How to host an amazing get together

The oxfam get together How to host an amazing get together Join us on March 8th to celebrate International Women‟s Day and together we can transform the lives of women living in poverty worldwide

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Are you thinking about hosting a Get Together but aren’t quite sure how to go about it? This handy little guide is designed to help you out with helpful case studies, ideas for what you could do for your Get Together, plus tips on boosting your fundraising total and making the task of collecting the donations easier.

At Home Hear about Sandra‟s Bring & Buy Sale, plus more great ideas of how you can fundraise at home!

At Work See how you can get your whole organisation involved with the Oxfam Get Together and get on our leader board!

In your Community Top tips on planning a large-scale event in your community from Kate, host of the Oxford Bake Off!

Out & About Short on time? You can still get involved by having a Get Together out and about!

How to make the most out of your Get Together Ideas on how you can boost your fundraising total whatever your event is!

How to collect donations Suggestions on how to make asking your guests for donations easier, as we know this can be something many people don‟t feel comfortable about doing.

What’s it All for? A reminder on why it‟s important we support International Women‟s Day and some info on the incredible difference the money you raise can have on women living in poverty worldwide Got any other questions? Send us a tweet to @GetTogetherUK and we‟ll do our best to help!

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How to host

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an amazing

At Home

Get Together In 2012 Sandra teamed up with her best friend Ann to host an Oxfam Get Together at her home in Leamington Spa. She threw the doors of her home open to friends and family for an all day Bring and Buy and cake sale event, raising nearly £500. "Some of us have known each other since our children were young, and it's wonderful to be able to take the time in this increasingly busy world to catch up, while supporting women in other parts of the world. Everyone was so generous, baking cakes and donating items for sale as well as buying on the day. It made it all worthwhile."

Creative ideas... clothes swap Everyone brings a selection of clothes & accessories plus a small donation for entry & each item you take home. Why not have a tea & cake sale at the same time?

Gig in your lounge Find a local band/singer/comedian who‟s happy to perform for free & ask for a donation on the door. Getting some food & drinks donated by local businesses can boost your fundraising total.

Starter & pudding party Each guest brings either a starter or a pudding as well as making a donation to come along. Enjoy catching up with friends whilst eating delicious food & raffle off any leftovers!

Games night Set up a series of different games - board games, card games, games consoles & challenge your guests to a competition. Have a suggested amount to enter & get some donated prizes from local businesses for the winners.

‚it's wonderful to be able to take the time in this increasingly busy world to catch up, while supporting women in other parts of the world.‛ Sandra, Host

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How to host

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At work

Get Together London-based textiles company buttonbag hosted an oxfam get together at their local pub which included a quiz night and clothes swap...

Is your business ready for its next challenge? Like Buttonbag, go beyond the average office fundraiser and take on the challenge of hosting „The Most Creative Oxfam Get Together’. Choose someone to register your business and submit your creative Get Together idea and pledge amount. Then start promoting your event and fundraising from friends and colleagues! Keep an eye on our Leader Board on the website - we‟ll be sending an Oxfam team to cover the events of the top 3 companies and support you with regional, maybe even national PR! It‟s a brilliant team building opportunity and will help transform the lives of women living in poverty.

“ We had over 70 guests and raised over £600 - pretty much all through a suggested donation on the door which included quiz entry, a free cocktail and one-for-one clothes swap. You received a button for every item of clothing donated and after the quiz you could then swap your buttons for clothes. The winning quiz team had first dibs at the clothes swap.”

You could… Take on an ultimate assault course together Hold a fancy dress sports tournament Host a gig in your office Be sponsored to space hopper to work as a team!

Register now at www.oxfam.org.uk/businesschallenge

‚It Was a great evening and knowing the money raised was going to a good cause made it even better‛

Jenny, guest

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How to host a

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Kate Kellaway-Moore, 24, hosted a hugely successful ‘Bake off’ in Oxford for the Oxfam Get Together in 2012. “I found a venue (Oxford Town Hall), my Mary Berry (Kate Shirazi of cookbook fame) and my Paul Hollywood (Benoit Blin, head pastry chef at Le Manoir), designed the categories and everything fell into place! There were lots of puzzles along the way - like finding tablecloths for free and putting on cookery workshops without an oven, trying to pull together a baking competition without having been to one, but nothing a bit of head scratching couldn't work out! The local media helped a lot. There‟s also a lot to be said for word of mouth & social media. Lots of people took part with their friend or a group of friends. The event worked much better than I could have ever hoped. It was a real community event. Baking really brings people together. There were plenty of chaotic times in the run up.... but it was a lot of fun to organise, I met some lovely people and I got to eat plenty of baked goodies!” ‚I was staggered with the generosity of all the local companies who supported the event

Top tips Work in a team, especially if you’re short on planning time. Embrace tick sheets and spreadsheets! Set yourself realistic targets & review them regularly. Use social media & local media to create a buzz! Ask local businesses to donate products or services. Upload the details of your event on our community to help spread the word: http://bit.ly/ XkYqnB You’ll always find a way, it just might not be how you planned it!

with all the prizes‛

‚It was wonderful to see everyone feasting on all the scrummy entries knowing all the money was going to make such a difference.‚

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How to host a great Get

Out & About

Together

Not got the time or space to organise a get together but still want to get involved? Why not organise to catch up with your friends out and about? Ask your favourite local restaurant for a discounted menu and donate the amount you‟ve saved! Imagine there’s an extra person at your table, representing all the women living in poverty around the world and cover their ‘meal’. These ideas also apply to other activities - go bowling, on a day on a dry ski slope, or a night at a cocktail bar - ask for a discount or cover the cost of an extra person between you! Don‟t forget that you can still include other elements such as a raffle, or use TextGiving to boost your fundraising total wherever you are!

