Monday, November 3, 2014

Plan A Charity 5k

A 5K run is a fantastic way of raising funds for a charity.


Holding a 5K race event can seem daunting, but if you are organizing one for a charity, then the work will feel more worthwhile. It will involve a lot of effort and you will need to start planning well in advance. You will also need the help of a committed team in planning a route, finding sponsorships, budgeting, obtaining permits, publicizing and managing the race.


Instructions


1. Assemble a group of volunteers to help you to organize the event. You will need people who are both eager to participate and reliable. Choose a charity that you want to raise funds for through the 5K.


2. Have an idea what route you would like your 5K to take. Do you want to race along a road or would a park be a better idea given that participants in charity races are not all serious runners? If you can hold your 5K around the perimeter of a park, it would not involve road closures and thus would probably be easier to organize.


3. Work out a budget and then try to find sponsorships to cover the cost of organizing the event. Local businesses may be willing to support a charity event in return for being able to display their logo around the event or to have their name mentioned in press releases.


4. Contact your local authority to check what permits you will need for the route that you have in mind. Whether your planned route is along a road or parkland, there are almost certainly at least a few permits that you will need.


5. Publicize the event. See if you can use your chosen charity's PR department to get a story about your event into the local press. Also distribute flyers at sports centers, shopping malls or anywhere else that there may be a lot of people telling them how they can join in the event.


6. Work out a plan of everything that you are going to need to do in the run up to the day as well as on race day itself. You will need someone to take charge of regulating the number of participants, someone else to organize setting out the route on the day and someone to organize facilities for those supporting the runners. Make a list of all jobs and then allot people to do them. Make a time frame for when each job needs to be completed.


7. Follow your plan and hopefully everything should go smoothly on the day.


8. Enjoy. Remember that a charity 5K is about having fun and raising funds for a worthwhile cause.

Tags: will need, along road, raising funds