Fundraising For Charity: A Guide To Conducting Successful And Effective Events

Scope

Discuss about the Fundraising For Charity.
 

The project selected is the fund raising event by a company for a charity organization. The project is so chosen that the new and multi-national companies are increasingly involving in philanthropy. As a part of that the companies are more involved in generating the funds for the self-running charitable trusts as well as increasingly for supporting the organizations that work for the charity.

The project involves the activities and tasks to conduct an event with an objective to raise some fund and forward the fund to an organization that works for charity and social cause (Cattani et al., 2011). The project is to be conducted by building a team to plan and organize the event. The project needs to figure out the budget and finances for the event. The budget is expected to be invested by the company initially. And the budget spent would be collected from the overall fund raised by the event. The budget is expected to be smaller amount compared to the fund raised.

The project has to be taken care exclusively by the company. So, the company is accountable and responsible for the entire event and the fund that is going to be raised for the charity organization. The company is expected to explore multiple options to generate or raise the fund for the charity organization. However, finally, only one option has to be selected to implement. So, in this project, the selection of the viable and most potential options among all the other options is done with the help of the priority matrix. Eventually, the same option is going to be implemented. The project planning and implementation is developed for the finally selected option to raise the fund for the charity organization (Lock, 2011).

The scope of the project is to collect the money, raised from the event and forward the fund to the organization that is pre-selected and that works for charity. The scope of the project does not include the branding of the company and profit of the company, though the branding and reputation may be increased for the company after the event. The scope does not include how the money is spent by the charity organisation (Wysocki, Robert, 2013). The objective of the project is to raise the fund for the charity organization, with no intention and process intended to gain the profit from the event.

Objective

The deliverables of the project are a detailed activities and tasks for the event to be conducted, after the selection of the appropriate event for charity organization.

1. Development of the plan
2. Making all the preparations for the event
3. Completion of the event
4. Calculation of the fund raised
5. Submitting the fund raised to the charity organisation 

The technical requirements of the project are the following.

1. A computer
2. Infrastructure needed to conduct the event
3. Detailed specifications of the items presented in the auction 

The limits and exclusions include the acceptance of the price, if it is within the pre-defined price by the company without losses. Other products and items are excluded, except for the auction items.

Customer reviews are to be collected with the questionnaire posted in the home page of the company website. In addition, a function is enabled to add the review of the event and project by the customer.

There are multiple ways to raise the fund for the charity. Since it is a good cause, public and people are inclined to involve and spend good amount of money in such events and projects. Eventually, there are many ways explored and implemented by the individuals, the charity organizations and the companies that support the charity organizations. Companies find many ways to conduct the events, as they already have good access to the public, in the form of their customers. The events can be conducted either by the direct organisation or even by outsourcing the projects to them. Here, in this instance, the company is going to conduct the event directly. The company is going to spend for the event and the human resources needed for the event are directly taken from within the company, by looking for the volunteers (Stellman et al., 2005).

Most of the possible ways are explored and then the best way to raise the fund for the charity is going to be selected. Each of the way of raising the fund is explored, in terms of time, performance and cost. The constraint is considered to ensure the viability in terms of time taken to implement the entire event. The performance is considered in terms of how well it can be enhanced. The cost is considered to ensure whether the project can be accepted or not.

The selected event is going to be planned for the viability.

The basic priorities of the fundraising by the company are selected to be the following.

1. Hosting a street carnival
2. Organizing the competition
3. Raffle selling
4. Auction
5. Organizing a dance-a-thon
6. Imprisoning a celebrity 

Options	Time	Performance	Cost
Hosting a street carnival	High	Medium	High
Organizing the competition	High	High	High
Raffle Selling	Medium	Medium	High
Auction	Less	High	Less
Organizing a dance-a-thon	High	High	High
Imprisoning a celebrity	High	High	High

Table: Priority Matrix

	Time	Scope	Cost
Constraint		x
Enhance	x
Accept			x

There are total six options selected to raise the fund. Among all these options, Auction is selected as it can be the most potential option for raising the fund. Based on the company and its functions, employees and the products that it handles, the company has decided to go with the auction. The option auction is selected, as it is going to take less time as all it needs is a few hours in a day. It is going to give much higher performance, as it involves intensive and high value items in the auction. It is going to take less cost, as the event needs the transport of the items, inviting the guests and the participation of the volunteer employees from the same company.

