“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”  It’s a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill. It’s debatable who actually said it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. However, when you spend the bulk of your time working, when do you have time to fit in giving? The good news is you don’t have to choose. With Women In Distress Third Party Events program, you can do both at once.

Our Third Party Events program makes it easy for businesses, organizations, and community groups to give back to the community.  These events help Women In Distress to financially support programs and services such as our safe emergency shelter, 24-Hour Crisis Hotline, and counseling and therapeutic hours for survivors and their children, and more. It’s popular with busy organizations who want to give back because it doesn’t require time outside of the office, activities are easy to plan, and it’s a fun way to build team morale and do a FUNdraising event to helping others who are less fortunate.

There are lots of fun ways you can help. Here are a few FUNdraising ideas to get your creative juices going:

• Have a casual or jeans day where everyone in the office pays a couple of dollars to dress down on Fridays for a month or two. At the end of the month tally up the donations and make a donation to Women In Distress on behalf of your organization.

• Have a carnival themed office FUN day and sell tickets to play made up games. Make it a friendly competition and see which department can come up with the most creative games. Give low or no cost prizes (prizes you create or make up) to the winning teams. Take pictures of the festivities. Tally up the donations and make a donation to Women In Distress on behalf of your organization.

• Do you have people in your organization or office who always seem to know the latest trivia? Have a trivia contest and sell tickets for entry into the contest and then sell mulligans for do-overs. Be sure to share pictures with us of the festivities and then…tally up the donations and make a donation to Women In Distress on behalf of your business or organization.

• If you’re a retail establishment, you may designate a portion of your sales back to WID for a day, a week, or a month – or any period of time that you designate. You can put up signs to let your customers know how you are helping in the community. Or, you could put fundraising canisters in prominent locations for customers to give directly to Women In Distress.

• Or, come up with our own creative idea about how to raise funds while having FUN and building team morale in your business, community group, or organization.

Before you officially kick off your event, be sure to notify us of what you plan to do. You can download our Third Party Events Toolkit, which includes fundraiser guidelines, host and event details, how we can support your event, an event agreement, and a short budget section.

IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION, OR WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEA, REACH OUT TO JACQUELINE HOUSE, DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AT JHOUSE@WOMENINDISTRESS OR CALL 954-760-9800 EXT. 1237.

One of the easiest (and fun!) ways you can get involved with Women In Distress is to host your own fundraising event at work, at home, or at play. Our Third Party Events program makes it easy for businesses, organizations, individuals and community groups to give back to Women In Distress through FUNraising events like casual jeans days, networking events, birthday celebrations, and more. Events where everyone gives just a little bit, adds up to significant donations to help us provide critical, life-saving programs and services such as safe emergency shelter, a 24-Hour Crisis Hotline, counseling and therapy, and so much more, for domestic violence abuse survivors and their children.

By organizing a third party event, you get more than you give. For instance, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, an affiliate of our longtime partner, Brown & Brown Insurance, recently raised $10,940 by holding a national Jeans Day employee fundraiser. Everyone gave just a little bit and these incredible employees helped us provide programs and services such as 83 nights of safe shelter for women, children and men fleeing domestic violence – just by wearing jeans to work!

In the months ahead, there are plenty of opportunities to get your colleagues, friends and families together for a good time while helping families in need. For local businesses, third party events are a great way to boost employee engagement. You can help your employees see first-hand the significant impact they can make in our community.

Giving back can help your company achieve its corporate philanthropy goals and support issues that impact our community. Simply put, it’s good business. Customers, employees and prospective employees want to feel connected to the company where they work or do business. Creating a culture of corporate philanthropy is a great way to engage your team and drive business. (Did we also mention the FUN?)

Ready to plan your event? Here are a few ways you can raise funds and awareness for Women In Distress:

• Collect Donations: Retailers can encourage their customers to help support Women In Distress by rounding up to the next dollar or adding a dollar or two to their purchase when they checkout at the cash register.
• Match Donations: Companies looking to maximize their impact in the community can launch a Match Campaign to double the impact of employee contributions. This is a great way to engage employees in local causes and gain positive publicity while supporting employees’ fundraising efforts.
• Workplace Giving Campaign: Women In Distress raises funds through several annual giving campaigns like the Back to School Campaign, Holiday Campaign, Mother’s Day Campaign and more. Join in our efforts by collecting funds for a campaign through a weekly or monthly deduction for a turnkey way to involve your employees in giving back.
• Host a Fundraiser: Host a Jeans Day, Facebook birthday fundraiser, chili cook-off, bake sale, trivia contest, happy hour, car wash, golf event, white elephant sale, or other type of fundraising event with your co-workers, friends, and family. The annual company holiday party is a perfect way to embody the spirit of the season while enjoying the company of your colleagues. The ideas and opportunities are endless!
• Designate Women In Distress as a beneficiary of your event: When your business or organization hosts an annual event that generates funds, consider donating the proceeds to Women In Distress.

There’s no better time than now to start planning your third party event. Click here to download a Third Party Events Toolkit or contact Development Manager Jacqueline House at jhouse@womenindistress.org or 954-760-9800 EXT. 1237.