Step 2: Fun events to hold to raise cash for your gap year

Fundraising isn’t just all about asking for donations! Put on a great event that people want to spend their hard-earned cash on and you’ll find that raising the cash to volunteer abroad is a breeze.

Onto the fun bit of our fundraising week – the actual events! The sky’s your limit when it comes to dreaming up ideas for events to hold to raise money for your volunteer trip, but just remember two golden rules – plan (early) and ask for help (from everyone)! Here are few ideas and the basics of getting them off the ground. You might think they look wildly ambitious, but give ‘em a go and you might surprise yourself! Oh, and check out http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/137-Step-3-How-to-publicise-your-fantastic-fundraising-event for ideas of how to promote 'em.

      1. Gigs

It may seem like a tricky thing to organise, but have a think and odds on you’ll know someone in a band, and if you don’t, someone you know certainly will! Get the word out that you’re looking for people to perform and you’ll soon find lots of acts willing to get involved for free in return for some publicity. If you can, try and make sure the bands have quite a strong local following and that they haven’t done lots of gigs in your area in the recent past, otherwise people will be sick of seeing them!

You’ll then need to find a reasonably priced venue, which suits the band(s) you’ve got on the bill – it’s worth asking the acts in question for tips on this, as they’ll know the scene in their city. Make sure you haggle with the owner over how much you’ll pay for the venue – you’ll be bringing people in to spend lots of money on booze after all! You’ll also need to get equipment sorted – almost all venues will have their own PA system, but you’ll need to work out with the bands on the bill as to who’ll bring what equipment in terms of amps and drums. After that it’s just a question of promoting your event and selling them tickets before rocking out on the night!

 

2. Quiz nights

Ahh, the internet – before, in the dark days of books and Trivial Pursuit purists, running a quiz was the preserve of well-read landlords! But now, anyone with a broadband connection can get some questions together to run a quiz night – you might even want to consider doing a special one on the country you’re planning to go to. In terms of venues, your local pub is your best bet – just have a word with the landlord, say how many people it’s likely to pull in and odds on they’ll go for it!

Decide how big the teams will be, how much you’ll charge per team and who’ll act as quiz master.  In terms of prizes you can either ask local businesses to donate them or just dip into your takings to buy a few bottles of wine – most people go to quizzes for the fun of winning rather than the prizes. If the event’s a success you might also want to consider making it a regular thing until you set off on your trip.

 

3. Swishing parties

Swishing, if you’ve not come across it before, is just another word for clothes swapping. They’re brilliant if you’ve not got lots of time to spend on organising an event, as they’re great fun and relatively simple to sort out. You’ll need to hire a room (hotels or function rooms of pubs are generally good places to hold them), then get lots of girls to come bearing three items of clothing they no longer wear but are still in good nick. The clothes get sorted, then everyone browses for half an hour or so before getting to dive in to help themselves to five things they like! You’ll find that the lure of free clothes is enough to get lots of girls willing to snap up tickets, all in the knowledge that they’ll be helping the planet by recycling their old clothes! It’s worth asking local beauticians, accessory makers and hairdressers if they want to get involved too – give them a bit of space to sell their wares and offer makeovers as an extra bit of fun for your guests. The money comes from charging a small entry fee (around £5-£8) and you may also want to consider charging stall-holders around £20 each. Just make sure you’ve got loads of trestle tables, rails and coat-hangers to stick everything on!

 

4. Club nights

Club nights in some ways are much easier to organise than gigs, as you haven’t got the problem of equipment, or trying to organise lots of different people. Be warned though – they’re a lot more difficult to get people to, especially on weeknights (which is probably when you’ll be having it, as it’s incredibly expensive to promote nights at weekends). Don’t let that put you off, however – if you know your music and know that there’s a gap in the market for a great mid-week night (especially if you live in a student-heavy city) go for it! Get a venue sorted, remember to haggle, ask some DJs to play, sell some tickets and you’ll be well on your way.

 

5. Village fetes

Not all of us live in big towns and cities where you can rustle up lots of people to come to gigs or club nights, so if you feel like you’re stuck out in the sticks try a village fete. If you went to school in the area, have a word with your old head teacher explaining what it’s in aid of to see if you might be able to use the school’s playing field for the afternoon. Just make sure you’ve got a good supply of willing volunteers, otherwise what should be a fun summer event can turn into a ‘fete worse than death’…ahem. Anyway, the most important thing is to get lots of food stalls focusing on goodies with a high mark-up such as cake, jam, ice-cream, strawberries & cream, BBQ and soft drinks. Here are just a few ideas for other stalls: face painting, nail bar, sponge the teacher, bric-a-brac, golf putting challenge, splat the rat, dog show, kids races, tug-o-war, human fruit machine, bouncy castle and not forgetting the all-important tombola. You might also want to ask local sports clubs (martial arts ones especially) to come down to give demonstrations, and even give the fire brigade a call (not 999!) to see if they’d be able to bring their fire engine down!

Have a look at how to publicise your event once you've organised it here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/137-Step-3-How-to-publicise-your-fantastic-fundraising-event

Check out the rest of our fundraising series here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/categories/22-Fundraising-Money

Have you organised any successful fundraising events? Let us know all about how you did it!

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