How to organise a fundraiser in five moves: set a net target, then pick a fundraising event format the team can staff. Plan every role and shift, then confirm and brief each person. Run event day from one live check-in list and close the loop within 72 hours.
This guide is for people who run a fundraising event with volunteers and casual paid staff. That includes charity event teams, community and sports organisers, school and club committees, and suppliers who staff their dinners.
Personal online appeals are a different task and sit outside it. The people plan decides how much of the money survives the day. That is why volunteer scheduling for events and charities gets the same attention here as the budget.
Each tip covers one stage of how to organise a fundraiser. Each adds the headcounts, lead times and legal checks that usually go missing.
Tip 1: Set the Net Target Before You Choose the Idea
The number that matters is what the cause keeps, not what the room raises. Most teams start with an idea, then a date, then an event organisation checklist. The first decision in how to organise a fundraiser is a number. The format is chosen to hit it.
The cause keeps the net, so the net is the target.
Gross is the total taken on the day. Net is what remains after every cost is paid. The gap between the two is where fundraisers quietly lose money, usually on cost lines nobody wrote down.
Paid bar or security staff, volunteer travel and a first aid provider all come out of the gross. So do insurance, a Temporary Event Notice, lottery registration, card fees and printing.
- A proper event budget breakdown lists them before the venue is booked.
Cost to raise is the simplest control. Divide total event costs by the gross raised. At £6,000 of costs against £9,000 raised, each pound costs 67p to raise and the cause keeps £3,000. Set a ceiling for that ratio before choosing a format, and let the ceiling veto ideas. A format that cannot clear it at realistic attendance is the wrong format.
Sponsors and in-kind donations protect the ratio. A sponsor who covers the venue, the catering or the prizes takes the fixed costs off the table. The money given in the room then goes to the cause rather than the caterer.
The British public donated an estimated £14 billion in 2025, down from £15.4 billion in 2024 (CAF UK Giving Report 2026). That is a fall of nearly 10%. Only 55% of people gave in 2025, down from 69% in 2016. When fewer people give, every event has to keep more of what it takes.
Sponsors pay the bills so donors can pay for the cause.
Choosing Between a 5k, Golf Day, Gala or Auction
A 5k fundraiser and a golf tournament fundraiser can raise similar sums with very different people’s plans. The run needs a marshal at every junction and a first aid provider. The golf day runs on a small desk team but carries green fees and catering that need a sponsor.
Table A covers the formats organisers ask about most when working out how to organise a fundraiser. The figures are planning assumptions for a community-scale event, not rules.
| Fundraiser format | People you need (roles and headcount) | Planning lead time | Legal and admin to check | Where the net result is at risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5k or fun run | Marshals at every junction and crossing, registration and bag drop, water station, finish and sweep, first aid liaison. Plan for the high twenties to mid thirties for a few hundred runners. | 12 to 16 weeks | Route permission from council or landowner, road closure orders on roads, public liability insurance, qualified first aid provider, entrant data protection. | Low fixed costs. The risk sits in marshal gaps and in entry fees, which do not qualify for Gift Aid. |
| Sponsored walk or walkathon | Route marshals, checkpoint teams, registration, sweep driver, first aid liaison. Scales with route length rather than entries. | 8 to 12 weeks | Route permission, insurance, first aid, sponsorship collection with Gift Aid declarations. | Low costs. Income depends on participants collecting sponsorship after the day. |
| Golf day (golf tournament fundraiser) | Registration desk, on-course competition hosts, halfway house, auction and raffle desk, photographer. Plan for 6 to 12. | 4 to 6 months (course booking) | Course contract and insurance via the club, raffle rules, prize disclosures. | High fixed costs. Green fees and catering need sponsors or the day makes little net. |
| Gala or auction dinner | Welcome desk, table hosts, raffle sellers, auction spotters and runners, payment desk, cloakroom, plus paid venue and bar staff. Plan for 10 to 14 volunteers per 150 guests. | 6 to 9 months | Venue alcohol licence, raffle and auction rules, Gift Aid benefit rules, US quid pro quo disclosures over $75, data protection. | Highest fixed costs. Ticket income is not a donation, so the net depends on sponsors and the ask. |
| Silent or online auction | Lot sourcing team, display and bidding desk, payment and collection desk. Plan for 4 to 8. | 3 to 4 months (sourcing lots) | Payment handling, prize and benefit rules, data protection. | Low costs if lots are donated. The risk is unsold lots and slow payment collection. |
| Quiz, bingo or trivia night | Host, scorers, raffle sellers, door, bar via the venue. Plan for 5 to 8. | 6 to 8 weeks | Venue licence, prize gaming rules for bingo, raffle limits. | Low costs. Income is capped by room size and ticket price. |
| Community fair, car wash or bake sale | One lead per stall, gate, car park, cash runners, in three-hour shifts. | 4 to 8 weeks | Food hygiene registration for regular or higher-risk food, insurance, land permission, cash controls. | Low costs. Income is small and spread across many hands, so cash controls matter. |
| Virtual or hybrid event | Host, technical lead, moderator, donor follow-up team. Plan for 3 to 6. | 4 to 8 weeks | Platform terms, data protection, donor disclosures. | Low staffing. Low income per head and hard to hold attention. |
Read the table from the people column first. The format the team can staff at full strength beats the one with the bigger theoretical gross.
