Most gala events—ballet, opera, symphony, art fair, dance recital, gallery show—are a lot of work. Most charity galas are a lot of work too. But if you’re planning a charity event or a carnival with a costume theme, there are lots of ways to make it easier. The easiest is to get the costumes for free:
The International Fancy Dress Association (IDFA) maintains an extensive list of costume suppliers that are willing to donate their wares for charity events. One of the biggest costume suppliers in New York City is David’s Costumes , which has donated more than 100,000 pieces of costume to charitable organizations over the past 30 years. David’s typically donates costumes one week before an event and can often provide them by Friday morning.
And since many charities’ main purpose is raising funds, your charity’s members might be happy to pitch in and help you outfit your volunteers and performers.
When planning a charity event, it is important to consider the time you have to devote to the preparation, as well as the cost. However, if you have the time and resources, you should think about making your charity carnival or costume party an event that people would like to attend.
To make an event that is unique and exciting for everyone who attends, getting the right people involved is vital. Follow these steps to ensure that your charity party is a success:
Spend some time thinking about what kind of theme you would like for your charity event. Do you want something classic like a carnival or do you want something fun and unusual? Plan your costumes. Don’t forget accessories such as wigs or masks. Choose a location that will be suitable for your attendees to be dressed up in their costumes so they can come along and enjoy the atmosphere. Start organizing your charity event with a plan of action, including how much money you will raise and when it will take place. If you are planning a carnival, consider starting early on in advance of your event so that everything can be ready for everyone to arrive when the party begins. Offer food and drink for sale at your charity party so that those attending can grab something to eat or drink before joining in the fun
Here are 10 tips that will help you, the non-professional charity event planner, plan an annual charity event or a Carnival. When planning a charity event, whether it is a carnival or not, there are three main components:
The first and most important is the Donor. The Donor is your most crucial part of any charity event. Without donors the charity event fails. The second part of the charity is the Volunteers. Without volunteers there would be no charity event, and even with volunteers there would be no success unless you have donors to pay for them. The third part of any charity event is the Sponsors. If you do not have sponsors, your charity event will not be successful.
What is the most important thing in a charity event?
It is not to raise money, though that helps. It is not to create fun, though fun is nice. It is not to spread goodwill, though goodwill is great too.
What matters, increasingly, is branding. If you want people to know what your charity is about, you have to make them think it’s cool and special. You have to distinguish yourself from all the other charities by something that makes them look like tawdry second-rate versions of themselves.
One way to do this effectively is through costume. We all know how much fun it can be, even for people who don’t normally dress up on a Saturday night, to take part in a carnival or some other kind of community celebration where everyone dresses up in costumes and plays games and gets silly. The costumes are important because they give everyone a chance to get involved in telling the story of the event as well as getting more involved in the action itself.
Costumes also serve another purpose: they make people feel good, which keeps them coming back for more and makes them feel good about giving too! That’s why we need to plan ahead for how people will change into their costumes for the event (and we don’t mean
A typical carnival has a lot of thematic elements. One is the costumes, another is the rides. Another is the games and events. The idea is to make it all seamless: to make a coherent whole out of this collection of separate activities, each of which is individually fun but which are brought together for a collective purpose.
In traditional carnivals, people dress up as dragons or monsters or pirates or whatever. The point is that their costumes are supposed to look like they’ve been there all along, so that if you are walking through the park and you see one, you have no idea what it’s supposed to be. If you walk by someone dressed as a dragon and they say “Hey,” you react to them as if they were real; perhaps you run away in terror (this is not recommended).
If your event has a theme, your costumes need to fit that theme. That’s what makes them look real. It’s not just about looking good; it’s about making an impression on the audience that feels authentic even when it isn’t really authentic at all.
Do you want to arrange a charity event? Here are some things you should know.
1. It is difficult, and if you make the wrong decision it could ruin everything.
2. The organization of an event takes more than just a few hours of planning. It takes weeks and months of preparation, with several people working on it every day for months before the event, and then months afterwards as well.
3. There are lots of other people who want to do the same thing (they may have already organized their events). You need to decide which group is best, and avoid other similar organizations so you can get their money (if they reach out first).
4. If the event goes wrong, it is not just your reputation that will be ruined. The reputation of all those people who have worked hard on your behalf will be damaged also.
5. Don’t underestimate how hard it can be to get good help at short notice: if you have been organizing events for years and suddenly need someone new to take over, it can be hard to find them in time.
6. Be prepared for things to go wrong: there will always be unexpected problems; even if all the details are worked out beforehand, the actual execution of the plan could go wrong
The secret of a good dragon costume is to make it look good, but also to make it practical. It should be comfortable, easy to move in, and easy to take on and off. It should not be so hot that you’ll melt when you get out of the hot car or have to run up a flight of stairs.
It should not be so tight that you can’t carry it around. You shouldn’t have to wear it all day, but if you wear it some evenings, then you’ll see what it’s like. If you’re going to wear it all day, then put on your regular clothes first, and put the costume on over them.
There will be times when people take pictures of your costume; these are usually informal shots. You don’t want your face making an appearance in these photos. A good approach is to have the photographer position his camera from a few feet away so that he can shoot through the dragon’s wings without showing your face.