Coffee mornings can be a brilliant Big Yellow Friday fundraiser as well as a great excuse for a get together. Emma has done one every year for several years, raising over £8000 for CLDF. Here she shares her tips for maximising income and minimising stress.
- Be relaxed with your timings – if you’re happy to make it an open house, for example, 10am til 1pm, people are more likely to drop in and won’t feel bad if they can only stay a short time
- Spread the word – WhatsApp is a brilliant way of getting details around quickly. I always create a little flyer and share it with various groups I’m part of but you don’t even need to go to that trouble if you don’t want to. As long as you tell people the where, when and why, send a message to whichever of your groups you feel appropriate. And do tell everyone they can bring a friend/mum/granny!
- Give a few weeks’ notice – people are busy but they’ll always make time for coffee and cake for a good cause if they have notice
- Ask people to bake cakes – don’t be shy about doing that – most people are happy to bring a cake given some notice and those that hate baking will probably make a donation!
- Do a raffle – ask people for prize donations and say yes to everything. We all have an unwanted gift or bottle of something in the cupboard and it’s great to think it could raise funds for something worthwhile.
- Buy a load of napkins – and use them instead of plates for the cakes – it will save your washing up
- Give people jobs – you won’t be able to do everything yourself so delegate. Put one person on drinks making duty, one on the raffle, someone else to answer the door etc
- Set up a Just Giving page – then if people can’t come along they can make a donation instead
- Let people know how much you raised – this is really important. If people have taken time out to come along, do get back to them afterwards and let them know what a difference they’ve made.
- Make it an annual thing – I tend to do a Big Yellow Friday coffee morning every year and, because it’s a great opportunity for a catch up, I find people will even book the day off work. And if friends and acquaintances are having a nice chat over coffee and a cake, then it doesn’t feel like fundraising at all, which is exactly as it should be!
Don’t forget to let us know about your coffee morning by emailing [email protected]
