Event Organizing - 4 Ways to Fundraising Event Success!

Event Organizing - 4 Ways to Fundraising Event Success!

Throwing school fundraising events has it's challenges.  Because a fundraising company is most likely not involved, you'll have to be conscious of planning, execution and spending. 

Regardless of your budget, you'll want to find ways to offer the highest value possible to guests at the lowest price possible.  Here are some suggestions on how to minimize expenses while hosting a successful school fundraising event:

1) The planning stage of your event should include wish lists, timelines and a budget.  If you have a timeline of the event, you'll know what has to be done in what order.

Event planning software is available, but, there are tons of free resources online including google docs, which allows spreadsheets to be shared with a pre-determined group of people.

2) The budget is important because you will have expenses up-front.  Things like prizes, decorations, food and beverages, space rental, inflatable rental, etc. will very likely need to be not only reserved well in advance, but many times paid in advance.

The reason the budget is so important is in cases where your plan is too extravagant for the allowed budget.  Scaling back is better to do ahead of time, as opposed to after some potentially less important things have been paid for.

3) Volunteers are a crucial element of any school fundraising event.  You'll want to make sure upfront that you can and will be able to get the amount of volunteers needed without having to resort to begging or advertising that you don't have enough help.

4) Save time for marketing!  The worse thing imaginable is hosting a party where nobody shows up.  Hey, if they weren't invited, how would they know they were supposed to be there in the first place.  What happens frequently is that people become so wrapped up with the planning stages, that marketing the event becomes an afterthought.

The problem there is that success requires momentum.  If you can't make the event important to the people you want to attract, they won't want to come.  So, throwing great events also requires attendance.  A school carnival with just a few folks at it doesn't seem very exciting.  So, do your best to insure that everyone knows about the event, when and where it is, how much it costs, why it's important and get them there! 

Hope this helps!

Ok, until next time!

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school fundraising events