Many charities sponsor events to raise funding for their cause. Does this mean that you are limited to those events for raising funding for your favorite charity? You shouldn't be!
Raise funds in a creative way. Charities tend to organize similar events at the same time of the year. Because of that, they are competing even more with each other for people's time and money. Even the message regarding what the charity stands for can get diluted.
I had more than one person this past year tell me he or she was excited to be participating in the same walk I was supporting. After some discussion, we discovered he or she was actually supporting a different health-related walk that was occurring in the same city on the same day or month.
Why not do something creative and stand out from the others? I read about two events this morning that have received publicity outside their local area because the event was "different."
First, New Jersey state legislators held a harness race to raise funds for a number of charities. The 2006 New Jersey State Legislators Challenge was held on July 21 at the Meadowlands. Assemblyman Fred Scalera of Nutley, New Jersey was the winner of this exhibition race, but the real winners were the charities the money and publicity went to. Go to http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=40824 to read about the charity event.
Second, Mathew Topper got the idea to race back and forth across Edinburgh (he even wore a costume while doing it). Where were his destinations as he crisscrossed the city? They were the locations of a city-wide artistic cow exhibit called the CowParade! The National Museums of Scotland even stayed open until midnight to allow Mathew access. You can read about Mr. Topper's fundraising event at http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1066722006 and www.lemoos24.org.
Get your creative juices flowing. What do you enjoy doing that can be used to raise funds and awareness for your favorite cause? How can you use it in a way that your "event" will stand out from other events in your area? Get permission from the charity if you use their name in promoting the event or while raising funds. Then, make it happen. You might just be surprised at the interest you generate from others by taking one of your ideas and acting on it.