My first big fundraiser was a charity car boot at Chocolates for
Chocoholics’ HQ in Hurst. I have only ever been to car boots as a buyer so this
was something very new for me.
We set the date (1st Sunday in July)…..then the fun started!
I sent out a press release to the local media and they kindly
promoted the auction and the trek. The key thing with press releases is to find
out exactly who covers your area and their contact names. I have done several
fundraising events over the years and I now have a good relationship with most
of them which always helps when you want some cheeky promoting!
I then designed a poster with all of the details and literally
sent it to friends, family, social media sites, local newspapers, radios,
companies, pubs....you name it, and it went there!
I then contacted the Alzheimer’s Society and they sent me lots of
promotional materials, including collection boxes, balloons and leaflets. This
definitely helped on the day as it draws attention to exactly who you are
supporting and they can see it’s a trusted charity.
The morning of the sale came and the sky was clear with a few
clouds.....it looked like a good start. We had told the sellers setting up from
8am but our first one arrived at 7.15am! Luckily my sister was on hand to help
organize them and help with the setting up of tea’s and coffees! We had Simon
(our best man) on the gate organizing the sellers/buyers, Matt (my husband) and
Dave (friend from work) and on the BBQ, my parents running the Chocolate sale
and looking after their own car boot plot and friends bringing in homemade
cakes to sell ( Thanks Sorsha and Nick!).
The busiest part of the day was probably between 10-11 and it was
fantastic to see so many people coming along to buy, and also to see so many empty
car boot tables at the end of it!
3pm came around very quickly and Simon collected all of the money
together and started counting. We all made our guesses at how much we had
raised, our target was £350 and we absolutely smashed that...........we raised
£635!!!
I was thrilled and still am, this means I have now raised (with
help from my awesome team) £1365 which means I am 34% of the way towards my
£4000 target.
The car boot was hard work, but it was so worth it. It takes a lot
of planning and you need to work out costings to make sure you don't spend
unnecessarily. If you want to organize one yourself, here are my Top 5 bits of
advice:
1 - Tell EVERYONE about it! Friends, family, social media, local advertising
on signs, pubs, restaurants, companies, newspapers, radios - go through your
phone/address book and get ringing!
2 - Produce a colorful poster with all the details. Put it in the
car, at the school, local shops, outside your house, send it to the newspapers
and to local websites who may have an events section
3 - Get a team of helpers - Ask friends and family if they could
spare a few hours, it’s amazing how many things need attention on the day.
4 - Date of the sale: Find out if any other car boots will be
happening on the same day as you. You don’t want to be competing, especially if
the other ones are better established. Most happen on the 2nd Sunday of the
month so maybe choose a different date.
5 - Serve food/refreshments if you are allowed. We made about £200
on the food so it was definitely worth doing. Ask your local butchers, bakers,
shops, patisseries if they might donate some of their produce to save you
spending out of the pot.
Good luck!
*A little shout out to my parents who kindly let me use their land for the car boot, couldn’t have done it without you both so thank you J *
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