event you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What type of charity event should I organise?
• When is the best time to run my charity event?
• Where is the best place to hold my charity event?

Once you've answered these, you're well on your way! When you’ve got the basics right, you’ll be able to start planning how you want to promote the event itself and who would be likely to want to get involved.

It might be helpful to throw some ideas around with your friends and/or family to see what different people might be interested in.

If you do need some support or still aren't sure what to do, get in touch with us.

To set up a charity event, you will need to plan in advance and have a number of reliable volunteers on hand to help. Firstly, you’ll need to establish your fundraising goal or target, ie. Raise £500 for Alder Hey Children’s Charity. Next, you will need to think about your target audience and how you might attract them to the event. Finalising the smaller details such as date, time and location should be a key part of the planning process as well as setting your overall budget for the event. Keeping costs down means that you can minimise your expenses and still achieve your fundraising goal.
Some charities have an established list of volunteers and people who would like to be contacted in relation to any upcoming events, so make sure you contact the charity you’re supporting about your event so they can get on board too.

Depending on how big your charity event is, you might need to consider roping in a couple of volunteers to help you on the day! Arrange to meet before the start of the event to make sure everything is set up in time to give yourselves the best chance for everything to run according to plan.
Collect any donations on the day and make sure you record exactly how much money has been raised. Make it clear to donors at the time they give whether you’re planning on donating all or a percentage of the money directly to the charity.

Sponsors can be key to your event as they can help to promote your event to a wider audience as well as providing key financial support. Many businesses will be open to the opportunity to sponsor or get involved with a local charity event, so it is worth dropping them an email or arranging a meeting to discuss your plans and let them know how they can help support you. It’s important to reach out to a local sponsor a good couple of months before your event to give them enough time to plan and approve their involvement.
Sponsors don’t have to be big companies or local businesses; friends, family and neighbours can also sponsor you or your event by providing their support or by pledging money, especially if you complete a challenge, such as a run or skydive.
You can also ask local shops and restaurants to donate items that can be auctioned off or bought at your event, with all proceeds going to the charity.

The type of event or activity you plan to host will help to determine how you should promote your event. Think about who might like to help out, who would likely want to take part and what types of companies or individuals might like to sponsor it. Contact local celebrities and influencers who could help you to gain media exposure and encourage more people to attend.

Social media is a powerful and free way to get your event in front of a wide range of people. Create a Facebook event and use Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to make people aware of the event and build momentum. You could also set up a Just Giving donation page for those who want to support you but might not be able to make the event.

If you have some budget allocated to promotion, spend it wisely on Facebook by promoting your event or boosting a Facebook post and targeting it to the people who you know would be interested in it.

If you manage to get local organisations or businesses involved in your event, ask them to promote it to their employees by sharing it in their internal newsletter or online. You should make local press aware of your event so that they can feature it in a local newspaper or on their own social media accounts. They may even wish to attend the event and cover the day.

Make sure you make the charity aware of your event, as they can point you in the right direction when it comes to promotion.

If you’re running an event for Alder Hey Children’s Charity, please feel free to contact us with your name, address and the details of your event - we like to know who is holding an event so we can send you a letter of authority when you fundraise for us and provide you with our branded resources.