Education Is The Answer To Poverty.

Organise An Event Or Activity

 

There are several types of events or activities which you can organise to raise money for One Cause. We’ve included a few suggestions below. If you have any other ideas, shoot us a quick email and we’ll add it to the list.

Organise An Event

Organising an entertaining event is one of the most rewarding ways of raising large sums of money for charity. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to improve your organisational skills, work in a team and make friends in a very social environment. You would be offering something of value to those kind people who donated, a hearty  “Thank You” for their generosity. Of course, this can help to attract more and more people to your cause.

There are a number of different types of events you can run. From musicals to fashion shows, plays to comedy nights, dinner and dance nights to karaoke nights…the choice is entirely yours! You could even mix them up and call it a variety show!

Since we’ve already organised a number of charity events, we believe it’s important that we share our expertise with you.

We’re happy to give you a link to all the essential files we actually use when organising a event. You can download them below. These files contain everything you need; they include checklists, Word documents and even Excel spreadsheets that can calculate the timings for your event automatically! Your event will run perfectly!

Download Our Get Involved Pack

Organise A Sponsored Activity

Organising something as simple as a sponsored activity is a really fun way of raising money for charity. Good examples of sponsored activities include a sponsored trek, a sponsored bungee jump, and if you talk too much, a sponsored silence! The best thing about these types of activities is the flexibility of choice. You can virtually choose any activity you wish and raise money for charity while you’re doing it. The next time you plan to do something exciting just for fun, for example a sky dive, why not make it a sponsored sky dive and raise some money for One Cause?

Our very own Chief Executive Officer, Rajen, completed a gruelling 7 week charity weight loss challenge at his employer, Deutsche Bank, in 2008. He ended up losing 12 kilos in only 49 days and not only did he win the competition but he raised over £1,600 for One Cause!

We want this process to be as smooth as possible for you. That’s why we’ve created professionally designed sponsorship forms for you to keep track of all your sponsors and the amount they are sponsoring you for. Just click the link below to download them to your computer!

Download Our Sponsorship Forms

Alternatively, you could use www.JustGiving.com to keep track of things.

Organise Something Fun At Work

There are TONS of simple things you can do at your workplace to raise some money for One Cause. Take a look at some cool ideas below:

• Casual Dress Day – Everyone at the office pays a token £2-£5 to wear whatever they want at work for the day. You can even make it fancy dress!
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• Job Swap – Do you ever feel that you could do a better job than your boss?  Why not organise an event where you auction off the Head of Department/Cleaners job for the day? This can be a lot of fun, as you can imagine.
  
  
• Guess The Baby Contest - Staff have to match up their colleagues with their very own baby pictures. To take part, they have to pay a small fee which goes to charity!
  

 

Auctions, Sales & Raffles

Why not clear out your attic and organise a car boot sale or sell some things through eBay to raise money for One Cause? It’s easy, fast and can create a lot more space in your house!

Alternatively, you could act on a slightly bigger scale and organise an auction, sale or raffle, where you could get local companies to donate prizes or items for sale. You could even auction yourself off on a date!

Competitions

Organising a variety of competitions like sports and dance contests to raise money for charity can be very effective. People would pay a small entrance fee to take part, and have fun playing their favourite sport or participating in their favourite hobby!

For example, a Five-A-Side football competition with an entrance fee of £40 per team would be a fun and exciting way to raise money for One Cause. You could even organise an Art exhibition and then auction off the paintings at the end!

PLANNING TIPS

So hopefully you’ve already got some ideas for an event or activity you may want to organise to raise money for One Cause.

But what comes next? The answer, of course, is PLANNING. It’s very important that you allow plenty of time to look at all the challenges you might face in the process. Check out the following questions you may need to think about…

How easy will this event be to organise?

Do I have the time to do this successfully?

Do I have the right people around me to help make the project run smoothly?

What are the start-up costs?

How will I raise the money for the initial costs?

What resources do I need?

What are the challenges I could face and how will I deal with them effectively?

How would I publicise the event?

Get a celebrity?

Local radio or TV?

Local PR e.g. Newspapers & Magazines?

Posters on work noticeboards? In public places?

Word of Mouth?

What is the break-even amount?

Is it viable to run this event?

When can I do this, and is there enough time to get everything ready before the event?

Download Our Get Involved Pack

 

• FUNDRAISING TIPS

Set your sponsorship target and aim high!

If you can get some help from your friends and family, you could collect more money than you ever would have expected.

Start sponsorship as early as possible, well in advance of your event, as it may take time to chase up some of your major sponsors.

When approaching people for money, try and ask for the money there and then, as it becomes more difficult to collect money if you wait too long after your initial pitch or presentation. Also, remember to offer your sponsors a receipt. Keep a track of these amounts, because in case you have to pull out of the event, you can give them their money back.

See if you can get Corporate companies to “Match” the amount you raise. This could effectively double your money. Check out One Cause’s Matched Giving Section for more details.

Ask local companies to sponsor you if you wear a T-shirt with their logo on it.

For corporate sponsorship create packages that will provide all the information and answer the questions a company might ask. It’s much better to tell them what they need to know without them asking and you answering on the spot! Remember to keep these packages flexible. You will need to approach either the Marketing Department, Public Relations Department or Community Development Department. When approaching companies, remember to state:

- Who you are and what your cause is.

- Why you are organising the event.

- How you are publicising it.

- Who will be attending your event and their demographic.

- Why it will benefit them. (Important!)

- What kind of amount you’re looking for.

Download our free sponsorship forms and send them to friends and family in different parts of the country so they can raise even more money for you.

Bucket collections in local shops, pubs and clubs are very effective. Make sure you get the permission of the owner of the establishment before you start collecting.