How to organise a fundraising race night

The following information will help you organise a successful race night. 

1. Get some help from your friends and family.

If possible – get them involved early on. Together you can decide on a suitable date, choice of venue and potential sponsors for the races and runners. Also you can decide who will do what on the actual night.

2. Book a Venue

There is a wide choice of suitable venues including: pubs, bars, hotels, sporting premises and leisure centres. Make sure that there is enough room for people to move around and an area for the tote to be positioned easily for them to place their bets.

Many venues have their own bar – and therefore you can normally arrange for the venue to be hired to you for free and/or agree to your fundraising night taking a percentage of the drink sales.  
Most organisers can maximise their fundraising – by charging a small ticket fee at the door which would include for instance some food (sandwiches, quiche, min-sausages etc) for them to enjoy throughout the evening.

3. Support from Sponsors

Support from sponsors is a vital area for maximizing the amount of funds you can potentially raise. With our race nights you can obtain additional sponsorship monies by offering them the following:

• Sponsor of an actual race
• Sponsor of individual runners (snails) for each race
• Sponsor of the event with their logo shown in between each race.

Sponsors could be from any type of business – both large and small. Individuals should be also be made aware that they are welcome to be a sponsor. Just don’t forget to personally invite them to the evening so they can be introduced to the audience.

4. Get the right equipment

To show a race night at your venue you will need the following: a DVD player orlaptop that can play DVD’s;sound amplifiers to enhance the atmosphere; and ideally a projector and large screen.
Nearly all venues will have this type of equipment available otherwise you may need to turn to a friend or work colleague to see if they have one available.