Guide To Hosting A Charity Event

How to Plan a Charity Event

In running your business, you work every day to make sure your products and services are the best they can be. You want your customers to trust that your company has the integrity to consistently provide quality and value. However, there’s another important aspect to demonstrating integrity: giving back. Moving into 2024, corporate responsibility is a top concern for customers when choosing which businesses to support. A charity event is an excellent, public-facing way to demonstrate your commitment to your community. Below we’ll go over 8 steps to show you how to host a successful charity event for a great cause.

Custom Apparel for Charity Events Delivered Fast

At Merchology, we believe that the real purpose of merch is to connect with people. Custom printed tees or sweatshirts with your logo are the perfect way to not only bring your team together but to reach out to your customers, supporters, followers, and business partners. Not only do we have the custom T-shirts and merch you need for your charity event, but we also have a new custom tee printing method that allows for even faster, lower-cost, more detailed, more durable designs! Check out direct apparel printing for your charity event tees!

 

 

Why Host a Charity Event?

With so many rampant issues like disease, poverty, and climate change, it’s important for people to work together to make a difference. As Forbes points out, “businesses can and should make a larger impact than single individuals.” Now that we can once again gather in large numbers, 2024 is the perfect time to host a large charity event for a cause that matters to your community.

This type of giving back has multiple benefits for your business:

• Marketing  - More potential customers will learn about your company through your event, and current customers will be happy knowing that some of their spending dollars are going to a good cause.
  
• Employee morale  - “Employees respect leaders who do good,” says Enterpreuneur.com. A successful charity event shows team members that they’re not just working to increase profits; the company is also committed to helping others.
  
• Doing the right thing - Your community is the reason your company has succeeded. Good leaders want to pay back and pay forward all of that support and good fortune.

Talk to your employees, customers, and clients to choose a non-profit organization that fits your corporate ideals, and go through the steps below to plan a successful event.

 

8 Steps to Host a Charity Event

From logistics and marketing to custom swag bags, here are the basic steps for planning successful and fun charity events.

1. Put Together a Committee 

[stock photo of a committee meeting]
Before you can make any major decisions about your event, you’ll want to put together a top-notch committee. When deciding on committee members, think about the perspectives and skills they will provide. For instance, you’ll need:

• A finance professional from your company. They can manage the budget and set financial expectations.
• Employees from your marketing department and, if applicable, from any department that plans public events.
• If possible, at least one committee member from the benefiting organization. 
• Community members who care about the cause you’re supporting. They can bring valuable resources and connections and serve as community ambassadors.

Depending on the size and nature of your charity event, you may want to have subcommittees to handle specialized tasks.

2. Determine the Size of Your Event

The overall scope of your event will inform many of your decisions regarding budget, venue, etc. The size will depend on many factors, including:

• Does your company already have a history of planning and hosting events? In other words, do you already have the basic infrastructure and know-how to host a charity event?
• How much of your resources can you devote to the project? (Think staff time, funding, attention from leadership, etc.)
• What amount of money can you reasonably expect to raise?

If your company is new to event planning, or if you’re uncertain about the resources you can devote, then consider starting small. You can always grow the event in subsequent years. If events are already a part of your business, then you may be ready to go big from the get-go. 

 

3. Set Your Budget 

[stock photo indicating budget planning - maybe a spreadsheet on a computer or some papers with a calculator]
With your committee together and your overall scope determined, you can start creating a working budget. Many of your costs are obvious: venue, table/linen rentals, catering, entertainment, and marketing,  for example. But there are many other costs to consider:

• Invitations: If possible, send personalized, high-quality invitations to customers and stakeholders. These invitations can illustrate the tone and theme of your event, and they make your invitees feel valued and welcomed. Include design, printing, and postage costs in your budget.
• Personnel costs: You will likely need to pay people outside of your staff to help with your event (more on that in a bit).
• Fun activities: The best charity events are interactive in some way. Include a budget item for games, raffles, and more.
• Donations from your company: Budget your project to include a substantial donation from your company. Plan to announce the donation during your event. This will add to the excitement and encourage generosity among attendees.
• Party favors and giveaways: Include funds to order logo-branded gifts for your event. Giveaways make any event more fun, and your logo on the gifts will remind everyone of how your company gives back.

