A fundraiser can be as simple as a bake sale, as complex as a black-tie dinner complete with a silent auction, or somewhere in between. Each can be stressful to plan for, but each can be successful with the right approach. Microsoft Office applications and templates can give you a leg up in your planning and execution, assisting you in running a clean operation with measurable results. Follow these tips to ensure that your occasion goes off without a glitch.

1. Establish a clear goal

The personality of your organization and the financial objective for your event will point you toward the right fundraiser for your purpose. It’s important to plan the type of event that fits your audience and your organization’s goals, and to communicate that vision to everyone involved.

2. Develop a plan

If your organization has produced similar events in earlier years, use that information to develop your plan. Repeat previous successes. To kick off your planning, determine what your ideal end result is and work backward from it, itemizing what needs to happen and when. If you are working with a committee and depend on the help of volunteers, break down tasks into smaller chunks. Once you have your goal established and your plan developed, it's a good idea to write a project proposal to have the whole kit and caboodle in writing.

One issue you may need to settle is whether you are working from a set guest list or whether your event will be open to the public. If you are working from a guest list, a Microsoft Access database is a good choice for managing your guest list. Excel works well for this purpose, too. Word can assist you with many of the tasks you may find yourself saddled with en route to event day, such as soliciting a speaker, requesting and signing up volunteers, and tracking donations for pledge-based events, such as walk-, jog-, or phone-athons.

• Event management database (Access)
• Fundraising project proposal (Project)
• Pledge log (Excel)
• Request for paid speaker form (Word)
• Request for volunteers (Word)
• Volunteer sign-up sheet (Excel)

3. Pick the date

Whenever possible, plan your event well in advance to give yourself time to make your preparations and carry out your plan. Six months to a year is a good guideline for how long it can take to put together an event, depending on its scale and complexity. Make sure your date doesn’t land on a national holiday, another big day such as Election Day, or other days that will attract your potential donors away.

4. Create a schedule

Once you've picked the date, it is critical to make a schedule or timeline of key tasks. Several of the Office applications are useful for this step, but Microsoft Project is one of the most effective tools for keeping your planning in hand and on target. It does have a learning curve, so if you’ve never used it and want to give it a try, see the project management quick reference guide for more information..

• Project management plan (Project)
• Six-month timeline (PowerPoint)

5. Communicate regularly with those involved

Keeping the people you’re working with informed is crucial throughout the process, especially as event day nears. Create e-mail distribution lists to get the right information to the right people when they need it, and use one of our e-mail newsletter templates for a professional approach. You may want to create one list for volunteers and another for board members and key donors.

• Create an e-mail distribution list
• E-mail newsletter (Word)

6. Practice good accounting

Treat your fundraiser like a business, and make good decisions about your costs and the profit you intend to bring in. Consider working through the five steps to prepare your project budget as part of your plan. You can also use Project and Excel to estimate your costs.

• Estimate costs (Project)
• Event budget (Excel)

7. Promote your event

If your fundraiser will be open to the public, promoting it can increase attendance and make it that much more successful. Depending on the nature of your event, you can get the word out via a range of media — from hanging posters in well-traveled venues such as shopping centers, to handing out flyers, to mailing invitations to a select list of potential guests. It’s also good practice to provide a press release to your local newspaper.

• Event flyer (Word)
• Invitation templates
• Press release (Word)

8. Enjoy yourself

Planning a successful fundraiser is a reward in itself. But enjoying the process and making it fun for others are the magic ingredients that will keep your organization progressing toward its mission, while also attracting donors and volunteers back year after year.