Support Cambridgeshire

Your country, your voice, our support

Become a member Contact us Sign up to our Newsletter

Support Cambridgeshire

Your country, your voice, our support

You are here:

by

An Introduction to Event Planning

This training introduces the basics of event planning that a community group or small charity should consider when planning an in person event. The guidance links, which are available in the transcript you will find alongside this recording, will provide you with all the materials we mention. ​

Transcript

Slide 1

An Introduction to event planning

Hello and welcome to this recording from Support Cambridgeshire. This training introduces the basics of event planning that a community group or small charity should consider when planning an in person event. The guidance links, which are available in the transcript you will find alongside this recording, will provide you with all the materials we mention.

Slide 2

Outline of the session

This session is a short introduction to event planning. In this session, we will cover the following:

  • Type of event
  • Event checklist
  • What do you want to achieve and who is it for?
  • Getting help
  • Money
  • How can people pay
  • Telling people about your event
  • Health and safety and the law
  • Top tips for the big day
  • Follow-up
  • Contact details to find out more

Slide 3

Type of event

Your first decision when it comes to event planning is to choose what “type” of event you are planning. This slide has a few ideas to get you started, but you may also have other ideas – perhaps from past events, feedback from your membership, volunteers or other members of your community.

When you are thinking about what type of event you are planning you should be clear about why you want to run the event, what you want to achieve and who your audience is. As this will support your planning. We will look at this in more detail later in this session.

Slide 4

Event checklist

A good event requires good planning. I will go through some planning essentials over the next few slides. I have provided a link in the transcript to a template events checklist that you can download and / or print. The event checklist template will support you in making sure you have thought about the various issues that may arise to ensure your event runs to plan and is a success.

Slide 5

What do you want to achieve and who is it for

The first thing you will need to think when you start planning your event is what do you want to achieve and who is it for?

​For example, you could be hoping to bring the community together so you could aim to sign up 5 new people to your email list. Or your focus could be on fundraising. ​

​I have added an example on this slide for a friends of the local park group. A “community clean up” event is being planned and they hope to collect 30+ bags of rubbish AND to have at least 50+ people attend the event.

The park is next door to the school. So, they will promote the event with the school. Busy families rely on information and communication from the school, and they are also the people who will benefit from a cleaner park. I will return to this example, again in this session.

Top tips to think about:

  • suitable date, time, and venue. Returning to our example community clean up.  You may want to avoid school holidays and time your activity for warmer weather suitable to an outdoor activity timeline with milestones  might be helpful.

Slide 6

Getting help

When you are planning your event think about who is on your team and who can support you with your event, remember you don’t have to do it alone. This could include:

  • Volunteers (including trustees)
  • Beneficiaries
  • And Staff  if you have any
  • Local businesses in the transcript I have shared a link to our bite sized OnDemand training on our website called, “Introduction to engaging with business” which would be useful to watch if you are considering reaching out to local businesses. Think about what you want to ask them for support with: Money, items like tables or chairs or gazebos, fundraising, advertising or volunteers?
  • Other local community and sports groups

Do be aware of other local community and sports groups, they may also be planning events in your area. If there is overlap, you could reschedule or consider combining forces and sharing resources, which may yield greater results.

Slide 7 

Money

Your budget is important, so you do need to make sure that you have considered all your expenses and income. ​

How you set up and manage your budget will depend on what your event is. So, for example, if you have been given a grant to run a street party your event will be different from running an event to raise funds.

But as a general principle put down all the costs involved as accurately as possible, think about ways to minimise cost – what is essential, what is nice to have, could you get anything donated?

On the money in or income side what would people expect to pay for? Is there a way that you can you create add-ons so that people can take part and decide how much to spend? For example, in our community clean up example you could run a refreshment and cake stall?

I have provided a link in the transcript to a template budget you could use and provided a list of items you may need to think of both from an income and expenses point of view. Links in the transcript to Support Cambridgeshire bite size training: Introduction to engaging with business AND Opening a bank account and setting up financial controls.

Slide 8

How can people pay?

You will have to make sure that your event team know how to accept payments on the day and what to do with it.

I have shared a link in the transcript with further guidance from The Resource Centre about managing money at an event.

I have also shared a link in the transcript on how you can use online and digital payments from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).

There is a useful comparison of SumUP and Zettle by The Resource Centre

And there are links in the transcript to information about Goodbox charity donations and how to use QR codes from Charity Digital.

I have also included a couple of links in the transcript on using “Text to give“ using Donr and Donate

The transcript has a link to the New Fundraising Code and support guides, in summary the code provides guidance to make sure that your fundraising activity is legal, open, honest and respectful.

