Beyond the Orphanage long-time supporter, Belinda, recently hosted a cocktail party for her friends to help raise funds for our projects in Ethiopia and Nepal. Here’s Belinda‘s own words on what it was like to organise the event, and how it went.
“As part of my role with Beyond the Orphanage, I regularly keep a close eye our blog. When I read our post, ‘Top 5 Easy Fundraising Ideas‘, I was inspired!
My husband and I had two boxes of spirits that have followed us around move after move and had yet to consumed. We’ve moved on from the days of Midori and Tequila, but I’d hate to see it go to waste. So how to make the most of our leftovers?
Normally, when somebody hosts a cocktail party each person or couple nominates to bring a bottle of spirits. This time we had that covered. Given we were providing the spirits and other ingredients, I asked our guests to consider a donation to Beyond The Orphanage. Fundraising for a cause while sipping on a cocktail on New Year’s Eve, it doesn’t get better. It tastes good and feels good all at the same time!
How do you host a fundraising cocktail party? It’s pretty simple. I think the best way is via the fundraising page on the BTO website.
For my event, I popped over the ‘start a fundraising campaign‘ page on the BTO website to create my custom page for the event. It’s super easy to use! You can see my page here: ‘NYE Cocktails for a Cause’. It took less than a minute to do.
Party guests could then make a donation online via this event page I created, which allows each donor to receive a tax receipt (and the host doesn’t have to do anything).
Then it’s super simple to create a Facebook event and invite your friends. If Facebook isn’t your thing, you can invite your guests any way that suits.
It felt great having an awesome New Year’s Eve and doing something to give back all in one. As it turned out, we had a small crowd on the night as many people were travelling and not at home in Fiji at that time of year. We still raised funds and it gives me the perfect opportunity to hold another cocktail party. Darn it, I’m determined the old spirit cupboard gets put to good use.
We still raised funds and it gives me the perfect opportunity to hold another cocktail party. Darn it, I’m determined the old spirit cupboard gets put to good use.
Does this sound like you? Sometimes life gets too busy in the silly season to think about hosting a fundraising event. Instead, when the reality of heading back to work in January kicks in, I suggest the best way to get through it is to throw a cocktail party. It’ll taste good and feel good all at the same time.”
Share our journey, be inspired by stories of hope and stay up to date with our latest news, articles and activities throughout the world.