If you’re getting ready to host a fundraising event, a breakfast theme will certainly influence your audience’s decision to attend. But the food won’t make the event successful on its own, as tasty as it might be.
Read up on the following tips to learn everything you’ll need to hold a community breakfast fundraiser.
Find the Right Venue
Since your fundraiser will revolve around food, you need to find an indoor venue with a sizable kitchen and eating area. Your best bet is to check the availability of local schools, churches and hospitality businesses that rent out eating areas for parties and events.
You should reserve your spot at the venue at least a few months in advance of the fundraiser, to give you time to promote the event and gather funding and volunteers. Consider scheduling the event frequently during a busy time of year, such as the winter holiday season, so you can expand your cause’s following and establish an identifiable theme.
Remain in constant correspondence with the building’s owner or manager to stay in the loop about any obstacles that might pop up in the meantime, such as new COVID-19 mandates or kitchen training requirements.
Use Multiple Platforms to Promote the Event
To effectively promote your event, you must know your target audience. Build your promotional efforts around their needs, interests, and which platform they’re most likely to use. Community breakfasts are usually family-friendly events, meaning your audience uses a wide variety of online and print media.
Go above and beyond when promoting the event and use every channel you can get your hands on, including flyers, brochures, press releases, and email marketing. You can also make video content for your YouTube channel to generate interest in the event and encourage people to attend.
Focus your greatest efforts on promoting your fundraiser with social media so that you can expose the event to as many eyes and ears as possible. If you want to promote the fundraiser to parents, Facebook is your best bet. For younger audiences, use more Instagram and Twitter.
Market the fundraiser’s cause, first and foremost, but also emphasize the presence of food. Food naturally draws us together. Many people find the prospect of attending a fundraiser that supports an admirable cause and offers a good meal irresistible.
Build the Menu Early
Speaking of food, you should start putting the menu together well in advance of the event’s date. The food, drinks and utensils you acquire will make up a big chunk of your budget, so you need to set those details in stone and order them early on.
Your menu will look different depending on your target audience. If the fundraiser is family-oriented, start with the basic breakfast foods you usually see at a community gathering: cereal, pancakes, sausage, eggs and bacon. If you want to establish a more formal setting, include healthier options and an array of fresh fruits.
Throw in some unique ingredients to spice up the menu as well, like french toast or scrapple. Have a lot of bread, bagels, pastries and butter on hand, and include some form of potatoes as another carb option, such as hash browns.
For drinks, coffee is just as important as water at a breakfast event. Make sure to offer cream, sugar and other additives. You should also provide other beverages such as milk, tea, orange juice and apple juice.
Gather and Train Volunteers
Once you put the menu together, you can more accurately estimate how many volunteers you’ll need for the kitchen crew. First and foremost, make sure at least a handful of them know basic first aid and CPR. Second, they should know the ins and outs of their working area so they can get food out as quickly as possible.
Familiarize the kitchen volunteers with the layout of the venue’s eating hall or cafeteria so they can quickly move around the place. Provide them with all the cleaning tools they might need, such as towels, brooms and mops.
You will also need volunteers for the following tasks:
- Picking up sales funds
- Promoting/advertising
- Walk-in registrations
- Collecting donations
- Venue setup/clean-up
When the day of the event finally arrives, you and your volunteer group should be prepared to serve all attendees in a timely fashion and address any issue that arises. Do a brief run-through and risk assessment to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Collect Donations Through Many Avenues
Just as you utilized different channels to promote your event, you should use several different methods to collect your donations. Digital tools like PayPal and GoFundMe allow anyone in the world to donate to your cause, and they also keep track of funds for you as a bonus.
You can gather more funds before the event by enlisting local sponsors. In exchange for their monetary donations, run their advertisements on your brochures and display their logo at the event.
To create a logo, you can take the help of free online logo maker tools.
This is a great way to establish close ties with other local businesses and create opportunities for more collaboration in the future.
In-person donations are paramount to a fundraiser’s success. Station a volunteer at each entrance and in high-traffic areas around the venue, so everyone has an opportunity to give.
You can also use raffles to make the event more exciting. The prizes, such as gift baskets and toys, will likely come out of your pocket, but if the raffle ends up being a big hit, you could see a substantial increase in donations.
Custom apparel is another way to gain funding. For a breakfast event, think about getting food-related items such as reusable placemats. Not only will they serve a practical purpose, but you can place sponsors’ logos on them and the attendees can take them home.
Make Your Next Breakfast Fundraiser Memorable
Breakfast fundraisers consist of good people rallying around a worthy cause and enjoying a hearty meal in the process. You can’t plan the event overnight, though. Take the time and effort to carry out the above five tips, and you’ll be on your way to hosting a memorable fundraiser that will strengthen the bonds of your community.
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