Conor gave lots of tips on different types of fundraisers as well as important information about ensuring compliance with SIPO rules. You can get factsheets on the SIPO rules from Conor at [email protected]. Keep an eye out for notices of other events he will be organising over the coming months. 

This week, Dún Laoghaire and Meath Constituencies hosted a zoom session on fundraising with case studies and advice on how to use social media to promote fundraising. Some of the presentations and a recording of the session are available from [email protected] 

There are dozens of different ways to raise funds, but a few basic guidelines are worth following: 

• Have clear goals: is the fundraiser mainly to raise money or mainly to bring people together socially? Or both? 
• Pick a fundraiser that can achieve your goals: race nights seem to generate higher incomes than table quizzes. But both are more sociable than online raffles. 
• Relate your fundraising to your needs: if it’s for a candidate in the local elections, how much will they need and how many fundraisers will be needed to reach that target? 
• Pull a team together: some things can be done alone but mostly it’s a team effort. Try for a spread of branches and areas, and new members. 
• Crunch the numbers: if you want to raise €2,000 then how many tickets, horses, table quiz teams etc do you need to sell and at what prices to reach this target?  Be ambitious but realistic too! 
• Make a rough plan with timescales, actions, and other aspects. 
• Build on past experiences: if you have a track record of successful fundraising with raffles, then why change that?  
• Give enough time: some events will take about two months to plan. Some events are over in a night. Others, like raffles, can last for weeks. 
• Get help: for race nights, there are professional operators (yes, they charge a fee) who will do much of the work. Or you can buy a race night package online. Help is available within the party for the design of posters, flyers, race programmes etc. Expertise is also available for particular events such as race nights, online raffles, sweepstakes etc. 
• Ensure compliance: put arrangements in place from the start to ensure compliance and proper record keeping, bearing GDPR in mind too.   
• Check out helpful technologies: Microsoft Forms for sweepstakes, online platforms like iDonate for raffles, Facebook Live for events, QR codes for posters etc, Canva for graphics etc.  

  

But above all, don’t delay, do it and have fun doing it.