I'm organising an arts and craft family fun afternoon for charity - Advice and ideas/ opinions wanted!

[Xroads]

Hi,

I'm almost 3 weeks from the event its self and as it's my 1st one I want to make sure I get it right. It's for Re-Think, mental health charity.

I have so far organised:

16 stalls
4 artists (could do with more really?)

cake comp with a £10 prize
kids colouring comp with prize (free ticket to a new soft play place)

Raffle with quite a few fab prizes

Refreshments

a balloon modeller and magician

balloons to brighten the place up

a bear mascot from a soft play place to meet and greet the children.

win a bottle of alcohol (people roll money and whoever gets closest wins it - for over 18s only obviously)

I'm leaving a paper trail of leaflets everywhere we go over summer hols but if you have any ideas of places I can leave leaflets that I may not have thought of please let me know!

I'm having a chalk board outside on the day, do I also need a banner up or can I manage without?

You could put fliers under the wipers of cars - somewhere like outside the soft play place where you are likely to find family cars.

It sounds really good :-)

• Leaflets in Doctors' surgery waiting room.

• Leaflet on Parish notice boards.

• E-mail to local radio station (direct to each presenter of you can, via their website) asking them to mention it. They might even be able to interview you.

• Make sure local newspaper know about it.

Hope that you have a great day.

Thanks ladies, yes good ideas! I've got a friend writing me a press release which will go to 5 local papers, Im not sure about being interviewed on radio, I dont have time tbh but would be good if they could mention it for me.

I'll put a flyer up in the soft play place, I did ask someone to do it for me but I don't think she has tbh so I'll pop in when I get chance.

What do you ladies think people like to win for raffle prizes? I'm thinking I've got quite a few vouchers for things but I could do with more things to make it look better?

Make a Facebook page/fb event yo advertise it. Then advertise this in local selling groups.

Make sure you do lots of personal inviting of friends, neighbours, acquanitances etc etc - I have done a few charity functions and find that few people actually come 'out of the blue' (for want of a better expression ) - I really think the personal touch is essential. I know that I often look at adverts in papers/flyers etc and think 'that sounds nice' but would very rarely go to an event if I didn't have a personal connection.

I don't think the actual prize really matters in a raffle, I don't think I have ever asked what the prize is when I buy tickets, most people would know it is about supporting the charity rather than what they are going to win.

Good luck !