Tip 2: Build the People Plan Alongside the Budget
List the roles before booking anything. Roles determine the headcount, and the headcount determines which formats are realistic for the team you have. The people plan is the part of how to organise a fundraiser written last and needed first.
A people plan is one line per role. Each line lists the task, headcount, shift length, required checks, and whether it is paid or volunteer.
For a run, the lines are registration, bag drop, course marshals, water station, finish, sweep and first aid liaison. For a dinner, they are welcome desk, table hosts, raffle sellers, auction spotters, payment desk and cloakroom.
Roles first, headcount second, format third.
Plan volunteer shifts of three to four hours, not whole days. Dropouts start where shifts run long. Mark the roles that carry legal or safety weight: first aid, security, bar service and cash handling.
Decide early whether each is a paid role, a qualified volunteer or a contracted provider. Roles with children need DBS checks in the UK. The checks take weeks, so they go on the plan at week 12.
Add a reserve list of 10 to 20% on top of the confirmed headcount as a working assumption. People fall ill and cars fail to start. The reserve list turns those calls into a shrug rather than a gap. Use the ratios the team already knows, and calculate staffing ratios for the roles it does not.
Recruit from the existing pool six to eight weeks out. A general appeal the week before reaches people who are already booked. It also teaches the pool that the organisation only calls in a panic. The pool itself is shrinking.
In England in 2024/25, 17% of adults volunteered formally at least once a month (DCMS Community Life Survey 2024/25). Only 28% did so at least once in the year. Before the pandemic, in 2019/20, those figures were 23% and 37%.
The volunteers already on the list are the hardest to replace.
Table B shows the people milestones next to the money milestones on a 12-week countdown. The people column is the one most teams start too late.
| Weeks to go | Money and venue milestones | People plan milestones | Comms and compliance milestones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 12 | Set the net target, cost ceiling and format. Hold the date. Book the venue or agree the route. | Draft the role list, headcount and shift lengths. Name the event lead and a people lead. | List what needs permission: council, landowner, road closures, venue licence. Start DBS checks for roles with children. |
| Week 10 | Approach sponsors for the fixed costs. Confirm supplier quotes. | Send the recruitment ask to the existing volunteer pool. Open the paid roles that carry legal or safety weight. | Book the first aid provider. Arrange public liability insurance. Register a small society lottery if raffle tickets will sell in advance. |
| Week 8 | Open ticket sales or entries. Set up the sponsorship page. | Log availability replies against roles. Start the reserve list. | Submit the Temporary Event Notice if alcohol is sold without a premises licence (10 clear working days is the legal minimum; allow more). |
| Week 6 | Chase sponsors. Confirm catering and kit. | Assign named people to roles. Close gaps with a second ask to the pool. | Draft one briefing per role. Confirm the venue's music licences. |
| Week 4 | Lock the budget against actual costs. | Confirm every role explicitly. Reserve list at 10 to 20% of headcount. | Send the first briefing and set the two-week and one-week reminders. Check the data list belongs to this event only. |
| Week 2 | Final ticket push. Arrange the cash float and card readers. | Reconfirm everyone. Check briefings were read. Fill the last gaps from the reserve list. | Share the run sheet with one owner per block. Confirm first aid and safety cover. |
| Week 1 | Final numbers to the caterer or venue. | Day-before reminder with arrival time and exact location. | Check-in list ready. Gap protocol agreed. Raffle prizes and expenses recorded within the limits. |
| Event day | Cash and card controls: two count, one records. | Check in against the confirmed list. Run the gap protocol at the first missing name. | Run sheet owners on radio or phone. Incident log open. |
| Within 72 hours | Reconcile income and costs. Calculate the cost to raise. | Approve hours. Pay casual staff. Log volunteer hours and expenses. Thank everyone by name. | Process Gift Aid declarations. Issue US disclosures and acknowledgments. Save the debrief. Copy the plan for the next date. |
How Many Volunteers a Fundraising Event Needs
Build the number from the plan, not from a guess. For a route, count the junctions, crossings and blind bends. Each one needs a marshal who can see the next.
