Event Fundraising is back...

In this month's Confessions of a Fundraiser installment, we are welcoming two sets of fundraisers who have thrown themselves into hosting events to raise vital funds to support Dig Deep.

Firstly, are Robbie and Jamies whose Black Tie Ceilidh made us wish we'd donned our glad rags.

When we were set our donation target for Dig Deep we thought that a large event would be the best way to raise a large number of donations. The first challenge came with searching for a venue that enabled us to keep tickets costs low while still making money for charity. We found the Ghillie Dhu which we negotiated a small charity discount. The Edinburgh Folk Society Band kindly agreed to play for free in support of charity and we were off! We were also able to secure a rising Edinburgh student photographer who kindly agreed to take photos for the event. Finally, no ceilidh would be complete without a piper, which we sourced through our university network. All in all, we managed to get the tickets down to £54, including a £10.20 profit per person.

To get the word out we set up an Instagram & FB account where event details and charity info were announced. After constant social media posts and word of mouth, we managed to sell 145 tickets, which completely sold out the Ghillie Dhu. We also decided to host a Raffle. We set about sending emails to all the best companies Scotland has to offer as well as visiting local Edinburgh businesses in person. Thanks to the generosity of businesses around the UK, we managed to secure over 40 raffle prizes leading to over 850 raffle tickets being sold on the evening.

The night was a great success with great food and even better ceilidh dancing. In total, we surpassed our goal and raised £3,280 for Dig Deep. Overall, this was a great way to make some money for charity and have some fun along the way. If you are wanting to organise something similar, it will be hard work and an amazing learning experience but most of all a great opportunity to raise money for an awesome cause.

Secondly, Chris and Caitlin pulled out all the stops for their Race Night in their local community.

From our previous experience, we knew a race night event would be a great success so that was our main idea to raise the bulk of our fundraising target. At times it can feel daunting asking big and small companies for donations but once you are over the initial scare then it is about contacting as many people as possible and increasing your network – after all the worst they can say is no.

Firstly we hired a race night host from Entertainment tonight (a Glasgow-based company that specializes in this sort of event). We also had 2 individual games “hoop toss” where a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic bottles spread out in a triangle on the floor. The idea was to throw a hoop around a bottle to win. We charged £1 for three goes and once you won you couldn’t win twice in order to give everyone a chance. At the night this was the most popular game a queue the length of the hall to play. Our other game was a “£1 coin toss” towards a bottle of alcohol. Two large alcoholic bottles were put at the end of the hall and participants would slide a pound coin towards the bottle, the person closest at the end of the game would win the bottle. Our raffle was also a big success and we had a range of good prizes from previously emailing companies in and around Glasgow. A tip from us would be to email hotels also for any donations they may be able to provide and focus on family-owned businesses rather than large chains. Overall we raised £2456 which we couldn’t be happier with and took us a step closer to reaching our target.

With the climb so close now we can’t wait to feel that sense of achievement when we reach the summit. After meeting our team members we are really looking forward to sharing this experience with them. We have heard some great stories when reaching the top like seeing the curve of the earth and can’t wait to see this for ourselves. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you will never forget and knowing that you are raising money for such a great cause makes it all the more worthwhile – plus it looks great on a job application, haha.

Thank you, Robbie, Jamie, Chris, and Caitlin for hosting such brilliant events. Thanks to our amazing supporters like you we are accelerating access to water, sanitation, and good hygiene for over 1 million people, helping marginalised children and families lift themselves out of poverty.

If you have been inspired to start fundraising for Dig Deep but are not sure where to start, then please pop one of the team a message at support@digdeep.org.uk.