HOST GUIDE
THANK YOU FOR SAYING “YES” to sharing a meal and nourishing a cause by hosting your H.U.G.S ‘Dinner with Friends’ Fundraiser Gathering! You will be provided the following materials via mail one week in advance of your ‘Dinner with Friends’ event:
REMEMBER THIS IS A FUNDRAISER FOR EVERYONE!
DONATION COLLECTION OPTIONS
Planning Tips
- Donor Envelopes for guests to place their donation
- Donation Collection Return Envelope to return to H.U.G.S. following your dinner gathering
- Suicide awareness and prevention informational handouts
- H.U.G.S. Awareness Ribbon Pins
REMEMBER THIS IS A FUNDRAISER FOR EVERYONE!
- Do not feel that people must have been personally impacted by suicide or experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide to host a dinner gathering or to be a guest. This is a fundraiser to help a great charitable organization that everyone in our community can support. While the topic of suicide is often difficult, getting friends together for dinner should not be! ‘Dinner with Friends’ is as much about raising awareness as it is about raising money!
- Decide whether you will require a minimum contribution for your dinner gathering. Experience has shown that people will be much more generous if the host does not ask for a specific amount. On your dinner gathering invitations ask people to be as generous as possible. It is a good idea to underline or add a comment to the invitations to echo this request.
- Your guests may have a difficult time deciding an appropriate donation amount. That’s understandable! We suggest you tell people to think how much each person would typically spend for an event or a night out on the town; new dress attire, a delicious dinner, champagne/wine, entertainment and the enjoyment of friends…...not to mention a yummy dessert?”
DONATION COLLECTION OPTIONS
- Before your guests RSVP, print their name(s) and addresses on the provided donor envelopes
- When guests arrive hand them their personalized donor envelope and let them know where your donation collection area is in your home where they will drop their generous gift prior to leaving your dinner gathering
- Checks should be made payable to H.U.G.S.
- Guests may choose charge their donation using their VISA, MasterCard or American Express by completing the credit card information on the donor envelope
- Some guest may not bring their checkbook or have cash on hand. That’s OK! Let them know they can make their donation on the ‘Dinner with Friends’ website Donations Page on their mobile device
- We suggest that you have a computer, laptop, iPad or tablet with the H.U.G.S. ‘Dinner with Friends’ Event Site Donation Page open so guests can make their generous gift online at some time during the evening
Planning Tips
- It is ideal to have a friend or loved one to take care of managing the donation process so that you can take care of your dinner guests
- The person you assign to manage the donation process will need to ensure that the donor envelopes are complete and legible. We will want to follow up with a “thank you” to each of your dinner guest.
- Guest who are unable to attend your dinner gathering are encouraged to still support your efforts by donating online.
- At the end of the evening place all the collected donation envelopes into the stamped and self-addressed return envelope to send back to H.U.G.S. Please do not mail cash. Instead, keep the cash donations and either donate on line to H.U.G.S. or write a personal check for that collected cash amount.
- Personally invite or send out your dinner invitations a few weeks in advance
- Follow up with the invitations with a phone call!
- You may want to have theme dinner gathering to add to the fun and sense of uniqueness for the evening. DON’T LIMIT YOUR CREATIVITY!
- Have a GREAT TIME at your gathering! All of us at H.U.G.S. thank you for your efforts toward making this evening a huge success.
- Know how much all of us at H.U.G.S. appreciates YOU!