COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING GUIDE
Fundraising for the Telethon Juvenile Diabetes Family Centre
To download a PDF version of the Community Fundraising guide, click here.
- Decide on your fundraising activity
- Set your event budget
- Decide on your fundraising target
- Know your responsibilities
- Submit the Fundraising Activity Application Form to the Family Centre
- Set up your Everyday Hero fundraising page
- Market your event
- Organise your team
- Sourcing prizes or sponsorship
After the event:
- Tell us about it! And thank your supporters
- Deposit the funds you raised
- Organising receipts
1. Decide on your event or fundraising activity
There are lots of ways you can raise funds for the Family Centre - the options are endless! Think about what kinds of things the people in your community or at your work would get behind, and go from there.
If you’re stuck for ideas, you could:
- Hold a quiz or karaoke night;
- Host a picnic performance – eg. Jazz/Opera in your local park;
- Take part in a walk-a-thon, marathon or bike ride or organise a sporting day or event – like a day at the races or barefoot bowls;
- Organise a Christmas, Valentines or fancy dress ball or dinner;
- Organise a sports tournament playing cricket, golf, tennis etc;
- Host an auction of items that would be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity Eg: have your name used as a character in a novel; kick the footy to Nic Naitanui; bowl a cricket ball to Steve Waugh. Someone in every community knows someone famous - ask around and see who you can get to be part of your event;
- Organise a river cruise, a fashion parade, a cultural event or food festival;
- Hold an exhibition/auction of art or hand painted designs by local personalities;
- Hold a raffle on a monthly basis;
- Give a donation to the Family Centre instead of corporate gifts at Christmas;
- Reduce your workplace paper and stationary usage and ask your employer to donate the amount saved;
- Talk to your employer about a Payroll Contribution Scheme;
- Create a promotion where your company donates a percentage or dollar amount from certain products sold during a certain time. Or create a voucher booklet to encourage return business donating a certain amount from each booklet sold;
- Some people also choose to give donations in lieu of wedding gifts, anniversary or birthday gifts or in memory of someone special (particularly at Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day).
If you already have an idea please read our terms and conditions and fill out our registration form.
2. Set your event budget
Before you start fundraising, it’s essential you estimate all your expenses and income and make sure you have a big enough margin to finish in the black! If you need a template to help you list your costs and estimate your income, contact Bec at the Family Centre and she can provide you with one.
A good way to start your budget is to calculate all of your set costs (ie. venue hire, entertainment, food and beverage, printing etc) and ensure that these costs will be covered in your income. Once your set costs are covered then you can concentrate on your fundraising activities.
Remember to try and keep your expenses to a minimum. A successful fundraising event should net an income of at least 60/40 (funds raised/expenses). This applies to events held and promoted specifically for the purpose of raising funds.
3. Decide on your fundraising target
The sky is the limit! The Family Centre appreciates every dollar you are able to raise for us – every donation, no matter how big or small, will be put to good use by the Family Centre.
Think about the ways in which you can maximize your fundraising potential. If you are running a fundraiser for the Family Centre at your work consider asking your employer if the company would be willing to match any funds raised by its staff. You might also try asking local businesses if they would be willing to sponsor your event with cash or in-kind sponsorship in return for some exposure, to help keep your costs down.
4. Know your responsibilities
The event organiser, not the Family Centre, is responsible for the coordination and management of the event, finances, prizes, publicity and/or goods and services required to run the activity. Where possible, we will support and advise you.
Make sure you consider and take out any necessary insurance for your fundraising activity as you will not be covered under Family Centre policies. It is important to have public liability cover if you are a holding an event where members of the public will be attending. You can organise this through an insurance broker. If your event requires a large infrastructure set-up make sure your suppliers are trustworthy and that they have their own insurance coverage.
If you are running a raffle or selling alcohol you will need to get the correct licence from the Department for Racing, Gaming and Liquor – please check out their website before planning your event http://www.rgl.wa.gov.au/. If you hold a raffle, make sure you keep all your ticket stubs and take down all the details of the prize winner as Department for Racing, Gaming and Liquor may request these for an audit.
If you are holding an event in public or on property that you do not own you will need permission from the property owner or council. If you are preparing and selling food you will also need a license from your local council.
If you are holding a large event you need to make every effort to make sure your guests are safe. Mark out emergency exists with clear signage, if you are having a lot of people attending you may also need to hire some crowd controllers and consider First Aid support from St John’s Ambulance. Make sure staff/volunteers know where all of these are located also and map out contingency plans in case of bad weather if you are holding your event outdoors. Consider whether your venue has enough parking for the amount of people attending. If not, you may want to advise your guests about public transport options.