The Heswell OWLS getting together out & about!

Get Inspired

How to Get The most

Want to know how you can boost your fundraising total from £50 to £500? Here’s some great tips to help you out! Invite more people - The more people at your event, the more potential there is for collecting donations. Simple. Why not team up with a relative like Suan did, or with a group of friends, and together you can increase the guest list. It‟s also more fun and less organisation work for you that way!

Divide your event into different activities - Include a variety of elements into the event schedule as your guests are more likely to donate throughout the night to take part in different activities, boosting your overall total! You could include a raffle, or hold a competition (a board game, on a games console, anything you can think of!) and suggest a donation to take part.

Sua nr Inc ais red ed a i ble her n £75 cof 0 fe f so cou e mor rom nin ld y g… ou ! Suan, 51, & her mother held a coffee morning at home with over 60 guests “We didn‟t just invite people we saw regularly, we also invited friends we hadn’t had a chance to catch up with for a while. I sent out a „save the date‟ email about 6 weeks before my Get Together then followed these up with invitations, emails and phone calls so I knew how many people to expect. Whenever I had a spare 5mins, I‟d pop into local businesses and tell them about the opportunity to get involved and get some publicity at our coffee morning. Having a suggested donation really helped together with fantastic raffle prizes. If you focus on getting together with friends, old and new, and plan something that you enjoy and feel comfortable with, you can’t fail to have a good time and raise money for Oxfam’s brilliant programmes for girls and women.”

Approach local businesses - Most importantly, you have to keep costs down. Don‟t spend a fortune on resources in preparation of your event - try talking to local businesses to see what freebies they can give you in exchange for promotion. For example, try asking for cake-making ingredients from local farms? Even if you can‟t get items free, businesses might be willing to offer you things at cost price.

out of your get together

Even with a small-scale event, you can still make that little bit extra…. Got leftover food after your event? Let your guests take it home with them for a donation! Make sure you ask your guests to sign the Gift Aid form - then Oxfam will get 25p extra for each pound donated! Set up a TextGiving account so your guests can donate money quickly and easily whenever they feel like it. You‟ll need to set up a JustGiving account too - just go on www.justgiving.com & sign up to raise money for Oxfam. You‟ll find The Oxfam Get Together as an option under Organised Events!

Collect Donations

How to

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1. Let your guests know the difference their money makes

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- A good way of collecting money is to suggest amounts to donate for aspects of your event. Try having one on the door if you‟re hosting a gig in your house, or next to the delicious food you’re serving. It‟ll also help to relate the amount you‟re suggesting to the impact this could have - check out the tangibles on our coasters!

2. Keep the cause prominent - Reminding your guests of the impact their money can make will encourage a lot of people to donate. Spread the resources from your toolkit about the projects we support throughout your venue, and always place a donation box or bucket nearby. Try making a speech about a case study you find particularly inspiring and ask for donations off the back of this—you‟ll be amazed at how generous people can be!

3. Set up a JustGiving account - perfect for getting donations in the lead up to your event, especially if you‟re using social media. You can also boost fundraising on the day by setting up a Text Giving option. Why not email the link to friends that can’t attend your event so they can donate anyway? It‟s also helpful if your friends want to donate using their credit/debit card and don‟t forget to Gift Aid any donations made! Simply make an event on www.justgiving.com, say you’re raising money for oxfam & you’ll find the oxfam get together under organised events!

the money you raise will transform women’s lives around the globe. You can make a difference to women like these from the Nawoyatir village in northern Kenya, who are singing and dancing to celebrate the arrival of fresh clean water, which will have a huge impact on their lives.

Don’t be afraid to ask, sometimes it just slips people’s minds when they’re having fun.

What’s it All For?

The majority of people living in poverty around the world are women. This needs to change.

Every day, 800 women die from pregnancy-related causes. Over 90% of these deaths are in developing countries—and most are avoidable.

For every £1 you give, 84p goes directly to emergency, development & campaigning work.

In Northern Africa, more than three-quarters of the children not in school are girls Thanks to your support... Violence against women is responsible for more deaths and disability of women aged 15-44 globally than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.

It doesn’t matter how much your Get Together raises, A little bit goes a long way... Every week more than 75 women die during pregnancy or childbirth in Ghana. But just £31 is enough to train a traditional birth attendant in Ghana in potentially life-saving skills. £17 could pay for sessions in Burkina Faso to encourage girls to go to school and get the education that will change their future. £29 can provide training for a woman farmer in Rwanda, helping her develop her business, provide for her family and boost her community. £500 could recruit around 6,000 Change Makers in Pakistan to help change attitudes, stop violence and transform women‟s lives.

Women like Chum Kor in Cambodia now have invaluable information on market prices and weather warnings and can call a doctor when their children are sick all because of mobile phones provided by Oxfam. Chum Kor is now able to earn better money from her vegetable garden, send her daughter to school and help other women in her community do the same.

By hosting a get together to celebrate international women’s day you really can transform the lives of women living in poverty worldwide