The best way to show your support in the battle against diabetes is to start your own fundraising event in your community. Of course making a one-time donation is very much appreciated and necessary to keep our program going forward but starting a fundraising event does much more than just raise money towards fighting diabetes. Beyond the dollars raised, a fundraising event can spread awareness and help gain support ultimatly strengthening our efforts. The more people who know about diabetes, the better chance we have of curing it. Below is a step-by-step guide to starting your own event.
Your Step-by-Step Event:
For whatever event you choose to conduct, whether it’s a golf tournament or 5k run, these planning guidelines will help you outline the steps to be taken to ensure a successful and fun event that raises money for the Diabetes Research Institute and curing diabetes.
Form an Event Committee:
One of the first things to do as a committee is to decide what kind of event you would like to produce for this years fundraising event. Together, determine the kinds of events that have been successful in your community. Is there a particular activity that your council enjoys and you think you could involve those around your area? Don’t be afraid of trying something different. There might be too many of one type of fundraising events. Maybe you should go in a different direction.
After deciding on an event, assign committees or have individual group members volunteer to manage a specific task, such as event promotion, registration collections, booking a venue, registering necessary permits, volunteers, et cetera.
Please contact Project Type Zero if your event requires tax-exempt documentation or Tax-ID.
Develop a Timeline:
Give yourself plenty of time. For most D.A.D’s Day events your event will fall near the end or middle of June. It is not unusual to start planning as far as 4 months in advance. Of course it’s not always necessary depending on the scope of your event. You might find it easier to select an event date and plan backwards. Having a good plan will help you when those unexpected surprises and time crunches come up during the process.
Develop a Budget:
Set realistic expectations of costs and anticipated revenue. Spend some time going to other events in your area or speaking with other organizers to get a good idea of what there experiences are in relation to costs. Price services competitively and try to be as accurate as possible. Consider “add-ons” to your event to help generate added revenue such as raffle tickets or silent auction in addition to your actual event.
Promote your Fundraiser to you fellow members and the community by:
Send home flyers with group members, and publish announcements in your newsletter. Utilize the press release and send them to every local newspaper, TV station and radio station in your area to help spread the word of your upcoming event. Try to come up with interesting story angles to generate public interest. Look to businesses and community supporters to help you advertise your event. Community-minded business might be inclined to help you market your event through their website or sales materials - especially if they are an event sponsor.
Generating publicity for your event is very important. Being as creative as possible will help get the publics attention and ultimately their support. Below are examples of event flyers, Press Releases and other marketing materials to help you create a buzz in your community.
Recruiting Volunteers:
A successful event is not possible with out the help of volunteers. Sometimes the recruiting ends up being half the battle of setting up a successful event. An important element of the recruiting process is the “follow up” activities to ensure that the volunteers stay engaged in the event and ultimately perform their duties on event day.
A well-organized event usually includes two follow-up activities once a volunteer is recruited:
1. A post card or brief letter thanking them for their support and citing the time and place of the event and where they should report to on the day of the event. Give yourself approximately 2 weeks for mailing and possible responses.
2. A telephone call to the volunteer 3 to 4 days prior to the event confirming their participation and a reminder of where they should report to.
Event Day:
One of the most important things to have on event day is contact information for your support staff. This could include volunteers, medical staff and facility or venue staff. If plans change or something goes aerie you have someone to contact. Along with the contact numbers for your support staff an event day checklist can help organize the day and help in the case of any unscheduled changes in your plan.
Another thing to keep in mind is to have FUN! It is the best way to keep the volunteers engaged and keeping participants smiling. It becomes the best advertising for next years’ event.
Event Recap:
More often than not many forget to recap or summarize the event once it has ended. Properly documenting the results of your fundraising event will help determine what changes need to be made for next year’s event. The information you collect can help you determine what event activities were beneficial to your cause and what activities you could eliminate in the future. Having a detailed event recap will also help you when approaching next year’s possible sponsors. Having past participant and sponsor information helps establish credibility and could strengthen your proposal for future support.
A piece to also include in your recap process would be showing your appreciation to your sponsors and volunteers through thank you letters or cards. The gesture would be appreciated and could help gather support for the next event.
As always, please click on the "Contact Us" tab to speak with a Project Type Zero event consutant if you have any questions throughout the process.