 

4. Find a Location and Set the Date

Now the fun part starts! Work with your committee to choose a venue that is the appropriate size and fits in your budget. Be sure to ask potential venues about the amenities they offer, such as audiovisual equipment, tables and chairs, etc.

When choosing your event date, check your city’s tourism and chamber of commerce websites. You want to avoid overlapping with another major event in your community.

5. Hire Help

As mentioned above, you will likely need to hire extra workers for your event. Your staff is already busy enough with their usual job duties. They can only devote so much time and energy to a special event. 

For instance, you may end up contracting with an event coordinator, a graphic designer, a DJ or band, or a notable emcee. Additionally, you will almost certainly need extra help running the actual event. Be prepared to hire bartenders, table waiters, parking attendants, or any other roles that you can’t fill with volunteers.

6. Market Your Event

Your charity event is shaping up to be a fabulous time—so start telling everyone about it! Here are a few of the avenues you can use to spread the word:

• Social media - Blitz your followers with information to get them excited about your event. Place boosted ads to reach a larger audience.
• Email - Use your marketing email list to publicize your event. There are many benefits and strategies for event email marketing.
• Press releases - Send out a series of press releases to local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. You may be able to arrange for free PSAs since your event is for charity.
• Invitations - As mentioned above, mailed invitations can raise the cachet of a formal event.

Essentially, you should utilize all of your usual marketing avenues to spread excitement about your event.

7. Order Merch

Charity events are an excellent opportunity to get your company logo out there. For instance, you can order logo-branded work polos for staff to wear while working the event. 

More than that, consider giving custom gifts as logo-branded giveaways, party favors, or raffle prizes at your charity event. These giveaways can range from simple drinkware to larger gift baskets and sets. With your logo added to these useful items, you’ll get a marketing boost long after your event is over.

8. Host Your Event!

You’ve done all the hard work; now you get to actually host your charity event! In all the chaos and fun, make sure you remember to do the following:

• Take plenty of photos - You’ll need these to show the success of your fundraiser and to publicize future events.
• Meet people - Your event is full of potential customers and clients and is a great opportunity to make connections.
• Educate attendees about your cause - Keep the focus on the good work that you’re doing together. Be as specific as possible about how donation dollars will directly help the cause.

Enjoy your event, and take pride in knowing that your company has made a difference!

Custom Gifts for Your Charity Event

As we’ve mentioned, custom swag bags and other giveaways make charity events even more exciting for participants. Merchololgy specializes in putting your logo on must-have products from top brands, making it easy to find the perfect gifts.

Here are just a few of our top suggestions for logo-branded gifts that will elevate your next event:

Custom Zusa Men's Peachy Tee - T-shirts are a standard custom giveaway at charity events. On this Zusa tee  (which is sustainably and ethically made with natural cotton), you can have your event artwork printed on the front and your company logo on the sleeve. It’s available in several colors and in a women’s style.

Branded Liberty Bags Susan Canvas Tote - A sturdy logo-branded tote bag lets participants keep up with all the swag from your event. We add your logo in high-quality embroidery.

Corporate S'well Silver Lining Bottle 17 oz - A reusable water bottle is a gift that will get regular use (which means more people will see your logo). This stainless steel option keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours or hot for up to 12. Your logo can be printed or laser engraved.

 

Custom Bose Stone Blue SoundLink Flex Portable Bluetooth Speaker with Waterproof/Dustproof Design - Tech devices are great higher-end gifts for raffles and door prizes. Anyone would love this portable wireless speaker, which features the sound quality and durability that Bose is known for. 

Looking to give a gift basket as a giveaway? Our MerchBoxes are curated collections of logo-branded products, all focused on a specific theme. You can choose the box that best fits your cause, the event theme, or the time of year:

• The Tail Wagger MerchBox is perfect for a fundraiser for an animal charity.
• The Consciously Curated MerchBox is a smart choice for environmental causes.
• Summertime events can offer the Chasin’ the Sun MerchBox, while winter events can give the Something Snuggly MerchBox

Contact Us

You’ve reviewed these 8 steps, and how you’re ready to host a great charity event! Contact us at Merchology to find the logo-branded gifts and merch you need for your next event.