Planning Your Charity Event

Theme your fundraising event around the type of charity you choose. For example, if you are donating your proceeds to an animal-related charity, make the theme of your fundraiser dogs and cats. Here's a list of ideas that play off the animal charity theme to inspire you for your own event:

• On your invite, ask guests to bring their pooches. Make sure to provide pretty bowls of dog treats, water and plenty of doody bags for convenience.

• Ask a trainer to donate his or her time for the evening, and have them give a short talk about training dogs as well as demonstrate training methods, and auction off or give away one-on-one training hours as a prize for the attendees.

• Serve salads or appetizers out of colorful dog bowl dishes for a sure-fire conversation starter.

• Treat guests to cookies shaped like dog biscuits and cupcakes with bones on them.

• Visit local for-profit pet business (pet stores, groomers, doggy daycare, etc) and ask for donations for your charity auction. Remind them that it's great PR for all the local pet owners, and will likely bring them plenty of business beside the tax write-off.

• Send guests home with a pet-related goody bag including coupons from local stores, dog treats, a grooming brush, and even a new collar and leash.

Hopefully this list has inspired you to think outside the box and really personalize your charity event. Giving back is a great thing to do, and this is definitely a fun way to do it.