Today we’re going to go over some crucial tips for planning a successful charity event.

Define your purpose

Before you even start planning your event, before you go through and schedule anything, ask yourself these questions: What goals do you want to achieve? What kind of fundraising event do you want this to be? Is this fundraising truly what you want this event to achieve? Some people do fundraising with the means of spreading publicity or to network with other companies. Is your cause well known with likely donors or other supporters, or are you going to be focused on educating the masses about your cause? Figuring out these important details will help smooth out the goals, and make them more viable and achievable.

Fundraising Goal

You can’t get anywhere without a fundraising goal. You have to figure out how much money you want to have or would like to raise by the end of the event. If fundraising is your main goal, you’re most likely going to need a certain amount of money. This should be a net positive after the expenses of the event are deducted. You don’t want to shoot too high as well– you want to make an achievable goal for you and the team members around you. You can always raise your goal, and it’s better for the people around you to watch your goal be raised than for it to be lowered.

Budget

This is incredibly important. You need a list of all of the expenses that are needed to even have the event. This includes but is not limited to food, space rental, catering, entertainment, transportation, securities, materials, even workers. The more attendees there are going to be, the more expensive the expenses are going to be. One way to get around an incredibly expensive budget is to host a virtual event. This allows you to keep your expenses in control, and even allows you to lower the registration fee. These expenses should be added into your fundraising goal, allowing you to plan without being worried. The smart thing to do is leave some money available in case something goes wrong, or something wasn’t calculated correctly.