A community 5k with a few hundred runners needs the high twenties to mid thirties. That covers marshals, desks, water, finish and sweep. A sponsored walk scales with route length rather than entries.
For a dinner, allow one table host for every two or three tables. Add the welcome, raffle, auction and payment desks. That puts 150 guests at roughly 10 to 14 volunteers alongside the venue’s paid staff. Open enough registration desks that the queue clears before the start.
A quiz night runs on five to eight people and a golf day on six to twelve. Treat all of these as planning assumptions and adjust them after each event.
Tip 3: Confirm Every Role, Then Brief It
A name on a list is not a confirmed person. Confirmation is an explicit yes to a named role, a date and a shift. It is recorded where the whole team can see it. That step in how to organise a fundraiser separates a list from a team.
A name on a spreadsheet is not a confirmed volunteer.
Send an availability request to the pool at week 10. Record replies against roles, not in an inbox. Ask each person to confirm the specific role and shift at week 4. Send reminders at two weeks, one week and the day before.
When a confirmed person drops out, activate the reserve list the same day. Every confirmation lives in one place. A coordinator who checks three channels for replies will miss one of them.
The briefing is where most event-day problems are created. Write one briefing per role, for the person doing that job. Send it to this event’s list, not last month’s.
Event staff communication that shows who has read what removes the guesswork. Every role briefing must contain:
- Arrival time and exact location: the gate, the car park and the desk, not the postcode of the venue.
- The role and who they report to: the job, their lead, and how to reach that lead on the day.
- What to do when something goes wrong: the number to call, the nearest first aider, and what to say to the public.
- Kit and dress: what is provided, what to bring, and what the weather may do to both.
- How to record hours and expenses: where to check in and out, and how to claim travel or food.
A briefing nobody opened is a briefing nobody received.
Legal admin belongs in this stage as well, because most of it has a notice period. Table C lists the checks that trip up community fundraisers in the UK and the US. Rules change, so check the linked regulator pages before the event.
