A lot of business owners, especially the younger generation of entrepreneurs, are coming up with creative ways to give back to local or global communities. One company gives shoes to underprivileged children for every pair sold, while another donates a portion of their profits to provide clean drinking water to families in third-world countries.
Regardless of the method that businesses take for this humanitarian effort, there’s no denying that the social responsibility movement benefits everyone involved. On the consumers’ end, they can feel that their purchases hit two birds with one stone. They get to enjoy the products and services while helping the companies support their chosen charities.
On the other hand, brands can boost employee morale by making their team feel that they’re more than just cogs in a well-oiled machine. It improves their perception of corporate culture and increases their motivation for involvement, especially with volunteer programs.
If your business already supports a charity, here are some fundraising ideas that you can roll out for your organization:
1. Conduct A Friendly Bake-Off.
Host a bake-off event where your employees can showcase their baking talents. It doesn’t have to be a competition. Instead, you can organize it in a way that presents their culinary masterpieces by making cakes, brownies, or even lasagna.
Alternatively, you can also conduct a bake-off where they can exhibit their prowess in baking a particular dish or dessert, such as a cookie. You can provide them with the tools and ingredients that they need and leave the technique to them. You have the option to sell the finished products or tickets to the event.
If you’re looking for ingredients, you can source your cookie dough from Adrenaline Fundraising, a company that specializes in fundraising products and services. Their dough is pre-portioned and ready-to-bake to cut the baking time in half.
Make sure to take note of the budget for your fundraising projects. You don’t want to have hefty expenses so that you can donate a substantial amount to charity. Nonetheless, you should still ensure the quality of your fundraising events to entice people to help out.
2. Create Tournaments.
You can also tap the competitiveness of your employees and organize tournaments where they can outsmart and outrun each other. However, this type of event can be tricky since the competition may heat up, and blood may start boiling. However, you can mitigate this risk by laying out the rules clearly and reminding everyone that they’re doing it for a cause, not merely to win.
For the prize, you can have the employees create teams and let them pay a minimal registration fee. This payment can include the materials that you need for the event, as well as the rent for the venue.
Meanwhile, the remaining amount will be the prize pool that the winning group will collect. This way, you won’t have to borrow money from your business funds.
These are the competitive events that you can host:
Race – Racing is the simplest yet most innovative fundraising idea that you can organize. It’s as straightforward as setting up the starting point and the finishing line for running. You can also twist it up a bit with bike racing. Take note, however, that you’ll have to process permits if you plan on conducting the race in public streets, which may increase the project cost. If you do have a large space in your office, you can hold the tournament there.
Sports – Physical games, like basketball, football, and soccer, are excellent ways to gather your employees as players and viewers. You can sell tickets to the events. You can also organize mind sports, like chess and Scrabble, as well as eSports if a part of your workforce is into video games.
Trivia Night – Trivia night is a great tournament that everyone can join. The best thing about this type of event is that you can customize the questions and categories. For instance, you can have them study your company’s history and improve their knowledge about your enterprise, all while being charitable.
Scavenger Hunt – Maximize your employees’ knowledge and skills by having them compete with other teams through a scavenger hunt. You can easily host this on company premises, which eliminates the need to rent a venue. Plus, it can also be personalized according to a theme or category.
3. Organize A Food Fair.
Similar to a bake-off, a food fair showcases your employees’ prowess in the kitchen. They can purchase cookie dough fundraising products and create these mouthwatering baked goods. Some may also prefer to pull out their heirloom recipes and grace everyone with their best family dishes.
You can incorporate the food fair into your company’s annual family day. This way, you allow your employees and their families to be involved in the fundraising project. You can have them sell their creations to each other on the condition that all proceeds must be donated to the charity that you support.
4. Consider A Company Concert.
Tap into your workforce’s hidden talents and crowdsource entertainment. You can host a company concert where they can showcase their gifts for singing or playing instruments. This is a great way for everyone to get to know each other on a deeper level. You might be surprised to find out that your accountant can belt out songs like a soprano, and your production manager can shred guitar riffs like a pro.
For this type of event, it’s better to create it as an event and sell the tickets. You can rent out a large space, such as your local theater, or opt for the intimate setting of a café or bar, and set the mood with some drinks.
Along with the venue, another cost that you ought to consider is for the sound system. Fortunately, you can easily rent one, and the package usually comes with a technician who’ll operate the mixer. You can also ask those who’ll be playing instruments to bring their own equipment.
