Many business owners have certain causes that they like to support through charitable means. Hosting a fundraising event both helps your worthy cause and positions you as a business which takes its social responsibilities seriously If you are in the process of event planning, here are a few tips which you can use to help you along the way.

Choose a Cause and Goal

If you have yet to choose a cause which you are going to donate to, this is the first thing that you want to do. Perhaps it will be a one-off event or a charity which you would like to align your business with. Once you have settled on this, it is time to decide on the amount of money that you would like to raise. Remember that you will also need to deduct all expenses of holding the event.

Choose a Type of Event

The type of event depends on who you will be inviting and how much you are planning to raise. Perhaps you simply want to organise an elegant dinner party with a charity auction at the end. Maybe you would like to arrange a fun run complete with obstacles and color powder. Ask yourself whether charity is the only point of your event or you would like to do some networking or general publicity. This will all have a bearing on the type of event you choose.

Budget Carefully

When you run any kind of event, you need to make sure that you have done all your budgeting carefully. A few of the things which you need to include are staff, catering, transportation, entertainment, venue hire, and anything else that you need to make the event a success. Always leave a bit of extra room in your budget for any unforeseen costs which may arise down the line.

Set-Up in Advance

To make sure that everything isn’t done at the last minute, you should set up everything well in advance of the event date. Think about where it will be held, what food will be served, whether or not there will be entertainment and what the event itinerary will be.

Marketing

Now is the time that you want to start raising awareness about your event. You may want a small occasion with a select group of people or something larger which generates a lot of coverage. If it is the latter, you need to draw up a marketing plan including direct mail, PR, an email campaign and social media.

Sales

The whole point of running this event is that you raise money for charity, so there needs to be a clear procedure in place for making ticket sales or accepting donations for the event. You may have several fundraising activities planned on the night as well.

Finally, you need to make your last preparations to ensure that everything goes smoothly on the day. Make a timeline of how everything will flow throughout the day and stick to it as closely as possible.