| Compliance area | United Kingdom | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Raffle at the event | Great Britain: an incidental non-commercial lottery needs no licence or registration when tickets are sold only at the event, no more than £500 of proceeds goes on prizes, no more than £100 on expenses, and prizes do not roll over. The draw can happen during or after the event (Gambling Commission). | Regulated state by state; many states require a permit or registration. The IRS treats raffle prizes as gambling winnings with reporting and possible withholding duties (IRS Notice 1340). Check the state first. |
| Selling raffle tickets in advance | Small society lottery: register with the local licensing authority before sales start; no more than £20,000 of tickets per lottery and £250,000 a year; at least 20% of proceeds to the cause; sales to over-16s only (Gambling Commission). | Some states restrict advance or online raffle sales. Check the state's raffle rules before printing tickets. |
| Alcohol | Without a premises licence, a Temporary Event Notice: £21, fewer than 500 people including staff, at least 10 clear working days' notice (a late notice five to nine working days), up to 168 hours (gov.uk). | State and local alcohol permits. A venue's licence often covers a dinner; a field or hall usually does not. |
| Tax relief and donor paperwork | Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 given by a taxpayer who signs a declaration. Tickets and entry fees never qualify. Sponsorship does (the registration fee does not), as does an optional donation kept separate from the ticket price (HMRC). | A written disclosure statement is required for any quid pro quo contribution over $75, with a good-faith estimate of the value received; the penalty is $10 per contribution up to $5,000 per event. Donors need a written acknowledgment for any single gift of $250 or more (IRS). |
| Insurance | Public liability insurance for events on public land or with the public present; councils and landowners usually ask to see it. | General liability cover; venues often ask for a certificate naming them. |
| First aid and safety | A qualified first aid provider sized to the crowd; route permission and road closure orders from the council or landowner; HSE event safety guidance. | Local permits for road use; first aid or EMS cover per local requirements. |
| Food | Food hygiene registration with the local authority for regular or higher-risk food (hot food, food kept cold). | Temporary food permits from the local health department are common; check before the day. |
| Music | PRS for Music and PPL licences, normally held by the venue; check before booking a hall or field. | Performance licences are normally held by the venue; check for outdoor sites. |
| Volunteer and donor data | UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 cover volunteer and donor records: use this event's list, keep consent records, delete what is no longer needed. | State privacy laws vary; keep donor and volunteer data secured and limited to the people who need it. |
| Conduct | The Code of Fundraising Practice (Fundraising Regulator, in force from 1 November 2025) applies to charities, volunteers and third-party suppliers: fundraising must be legal, open, honest and respectful. | Many states require charitable solicitation registration before asking the public for money; check the state's charity regulator. |
The Legal Checks for a Charity Fundraiser
Beyond the table, a fundraiser for charity has a few checks that need dates in the plan. Public liability insurance is needed for events on public land or with the public present.
Routes on roads need permission from the council or landowner. Where traffic is affected, a road closure order needs weeks of notice. A qualified first aid provider should be sized to the crowd and the activity. HSE event safety guidance is the reference.
Food sold regularly or at higher risk needs food hygiene registration with the local authority. Live or recorded music needs PRS for Music and PPL licences, normally held by the venue.
Volunteer and donor records fall under UK GDPR. The list used on the day belongs to this event alone. Gift Aid declarations collected properly are worth 25p on every pound donated.
An estimated £560 million of Gift Aid goes unclaimed each year (CAF UK Giving Report 2026). The Code of Fundraising Practice, in force since 1 November 2025, applies to volunteers as well as staff. The briefing should say so.
Every charity fundraiser has a notice period hiding in it somewhere.
Tip 4: Run Event Day From One Live List
Organisers should know who is missing at check-in, not when a role sits empty. On the day, how to organise a fundraiser comes down to one live list. Every decision about that list is made beforehand.
Check every arrival against the confirmed list. Give the list an arrival window and one owner. The moment a name is late, the gap protocol starts. The protocol is agreed before the day.
It says which roles collapse into each other, which lead moves to cover, and who calls the reserve list. On a route, a missing marshal at a junction is a safety issue. The course does not open with a junction uncovered.
The run sheet has one named owner per block of time. Cash and card controls are simple: two people count, one records, and floats are agreed in advance. The ask, whether a speech, an auction or a raffle draw, is kept short. It happens when the room is quiet. The person making it is briefed like everyone else.
Check-in is where the people plan pays for itself.
The cost of an empty role is easy to put a figure on. Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute value a US volunteer hour at $36.14 (2026 release, 2025 data). Four volunteers who miss a four-hour shift are 16 hours.
That is roughly $578 of capacity gone before the doors open. No credible source publishes a national no-show rate for event volunteers. The reserve list is therefore sized on the organisation’s own history, not on a benchmark.
The 2025 TCS London Marathon raised £87.3 million for charities (London Marathon Events, 2025). That is a world record for a one-day fundraising event. It beat the £73.5 million raised in 2024, with 56,640 finishers.
On the day, the largest fundraising event in the calendar is a marshalling operation at every junction. The same list-based discipline runs a community 5k.
An empty role costs money before the doors open.