Here are some things to remember when organizing a company concert:
Gather Your Team – Before you start with the preparations for this charity event, you must make sure that you have people who are willing to share their musical gifts with the world or, at least, the local audience. Create an online poll and ask your employees if they’d be willing to perform to raise funds for the charity that your company is supporting. Have them fill up a registration form to make their commitment official.
Set A Budget And Price – You must also think about the equipment that you need, as well as the rental cost of potential venues. You might have to borrow from company money first to settle the down payments for these factors, so strategize about how you can minimize the expenses to maximize the gains for the charity. Confirm the price of the event’s tickets as well.
Plan The Program Flow – Once you’ve verified the people who’ll be performing for your event, organize the flow of the program. You must decide on how many minutes you can allot to each performer. If you have a lot of entertainers in your list, it might be best to give them a time limit on their presentations so that the concert won’t run too long and bore the audience out of their seats.
Choose A Place And Date – Finalize the date and the venue of the event so that you can promote the fundraiser as soon as possible. When choosing the day and time, consider your audience and their schedules. The families of your employees are likely to be available in the evenings after work and school.
Promote Internally And Externally – Advertise your charity event to your employees through your in-office communication platforms. To attract hoards of audiences, publish a poster on your website and social media profiles to let your local community know that you’re planning a fundraiser. Time is crucial for this type of promotion, so you should start advertising as soon as you have ironed out all the details of the event.
5. Rent Karaoke Machines.
Another approach to a company concert is renting out karaoke machines and having people sing their hearts out during your company’s family day. Everybody would definitely enjoy jiving to their favorite tunes, regardless of who’s holding the microphone.
You can host the karaoke night in your company to save on venue expenses since you’ll be renting equipment. It’s ideal if you have lots of conference rooms where your employees’ families can jam together over a hearty singing session. Nonetheless, you have the option of chartering one machine only and setting a stage for the singers, similar to a concert.
To add to your proceeds, you can offer light snacks and beverages because people will be hungry and thirsty after belting out their favorite songs. Water is a crucial element that you should stock up on as well.
6. Try Holding Auctions.
Auctions are perfect if you have extra stocks of your products, and you have to make room for more recent items. For instance, if you have an electronics shop and the latest version of a phone or laptop is on its way to the market, you can auction off the older models, especially those that are nearly obsolete.
You can prioritize your employees and hold the event for your employees first. It’s a great way to boost employee morale since they can enjoy your merchandise at a more affordable price. After all, they get to bid on the products.
Then, you can have an open house for people in your local community. As usual, the proceeds must be directed to your chosen charity. You have full control if you prefer to donate all the profit or deduct your capital for the products included in the auction.
Traditional auctions can get rowdy, especially when people get excited about a particular item. If you want to keep your event organized, you might want to opt for a silent auction. The process still involves showing off the products. However, people are given a bid sheet that they can submit to the moderator. Of course, the person with the highest bid goes home with the object.
Elevate people’s experience a little further by taking the event online. You can develop an app for this purpose and have bidders submit their proposals there. This way, your guests won’t have to wait long for their turn to read the item’s details. Plus, it makes the submission and tracking of the bids more convenient.
However, you still have to consider the price for developing the app. If this is a one-time event for you, it’s better to stick to the traditional setup. Just make sure that you lay down the rules clearly so that everyone is on the same page.
7. Host A Dance-A-Thon.
Aside from concerts and karaoke, dancing is another fun way to get your employees involved in fundraising projects. A dance-a-thon is a dance marathon that entails having participants tap their toes and groove to the music for as long as possible, even 24 hours.
Contestants pledge to dance for a specific amount of time and raise a particular sum of money for charity. Your employees can choose to join as individuals or in groups.
As mentioned above, there’s a possibility that the event can run as long as a day or more. With this in mind, you have to make sure that you have a schedule for the rotation of your volunteers, whose primary role is to ensure that participants stick to the rules of the dance-a-thon.
Conclusion.
Supporting a charity is good for your business because it gives a human touch to your enterprise. This call to social responsibility can boost your consumers’ and employees’ perception of your brand.
If you’re planning to set up fundraising projects for your chosen charity, check these tips and see which suggestions are easily doable for your company. Remember that planning and research are your best tools when strategizing for this type of event to maximize the proceeds, which would be donated to a cause that’s close to you and your employees’ hearts.
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