How do I organise a Charity Dinner Dance/Ball?
The
best events are always those that run smoothly and on time, where the guests are relaxed and don’t have to think of
a thing other than how to enjoy themselves. The problem is in order to achieve
this, a terrific amount of organisation behind the scenes needs to take place!
Below
are a number of hints and tips that might help you to have a fantastic evening.
Overall
objectives from the event should be:
·
Everyone had a great evening
·
They came away feeling great and on a high
·
All felt the event was good value for money
·
The organisers made a profit
·
The charity’s profile is raised
·
Everyone had a chance to remember or support someone very
special
The points
below have been used on a number of occasions and hope that they will help you plan a fantastic event!
Decide the Date
·
Try to avoid major sporting events or school holidays as
many people will be away.
Booking the Venue
·
Be realistic, look at who your target audience are likely
to be and plan accordingly. There is no point in booking an exclusive venue if
your audience can’t afford to come to the event and of course the opposite is true.
·
Aim for a central location that is easy to find.
·
Check the room before you book; you need to get a feel
for the space available.
·
How many tickets will you sell? Again be realistic, tickets are often difficult to sell especially if this is the first time you have run
this type of event.
·
Remember that you will create a better atmosphere with
a small room filled with 100 people rather than a great hall with a 100 rattling around.
·
Ask before booking the venue if there are additional room
hire costs as this can eat away at your profit.
·
Also check the cancellation policy and if there will be
financial penalties if you don’t sell as many tickets as you had hoped.
·
If you are having entertainment (band, disco, musicians
etc.) ensure their musical needs can be accommodated.
·
If you plan to dance, make sure there is a dance floor.
·
Ask how many people will sit on each table (to help you
pull together a table plan).
·
Set a dress code, it takes away the panic of wondering
if you are going to look out of place.
Food & Drink
·
Play safe! If
you are having a set meal for 100+ people choose a menu that will make the greatest number happy.
·
Popular choices tend to be chicken, turkey or salmon and
ALWAYS have a vegetarian option.
·
Start with a vegetarian dish (melon or soup are standard
and good) and will keep your overall costs lower, generally the fewer choices you offer, the cheaper your overall costs will
be.
·
Decide if you will have a drinks reception – you
may be able to get a local wine merchant to sponsor this and provide the booze free of charge.
·
You may also be able to get a deal with someone who will
put wine on the tables though you will have to negotiate this with the hotel.
Tickets and Price
·
Unless your audience are in the main very wealthy, don’t
go overboard with the profit on the ticket price, you may well put people off.
·
Make sure you cover the price of the meal in the ticket
price.
·
As a general guide whatever the price of the meal per person
add between £5 or £10 to the ticket price ticket, you will want people to spend on the night and these type of events can
become very expensive (ticket cost, drinks, taxi home, raffle tickets, auction etc.)
·
People will know this is a charity event and will cost
them money, but they very much need to have a good time and not leave the evening feeling they have been fleeced.
·
Ensure people pay for their tickets BEFORE the event.
·
Try to get tickets produced free of charge and make them
personal. If your event is in support or memory of someone, make sure everyone
knows that, it raises awareness and is very emotive, people genuinely want to help.
·
Ticket information should include the date, start time/carriages
and venue, also a brief description of the charity – eg. Summer Ball raising funds for Andrea’s Gift, Yorkshire’s only Brain
Tumour Charity, in memory of Joan Smith
Help
You
may be able to get a small group of friends to help you to organise the event both before and on the evening – tasks
may include:
-
Selling tickets
-
Producing
the table plan
-
Sourcing
prizes
-
Getting
a sponsor for the drinks reception etc.
-
Group of
people to sell tickets and mingle on the night
-
Get an
auctioneer for the night
-
Find an
event MC or a confident speaker who will call the guests in to dinner, announce the raffle, auction etc. You will probably
be able to get a microphone from the hotel
Prizes
·
Ask everyone you know who are unlikely to buy a ticket
to provide a prize for the raffle/ auction.
·
Auction prizes are great if they don't have an obvious
value such as a week in someone’s holiday home, helicopter flight, chance to meet someone famous, celebrity signed item
etc.
·
Don't have too many prizes - sometimes you lose the audience
as they get bored, fewer better quality prizes or smaller prizes grouped together work well, depending on what you manage
to have donated.
On the Night
·
Take along a box to hold your raffle tickets in
·
Take money bags with you (you can bag the money as you
count it)
·
Take a jotter and a number of pens and pencils
·
Write names on the back of raffle tickets
·
Set a timetable for the night and aim to stick to it -
these things can so easily over run!
Sample Timetable
6.00 pm
Organiser arrives at venue (if you can check things are OK earlier in the day, do so, it gives you peace of mind!)
7.00 pm
Meet and greet guests/drinks reception (make sure everyone is talking and get your raffle ticket sellers out there
selling. Don’t do this yourself; you will be busy enough without this pressure!
7.30
pm Move into restaurant for dinner
9.00
pm Band/disco
9.40
pm Draw the raffle/thanks from the recipient
charity
10.00
pm Band/disco
10.45 pm Auction (keep this until later - people are more generous if they have had a drink!)
11.10
pm Band/disco final session
12.00 pm Carriages
(useful information if people want to pre-book taxies, arrange baby sitters etc.)
After the Event
·
Try to count the cash in view of a number of your group
of helpers
·
Write thank you notes to key contributors and helpers