1. Planning of the event
   • Setting the objective
   • Identifying the audience
   • Deciding the type of fund raiser
   • Identifying the deadline
   • Studying the other similar fundraising events that run successful
   • Create minute to minute activities of the event
2. Build up a team
   • Look and seek out for volunteers in the company
   • Delegate the accountability, responsibility and authority
   • Split up the overall tasks for the event
   • Decide the professionals needed at the site
3. Estimate the Budget
   • Budget for hiring the site for the event
   • Budget for logistics
   • Budget for amenities
   • Budget for professionals hired out from company
4. Arrangement of the logistics
   • Decide the date and time for the event
   • Find location suitable
   • Develop the schedule
   • Negotiate for transport and finalize
   • Plan for follow up
   • Inform the volunteers
5. Conduct an Event
   • Take all the volunteers according to the schedule
   • Take the infrastructure and other material needed
   • Conduct the tasks and activities
6. Post event procedures
   • Clear the payments for logistics
   • Clear all the bills and dues for services
   • Clear the site
   • Payoff for the services
7. Fundraise
   • Calculate the total amount generated
   • Subtract the budget spent for the event
   • Release the final fund raised amount to the charity organization
8. Closing the project
   • Relieve the volunteers
   • Relieve the operations
   • Submit the final report of the project 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Cost
Planning the event	2 days	Mon 15-08-16	Tue 16-08-16	$100
Setting the objective	1 day	Mon 15-08-16	Mon 15-08-16
Identifying the audience	1 day	Mon 15-08-16	Mon 15-08-16
Studying the similar fundraising events	1 day	Tue 16-08-16	Tue 16-08-16
Creating minute to minute plan	1 day	Tue 16-08-16	Tue 16-08-16
Building a team	2 days	Wed 17-08-16	Thu 18-08-16	$100
Look for volunteers	1 day	Wed 17-08-16	Wed 17-08-16
Delegating the responsibilities	1 day	Wed 17-08-16	Wed 17-08-16
Splitting the tasks	1 day	Thu 18-08-16	Thu 18-08-16
Deciding professionals at site	1 day	Thu 18-08-16	Thu 18-08-16
Estimating the budget	1 day	Fri 19-08-16	Fri 19-08-16	$100
Budget to hire the site	1 day	Fri 19-08-16	Fri 19-08-16
Budget for logistics	1 day	Fri 19-08-16	Fri 19-08-16
Budget for amenities	1 day	Fri 19-08-16	Fri 19-08-16
Budget for professionals	1 day	Fri 19-08-16	Fri 19-08-16
Arrangement of the logistics	5 days	Mon 22-08-16	Fri 26-08-16	$300
Deciding the date and time	1 day	Mon 22-08-16	Mon 22-08-16
Finding the location	1 day	Tue 23-08-16	Tue 23-08-16
Developing the schedule	1 day	Wed 24-08-16	Wed 24-08-16
Negotiating the transport	1 day	Thu 25-08-16	Thu 25-08-16
Planning the follow up	1 day	Fri 26-08-16	Fri 26-08-16
Inform the volunteers	1 day	Fri 26-08-16	Fri 26-08-16
Conducting the event	1 day?	Mon 29-08-16	Mon 29-08-16	$5500
Taking the volunteers	1 day	Mon 29-08-16	Mon 29-08-16	$1000
Taking the infrastructure	1 day	Mon 29-08-16	Mon 29-08-16	$500
Conducting the tasks	1 day	Mon 29-08-16	Mon 29-08-16	$4000
Post event procedures	1 day?	Tue 30-08-16	Tue 30-08-16	$300
Clearing the payments for logistics	1 day	Tue 30-08-16	Tue 30-08-16
Clearing all the dues and bills	1 day	Tue 30-08-16	Tue 30-08-16
Clearing the site	1 day	Tue 30-08-16	Tue 30-08-16
Payoff for other services	1 day	Tue 30-08-16	Tue 30-08-16
Fundraise	1 day?	Wed 31-08-16	Wed 31-08-16	$300
Calculating the amount generated	1 day	Wed 31-08-16	Wed 31-08-16
Subtracting the budget spent	1 day	Wed 31-08-16	Wed 31-08-16
Releasing the final fund	1 day	Wed 31-08-16	Wed 31-08-16
Closing the project	1 day?	Thu 01-09-16	Thu 01-09-16	$500
Relieve the volunteers	1 day	Thu 01-09-16	Thu 01-09-16
Relieve the operations	1 day	Thu 01-09-16	Thu 01-09-16
Submit the final report	1 day	Thu 01-09-16	Thu 01-09-16

 

Figure: Cost estimation with top-down approach, Apportion method 

Conclusion

The project has been developed with an objective of raising the fund for the charity organization. The charity organisation is expected to be selected already, before the commencement of the project. So, the entire project has been developed for planning and implementing the project of fundraising for the charity organization by the company. 

References

Cattani, G., Ferriani, S., Frederiksen, L. and Florian, T. (2011) Project-Based Organizing and Strategic Management, Advances in Strategic Management, Vol 28, Emerald,

David C. I, Gareis. R. (2006). Global Project Management Handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional

Lock. D. (2007) Project Management (9th ed.) Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Epstein, G. S. (2008). Herd and network effects in migration decision-making. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(4), 567-583.

Harrison, F. L. Lock. D. (2004). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Phillips. J., (2003). PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003.

Stevens. M. (2002). Project Management Pathways. Association for Project Management. APM Publishing Limited

Paul. D. C. et al (2005) The right projects done right! John Wiley and Sons

Stellman, Andrew; Greene, Jennifer (2005).Applied Software Project Management. O’Reilly Media

Wysocki, Robert K (2013). Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme (Seventh Edition). John Wiley & Sons.