If you’re running a charity event it might be easy to think that the strength of your cause alone is enough to pull people in and make the event a success. However, in a saturated market full of good causes, there’s a lot more to consider. We’ve learnt a thing or two about charity campaigns through our work with Oxjam and Musicians Against Homelessness (we’re the official ticketing partners for both) as well as Warchild, Attitude is Everything and the Disasters Emergency Committee to name a few; so here’s some advice to help ensure that you get the most out of your fund-raising event.
1. Establish your aims
Whether you’re hosting a gig, dinner, awards ceremony or comedy night, make sure to establish what you hope to achieve from it. It may not always be about making the most money: If you’re just starting out spreading awareness, delivering a specific call to action or growing your mailing list could be more important. In this case, you should prioritise organising a smooth-running event, establishing a brand, networking with key influencers or collecting customer email addresses. Whatever your aims, tailor your event to achieve them and don’t judge your night solely on donations and ticket revenue.
2. Shout about your cause
You want to get as many bodies through the doors as possible while also building awareness, so make sure the charity aspect of your event is accurately conveyed. When setting up your ticketing page or Facebook event, make sure you include all the relevant charity info and why the cause is so close to your heart. You should consider including the charity name in your event title and the logo on all publicity materials too. Really spell it out to customers, don’t just rely on one avenue of your communications – repeat yourself!
3. Stand out
With so many worthy causes out there and all of them running fund-raising events, it’s important to make yours a little bit different. Telling people that all proceeds go to charity might not be enough of an incentive to get them buying tickets, so include a prize draw, auction, danceathon, or something a bit more unusual to make it both distinctive and memorable. You can’t always rely on people’s generosity either, so if putting on a gig, make sure it’s a line-up people would pay money to see, regardless of the charity aspect.
4. Try your luck
Sometimes it can be difficult getting volunteers together, but with a charity event it can be a little different ̶ so take advantage of people’s good nature! Whether asking friends to run the doors and distribute flyers, obtaining sponsorship and donations from local businesses, getting knocked down rates from the venue or asking for high profile donations for your auction, don’t be afraid to ask. You’ll be working to a stricter budget than usual and even the smallest of savings adds to the amount raised.
5. Add a voluntary donation
Okay, now to the money bit. Did you know that WeGotTickets offers you the chance to ask customers for an additional voluntary donation when purchasing tickets? If you are raising money for a registered charity, customers can choose to donate in increments of £1 upon ticket purchase. Having someone collecting coins with a bucket is all well and good, but it does rely on attendees having loose change. For more info, just drop our fantastic Support team a message.
6. Gift Aid
With Gift Aid you can claim an additional 25p on every £1 donated for your chosen charity. You need to make a gift aid charity declaration to do this – which just involves filling out a form – and then customers will be asked to confirm their eligibility when making a donation. This works well in tandem with the voluntary donation module above and is a great way to boost your profits without lifting a finger.
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