The final link in the transcript is to a template agreement for your volunteers if they will be using a card reader.

Slide 9

Telling people about your event

When you begin to think about telling people about your event remember who you your event is for.

Returning to our community clean up event with the friends of the park group example. They plan to promote the event with the local school as their event is for the local children and their families.

There are many ways you can get the word out about your event and we have listed a few on this slide:

  • community boards
  • social media
  • Flyers
  • newsletters
  • Working with other local groups or businesses remembering how you can get help to run your event

Don’t forget to think about how you can encourage donations from people who will see your information about your event but cannot attend. Sharing QR codes that link to your website, Facebook or fundraising page may come in handy here.

Support Cambridgeshire offer bite size training you can access anytime on  Storytelling to Support Your Goals , Making Social Media Accessible.

Slide 10

Health and Safety and the law

We have on demand training available on health and safety and template risk assessment forms, checklists and more available on our website, please do take a look.

A few things to think about are:

  • How will you keep people safe
  • Have you got enough people to help?
  • Make sure what you are doing is legal
  • How can you be as green as possible
  • Back up plans

Some tools that can help make sure you are keeping your event and everybody safe and legal can include:

  • Health and Safety/risk assessments
  • Safeguarding protocols for children and adults at risk.
  • Putting up clear signage
  • First Aid – make sure that you have enough trained volunteers
  • Can you provide quiet spaces
  • Is there safe access
  • Do you have car and bicycle parking

You may also need to think about:

  • If you need a license: for example if you want to organise a street collection, a raffle or have music at an event.  There are links in the transcript for all the Cambridgeshire district councils.

Charity Collection Licenses:

  • Cambridge City Council
  • South Cambridgeshire District Council
  • Huntingdonshire District Council
  • Fenland District Council
  • If you want to have a sign-up sheet to collect information from potential supporters, volunteers then you will need to make sure you are following Data Protection Law to keep  people’s information safe and explain why and how you will keep it. There is a link in the transcript to our on-demand training on data protection law
  • If your venue has a capacity of 200 or more people or your event will have a capacity of 800 or people than you will have to make sure you are following Martyn’s Law named for one of the Manchester arena victims the law seeks to reduce venue vulnerability to terrorist attacks. There is a link in the transcript to our blog post with further information.
  • You will also need to comply with Equality Law by ensuring your event is as inclusive as possible. There is a link to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Resources in the transcript. Think about how you can accommodate people with mobility issues, sensory impairment and neurodiversity.  This will include how you promote and recruit for your event as well as how you run it.  Please take a look at the link to the Power Up toolkit in further resources and in the transcript for more on this.

And finally, don’t forget to have a backup plan for example what will you do in the event of poor weather or if you have to cancel your event.

Slide 11

Top Tips for the Big Day

A few top tips for the big day. Have a detailed schedule with extra time just in case and remember to include time for setup up and clean up

Use a checklist for setup and logistics: Make sure you have enough copies of the lists and that they are accessible to everyone who needs them.

Assign team leads for key areas: this could include:

  • First Aid
  • Safeguarding
  • Who is in charge of cash
  • Who is in charge of any data collection
  • Planning
  • Volunteers
  • Health and Safety

And remember to take photos – maybe you could have a volunteer in charge of recording the event with photos and videos. Don’t forget about consent. The Resource Centre has some useful guidance and template consent forms. There is a link in the transcript.

And finally, don’t forget to try to have fun and enjoy your event!

Slide 12

Follow up

Congratulations! Your event was a success.

But this is possibly when the most important work happens, when you follow up.

You can share your thank yous with your team and anyone who attended and you can also share how successful your event was. Maybe you could send out a follow up email or share a post on your facebook page. You can include photos, positive feedback and what you might have achieved. I have shared an example social media post for our Friends of the Park community clean up day.

It is important to think about taking the time to meet, share and record how your event went with your team.

Think back to what you wanted to achieve. Our example community clean up day wanted to collect 30 bags of rubbish and hoped to have at least 50 people attend. On the day 75 people came and they collected 50 bags of rubbish. So, it was a very successful event and they exceeded their expectations.

Don’t forget to thank and congratulate your team on their hard work.

You can then move on to discuss feedback from the people who came and your team and this could help you to think about what you could do better for next time.

Slide 13

Resources

This slide has some useful links in the transcript to resources which will assist you as you go through your event checklist. This includes links to:

Slide 14

To find out more

For more detail on all of the topics covered here check out the guidance links in the recording transcript. ​

You can also contact our team for help including help with policies and templates at​

Development@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk​

​ Good luck with your event and please do let us know how it goes!​

Useful links:

 

Charity Collection Licenses:​

 

 

Back to top