Events are a powerful fundraising tool and a great opportunity to put your cause front of mind in a room full of engaged donors and potential supporters. However, there are a number of mistakes that can be made that could mean your hard work, resources and finances go to waste. Each year at Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation we organise around 15 official events and are involved in countless community fundraisers. These can range from formal seated events, such as our annual Gold Dinner, which raises in excess of $1 million each year, to our casual boutique beer tasting event Amber Affair, which raises around $60,000 annually.

All of our events are unique and vitally important to the success of our fundraising for the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick.

The most successful fundraising events involve detailed planning, a carefully considered budget and a lot of hard work! Here are my top five tips for ensuring your next event is a success:

1. Engage a volunteer committee

Having a group of volunteer event organisers is invaluable. Amber Affair has a dedicated committee who are able to approach businesses and personal contacts for event sponsorship and in-kind donations to offer as prizes. They also encourage their professional and social networks to buy tickets and support the event in any way they can.

2. Invest in trained sales staff

In 2015, the Foundation chose to engage the services of a promotional company to streamline our ‘on the night’ event fundraising, including selling raffle tickets and facilitating auctions. This helped to deliver an unprecedented 60 per cent year on year increase in funds raised. Recruiting volunteers to help at events is important, but having trained sales staff can make a tangible difference to your fundraising results.

3. Align supporters through strong storytelling

Every not-for-profit has a story to tell about why they need funds. Capture the attention of your audience, and align them strongly with your cause by weaving your story through all your communications. With each of the Foundation’s events we create key messages based on our fundraising needs and ensure these messages are communicated through all our eDMs, event collateral, media and formal speeches. This means all supporters feel connected to the cause and know how their funds will be spent and the impact their support will deliver.

4. Call in the experts

There’s no need to be a jack of all trades. There are many generous businesses and experts willing to share their expertise to make your event a success. This year the Foundation reached out to DEC PR to come on board as a pro bono supporter for Amber Affair. The PR agency jumped at the chance and has helped to significantly increase exposure of the Amber Affair event to push ticket sales. You never know how much people are willing to help if you don’t ask.

5. Send the right messages

Be upfront about how you will be fundraising on the night, so your guests can think about what they are willing to spend and come prepared. For Amber Affair each year, we send pre-event communications to all of our supporters outlining the price of raffle tickets, the amazing live auction prizes on offer and other ways guests can get involved. This means our guests turn up to the event already excited about what they can win and with a budget in mind. After each event we make sure to send a thank you to all of our guests, donors and supporters, outlining exactly how they have made a difference to our hospital, ensuring further engagement to our cause.