Tip 5: Close the Loop Within 72 Hours
The next fundraiser is won or lost in the three days after this one. The close-out is the least discussed part of how to organise a fundraiser and the most valuable. It covers five jobs:
- Thank everyone by name: donors, sponsors, volunteers and paid staff, with the total raised and what it funds.
- Issue the paperwork: Gift Aid declarations processed, US quid pro quo disclosures sent for payments over $75, and written acknowledgments for gifts of $250 or more.
- Pay casual staff from approved hours: approved against the shifts worked and paid through the organisation’s own payroll, not from memory.
- Record volunteer hours and expenses: logged against the event, because funders ask and because the pool notices when nobody does.
- Debrief and copy the plan: which roles were short, which briefings went unread, what the check-in showed, then duplicate the plan for the next date.
Retention is the reason the close-out matters. Total dollars raised by US non-profits grew 5.0% in 2025 (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, AFP, 2026).
The number of donors fell 3.6%. Overall donor retention edged up from 43.1% to 43.3%. Fewer people are giving more, so a donor kept is worth more than a donor found. The same is true of a volunteer who turns up twice.
A team that can track volunteer hours at events and pay casual staff within days keeps its pool. That pool says yes next time.
Race two should be a copy of race one, not a blank sheet.
CASE STUDY STORY:
Active Training World runs around 80 running and triathlon events a year from Harpenden. In 2020 it moved its marshal and staff coordination off spreadsheets and onto Liveforce. Managing Director James Shipley put the change plainly.
“It is much easier to find staff for our events now as we can communicate with all staff directly from the app.” Duplicating an event for the next date removed the need to set everything up from scratch.
Turning One Fundraising Event Into a Repeatable Programme
A fundraising event for a non-profit organisation or charity is rarely a one-off. The role plan exists, the confirmed pool exists, the briefings exist, and the compliance dates are already known.
Admin falls. No-shows fall, because the same people know the drill. The cost-to-raise ratio improves without a bigger idea. Knowing how to organise a fundraising event that repeats is what funds a year. Each one is a copy of the last with the debrief applied.
The second fundraiser is where the economics change.
Where Liveforce Fits When You Organise a Fundraiser
Everything above about how to organise a fundraiser is possible on spreadsheets, email and WhatsApp for one small event.
It breaks on the second date. The volunteer list, the schedule and the briefing tracker live in separate files. Replies arrive in three channels, the check-in is a clipboard, and hours are reconciled from memory on the Monday.
Liveforce is the workforce management platform event-led organisations use to run that people plan from one place.
- Availability requests and confirmations replace the chase across email and group chats. One workforce database holds skills, qualifications and DBS records with expiry alerts, replacing last season’s spreadsheet.
- Briefings attach to the shift and show who has read them, replacing the email nobody opened.
- Check-in on the day shows who has arrived against who was confirmed, replacing the clipboard.
- Approved hours and expenses are recorded against the event and exported for payment, replacing paper timesheets.
- Payment itself happens in the organisation’s own systems. Duplicating the event for the next date replaces starting from scratch.
The spreadsheets that disappear are the ones that broke last time.
It is built for charities, community and sports event organisers, showgrounds and the hospitality suppliers who staff their dinners. Their workforce is part volunteer and part paid, and their calendar is seasonal.
That is why charity staff scheduling software looks different from a weekly rota tool. Liveforce does not take donations, sell tickets or process payments from the public.
Volunteers and staff see their role, location, start time and briefing in the Crew App without messaging the organiser.
The Decision That Protects the Money
Before deciding how to organise a fundraiser next season, answer four questions.
- Does the team know the net target and the cost ceiling?
- Is there a role-by-role people plan with shift lengths and a reserve list?
- Can every person be confirmed and briefed from one list the whole team can see?
- Can the close-out happen within 72 hours, including pay and hours?
Four yeses mean the format can grow. Any no is the thing to fix first. A bigger idea on a broken people plan raises the gross and shrinks the net.
Ready to Run Your Next Fundraiser Without the Chasing?
Six to eight weeks before a race, fair or dinner, the volunteer list turns into another paper sheet.
Liveforce gives community and charity event teams one place to confirm roles, send briefings and check people in.
See how Liveforce works for your next fundraiser. Book a demo.