5. Submit a Fundraising Activity Application Form
The Family Centre is obliged to approve and authorise all fundraising activities held on its behalf. Please make sure you only begin your fundraising once you have received an authorisation letter from the Family Centre. The authorisation letter will only be sent to after you have read and agreed to the terms and conditions and filled in a registration form.
The Family Centre needs to have funds totalled and returned within 14 days of the event to comply with the Charitable Collections Act, so please ensure you are able to reconcile your income and expenses within this time frame.
When you have your Authority to Fundraise letter from us…
6. Set up your Everyday Hero fundraising page
Making donations online is convenient for you and your donors, as it reduces the need to handle cash or cheques and it generates receipts automatically. You can set up an event page through www.everydayhero.com.au and nominate the Family Centre as your charity. Then you will be able to forward your unique webpage link to all you friends and family via email or by posting it on facebook or twitter. If you need help setting up an Everyday Hero account call Bec at the Family Centre on 0424 290 877.
7. Market your event
Using the Family Centre logo
Using the Family Centre logo on posters, invitation, or a website helps show the legitimacy of your fundraising event or effort. The logo must be used in specific ways, however, to protect the Family Centre’s brand. If you would like to use the Family Centre logo, ask Bec Johnson at the Family Centre for a copy of it, and please send Bec the materials to review before they are printed or published.
Publicity
Publicising your fundraising event can be very important in order to attract wide support. We have limited resources at the Family Centre, so we appreciate any effort you are able to make to publicise your event. We are happy to provide guidance and advice to ensure that your publicity is as effective as possible. We can also provide information sheets about diabetes, and statements about the Family Centre should your require them.
There are lots of ways of promoting your fundraising event:
- School newsletters;
- Facebook and other social networking sites;
- Shopping centre noticeboards or shop window displays;
- Websites;
- Community Radio;
- Your local Community Newspaper;
If you are producing a poster to publicise your event, make sure the information contained on it is brief, punchy and accurate. Don’t mix more than two fonts on your poster and make sure the information is clear, well-spaced and easy to read. Consider approaching a printer to see if they can do a special deal for you in exchange for having a credit on your poster. Make sure you get a reliable group of people to distribute the posters. Display them around four to six weeks prior to your event.
Don’t be afraid to ask people to help you in promoting your event. Often shops and schools will be happy to promote an event when they know that the money raised will be given to a good cause. Another good approach is to ask a local personality to help promote your event. This may be the local Mayor, local publican, an entertainer or sportsperson. Having the help of someone like this will draw more attention to your event and will present many more publicity opportunities.
These days one of the quickest ways to get the message around is by creating an event on your Facebook page and inviting all of your friends to it. Remember though that you must get the Family Centre’s permission if you want to use our logo.
If you are speaking to the media or circulating a media release, it is important you don’t make any statements without running it past the Family Centre office first. Target your media outlets, like local community papers and community radio, and concentrate your efforts on the ones relevant to your audience. Once you have sent your release to a media outlet, make sure you follow up with a phone call. If they would like more information about the Family Centre, get them to call Bec Johnson, the General Manager, on 0424 290 877.
Take photos
Remember to take lots of photos of your event to use for future promotion, or send to your local newspaper.
8. Organise your team
Many hands make light work so get your team or committee together by calling upon family, friends and co-workers to help you. Assign roles to your team members and if needed gather additional volunteers who can assist in the planning, implementation and running of your event.
9. Sourcing prizes or sponsorship
Are you planning on approaching businesses to source the donation of prizes or sponsorship? If so, please provide us with the name of each business in advance. This will assist us to maintain our relationship with key organisations that regularly support the Family Centre.
After the event:
1. Tell us about it! And thank your supporters
Tell us how you went! We love receiving photos, feedback and copies ofmedia coverage from our community fundraisers.
Remember to thank your volunteers, donors and sponsors – a thank you letter within a week of the event is a good idea.
2. Deposit the funds you raised
If you did your fundraising through an Everyday Hero page you don’t need to worry about depositing the money – it’s all done for you.
If not, fundraising monies need to come to the Family Centre within 14 days of the event to comply with the law.
Payments can be made by
- Cheque (Made out to the Telethon Juvenile Diabetes Family Centre Ltd).
- Direct Deposit
- In Person
Contact Bec Johnson and arrange a meeting time to deliver the funds to our office.
3. Organising receipts
Any donation over $2 can be claimed as a tax deduction. Mentioning that any donation over $2 is a tax deduction might be an incentive for prospective donors.
If you think you will be collecting cash donations (that is when the donor has not received a material benefit in return for payment) you can request an official Family Centre receipt book.
The following are not donations and can not be claimed as a tax deduction: raffle tickets, event entry tickets, auction items, etc.