How to reduce or stop “Stressing Out” while planning your fundraising event.

We all live extremely busy lives today.  Between our families, work, friends etc. it’s hard to juggle it all.  We live full time lives, with full time jobs, with a full time family, with full time commitments and then…we are asked or we take on planning and hosting a fundraiser for a charity or someone in need of help.  Your stress level increases incredibly with all the responsibilities you take on and our lives become like a “House of Cards” – one mistake and it can come tumbling down.  The stress of it all weighs heavy on our minds. 

If you’re not a full time or professional event planner or fundraiser for a charity as a career, then this extra added pressure will consume you.  We all want to do a great job but if we “Stress Out”and worry – it just makes it that much harder to deal with.

Here are a few tips to help you not “Stress Out”:

#1 – Plan to Plan – create an outline or a plan in the very beginning.  A plan will help you tackle each task and allow you to check them off as you progress.

#2 – Building a Team – Team Building is perhaps the most important aspect of helping you battle stress.  If you are a control freak, try to “let go of the reigns” and ask for help.  You’re not going to be able to handle this on your own.   You can divide up tasks and get much more accomplished if you have people around you involved.  The larger the team, the easier it is.

#3 – Ask for help from a Professional – If you are not an experienced, successful fundraiser, you won’t have the foggiest idea on how to plan a successful fundraiser.  Unfortunately, what normally happens is – we attempt to duplicate the last fundraiser we went to.  However, we really don’t know if that fundraiser or the methods used were successful.  Contact a professional event planner but before you do, “Vet” them to see what “Charity Fundraising” experience they have.  Ask them if they specialize in planning and running a charity fundraiser.  Charity Fundraising is an art, it takes extensive knowledge about current trends, what to do and not to do, contacts with the appropriate vendors and so on.  Event planners are not fundraisers – like Mechanics aren’t Doctors.  Charity Auctioneers have extensive knowledge about what and how to be successful.  BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising is the only full service, Charity Fundraising event planning company in North America.   How many, a few people have the belief that not hiring a professional and saving the money is a much better way to raise funds.  However as the old saying goes “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait till you see what it cost you when you hired an amateur.”  Ask for help from a professional.

#4 – “Chairman” – As you build your team, determine who are the best at what they do.  Appoint those people as part of your leadership team.  For instance, “Ticket Chairman” – this person handles all ticket sales and questions from potential buyers.  They hand out tickets to your team and collect the money and information from the buyers.  They also can help by doing your floorplan, placing people at certain tables etc.  “Merchandise Chairman” – this person can conduct a running inventory of all the donated items you received while also directing your team to go after certain items which will help your event and also acquire consignment items to build up the excitement level at your event.  “Event Team Leader” – this person can assign certain jobs at your event such as “Check In”, “Check Out”, “Games & Raffles” etc. 

#5 – Start Early – Don’t wait for the last minute to begin to get ready for your event.  Several days prior, start the process of ensuring you have “All your ducks in a Row.”  Get all the paperwork done, pack up everything so that the day of, you won’t have much to do other than go to your venue.  Get to the venue early as well as your volunteers and start setting up.  Leave enough time so you can go home and relax before your event starts.

These tips will greatly help you and your Team have a much better experience while also reducing your stress level.   BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising can greatly assist you by keeping your duties small while also directing you on what to do next.  BW will guide you and your team through the myriad of pitfalls so that everything is streamlined and highly successful.  BW will also help by being a major part of the planning, managing and hosting of your event so that you too can enjoy yourself and spend time with your guests, supporters, donors & sponsors.

If we can help you, please feel free to contact us at www.BWUnlimited.com, email at info@BWUnlimited.com or call us at 443-206-6121, we would love to help make your life a lot easier.