Decide to do an event

Decide what sort of party you want to have. It could be anything at all, as long as it’s fun and legal! Here are a few ideas:

• Garden party
• Dinner party
• Barbecue
• Quiz night
• Treasure hunt
• Murder mystery night
• Dine out

It doesn’t have to involve a lot of work. You could just invite your neighbours round for a cream tea or a coffee morning. Or what about having a meal and sharing the work around? You could have different courses at different friends’ houses or ask people to bring a course.

Before you start

Think about how and how much you want people to donate. If you decide to collect money on the day you’ll probably want to mention this to your guests when you invite them.

You could ask for donations online. For example, by registering with www.dinner4good.com or setting up your own fundraising page on www.justgiving.com/toolsforselfreliance your guests can donate quickly and securely online with a credit or debit card (websites do charge a small commission for this service). All donations given this way will be automatically forwarded to us which means you don’t have to handle any money. It also has the advantage that your family, friends and colleagues can give anonymously if they want to.

Don’t forget to send out your invitations! www.dinner4good.com/TFSR will send out your invites automatically if you want it to. You may of course want to design your own, send your guests a text or just give them a call!

Send us a brief email to joinourcelebration@tfsr.org to let us know your plans and we’ll add your party to the Join our Celebration party calendar.

During …

On the day, enjoy yourself! Have a fabulous time with your friends and don’t forget to ask them for a donation if they haven’t already given one. You could suggest a minimum amount of £10 or if you’re doing a meal, you could ask them to pay what they thought the meal was worth!

... and after

Please make cheques payable to Tools for Self Reliance and send them to the address below and we will add your details to our records. We don’t advise sending cash in the post. Each time a donation is sent in it will be recorded so we can tell you exactly how much has been raised.

Tools for Self Reliance, Ringwood Road, Netley Marsh, Southampton SO40 7GY

Let us know if you or your guests would like us to claim Gift Aid on your donations. Gift Aid enables us to claim an extra 28 pence from the tax office for every £1 you donate, at no extra cost to you, or them! If you’re fundraising online at Dinner4good or Justgiving you can also request that Gift Aid is claimed.

We will acknowledge all money that we receive

Once you’ve completed your fundraising activities and we’ve received your donation we’ll send you a letter of thanks.

And finally, the really important bit!

If you’ve had a good time help us get more people to do the same. If you think your event is newsworthy, why not contact your local newspaper, community magazine or website. It might inspire others to hold their own party.

Don’t forget to tell us how your event went and attach any photos you have so we can add them to our photo gallery and inspire more people to hold an event of their own.