Support Our Work – Prostaid

How To Organise A PROSTaid Fundraising Event?

Organising a fundraising event for us is much easier than it sounds!

Firstly decide on the sort of event you want to run and what sorts of people are likely to attend your event. Can you persuade them to bring their family and friends? Are they sporty, young, older, sympathetic & aware of PROSTaid and it’s work for local men with prostate cancer? Importantly do you have any contacts that might be able to help you with a certain type of event? Give yourself plenty of time to plan your proposed event. A well-planned event will be more enjoyable, lead to more support, more money. If you haven’t organised an event before, remember the Fundraising Team at PROSTaid are always here to lend a helping hand. It is important to take the following into consideration when organising your own event:

Budgeting When you have decided on your own event idea it’s important to work out a budget for your event, including the following as a guideline: Hire of Venue, (if you can get it free or lower cost that’s great)

Entertainments (do you have any Musicians or Comedians as friends)
Printing costs (again know any friendly printer)
Catering
Advertising
First Aid

You should try to cover the above cost with entry fees/ticket sales. Work out how many you expect to attend your event, and the potential income. Don’t worry if you don’t have every thing you need, there are lots of local businesses who will be happy to help with money to sponsor the event or loan of equipment etc., all you need do is offer them free publicity from the event and persuade them! It is amazing how quickly it all adds up, you’ll be surprised at how much you raise for PROSTaid

How Do I Organise The Event? Now you’ve decided on your chosen event and what you need for your event to take place. Hopefully you have a team of people all willing to do their bit. Give yourself plenty of time so that you complete all required tasks. For example, you may need flyers/posters; you need to consider design time, printing time and delivery time. Make sure that you delegate some of the work to others so you are not doing everything yourself.

Publicity A sure way to a successful event is publicity. Research into local newspapers and send out a press release about your event. Things to remember when preparing a press release:

What is the event
What is it in aid of
When is it happening
Where is it taking place
Include a contact name and address number for extra details

If you would like a photographer to attend your event, contact your local newspapers well in advance. Post-event publicity is just as useful; so don’t forget your camera. Send your own photo after the event, with a summary of what took place – this is an ideal way to thank participants and to raise charity awareness. If you’ve never done a press release before here are some top tips:

Make the headline catchy (look at what the papers use)
In the first paragraph tell the whole story (briefly) make sure you include what, where, when and why.
Keep it simple, snappy and entertaining
Write about yourself as though you are in the third person e.g. John Smith Engineering will be holding a Skin-head shaving day for PROSTaid
At the end of your release include contact details so that the press can call you for further information.

Posters/flyers are another effective form of publicity – local shops, libraries, community Centre’s etc. will display these for you. Please ask for permission if you wish to display posters in a public area. Our Fundraising Department at PROSTaid may be planning a mail-out or e-mail out that could also contain your event, so give us a call!

Sponsorship Based Events If you are organising an event that requires sponsorship, such as fun runs, bike rides, walks, etc., then click here to set up a fund raising page: http://www.justgiving.com/prostaid/

Collections If you wish to collect on the street or house-to-house, permission must be granted from your Local Authority. It is illegal to collect without permission. Supermarket stores are often the best places to hold collections – you will need to contact your local store well in advance, as demand is high. An Ideal way of raising money in store is by “ bag- Packing” best times before Easter or Christmas or Bank Holidays. Contact our PROSTaid Fundraising Department before arranging a collection.

Licenses – Check with the venue to see if you require a license for the sale of drinks/food or entertainment.

Charity Registration For literature or posters for your event, you should have “PROSTaid” and the registration number on it, Registered Charity No. 1116935 . Company Registered by Guarantee No. 5953090. We also give you information and leaflets about the charity that you can hand out at your event.

Need Help? We are always available to help. If you need any help or advice on how to run your event you can contact our PROSTaid Fundraising Department. The contact details are: R. Banner Trustee/Director. PROSTaid Reg Office: 17 Torrington Close, Wigston Magna. Leicestershire, LE18 2RY Email: info@prostaid.co.uk Tel: 0116 2888188 or Mob: 07900 384 103