Fundraising events play a crucial role in the success and sustainability of charitable and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. These events not only generate much-needed funds but also serve as opportunities to raise awareness, build connections, and create a sense of community support.
However, organising successful fundraising events can be a daunting task, requiring meticulous planning, coordination, and efficient execution. Thankfully, OnePlan’s event planning software is a game-changer for charities, providing powerful tools that streamline the entire planning process and leaving nothing to chance.
Here are four ways that OnePlan’s event planning software can empower charities and NFPs to organise successful fundraising events.
Easy-to-use, accurate planning tools
Planning a charity event requires a considerable amount of coordination and attention to detail to ensure your venue is organised correctly.
Thankfully, OnePlan eliminates the need for any guess work with its intelligent tools and instant calculators. Our automated calculators help planners transform complex tasks into manageable steps, paving the way for a smoothly run, memorable event. Here are two of them you can use:
Crowd Capacity calculator
OnePlan’s crowd management features include capacity calculators where you can map out a precise area and it will calculate the capacity of people recommended for that space. You’re even able to change density, from 1 person per square metre to 5. This puts you in control of crowd flow, to ensure safe crowd management and an enjoyable experience for your attendees.
Parking Allocation tool
This tool enables you to efficiently count and allocate parking spaces to specific client groups, taking into account the crucial aspect of accessible parking requirements. By using this feature, you can ensure that your event caters to the diverse needs of your attendees while complying with accessibility regulations.
With OnePlan you can scope and position any physical asset you may need at your event with pinpoint accuracy. From barriers and fencing to tents, cabins and containers, sanitation and power units to individual light columns, all infrastructure can be placed and moved in real-time anywhere on your event site plan.
OnePlan’s centimetre accurate planning significantly helped The Meadows Festival, which is a community event, entirely volunteer-run, that takes place on The Meadows in Edinburgh. They said “OnePlan made this process really easy, we could plot everything on the map and verify that we could fit all of the items where we wanted them, without need for time-consuming and fiddly paper drawings.”
Flexible and adaptable event plans
Throughout the planning process, unexpected challenges might arise, such as last-minute changes, logistical issues, or unforeseen weather conditions. Typically, charity events have limited time to set up and take down; and therefore need to be flexible to the timings too. Often they’re in spaces used by the local community, so need to have an accurate plan to ensure the set-up and take-down is on time, based on agreements with the local council or government organisations.
As with every other OnePlan item, you can collaborate effectively with all other team members and stakeholders in real-time. This enables you to add, coordinate, analyse and review your site infrastructure at any time, anywhere meaning you can respond to last-minute changes quickly and easily.
This was a huge benefit to The Meadows Festival who said “I could immediately update or adjust plans based on suggestions or modifications required. And when we got on site everything fitted perfectly and the reflection and refinement proved worth it!”
Meadows Festival Event Plan in OnePlan
Dot planning your volunteers and staff
Charity Events often involve volunteers to help with various aspects of the event, such as registration, ushering, and event setup. It’s crucial to provide training and clear instructions to ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities.
With OnePlan’s sharing functionalities and easy dot planning, you can ensure that every member of your team knows their role, responsibilities and location for a successful event. Using GIS data and geo-spatial technology, with OnePlan you can immediately identify the accurate location of any team member on-site or within your venue.
With OnePlan every team member is accounted for and is given a unique record in your Bill of Quantities menu, allowing you to add key operational details and specific notes for the position of each person. This can be exported as a spreadsheet to create sign-in sheets, health and safety documents and presentations.
Sharing your event plan with important stakeholders
Council approval for a charity event is crucial to ensure legal compliance, public safety, community well-being, and successful event execution. By working with the council and meeting their requirements, you can increase the chances of hosting a successful and impactful charity event.
With OnePlan you can share your event plan in view-only in a click of a button, streamlining the process for approval on road closures, providing information for the authorities, and securing council approval on aspects such as appropriate vehicle accesses and adhering to rules.
If you want to transform the way you plan your charity’s events, then sign up to OnePlan for free and start planning today!
Unlock more benefits and features with our professional package and receive a 15% discount especially for charity / NFPs, just book in a call with one of the team today to get set up!
