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411 Hillsborough Street • Raleigh, NC 27603

Throwing a house party is an easy and fun way to financially support the LGBT Center of Raleigh. We’ve pulled together the following tips to help you plan your party, and of course representatives from the Center will be available to answer questions and assist with party planning and logistics.

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1. Contact the Center
   First, contact the Center to let us know about your interest in throwing a house party. You should plan for a date about four to six weeks out. This will ensure that a representative from the Center can attend the party and provide some background information to the attendees. Call the Center at 919.832.4484 or email us at .
2. Get Your Friends to Help
   Ask your friends to help with the party planning by dividing up tasks such as creating the invite, handling registration, providing food and drink, and handling post party “thank you” notes.
3. Keep the Food and Drink Simple
   Refreshments don’t have to be fancy. Keep it simple with chips and dip, cheese and crackers, and modestly priced beer and wine. Consider asking each member of your planning committee to bring something homemade and plan to spend no more than $5 per guest.
4. Promote Your Party
   When planning your initial guest list, assume that about one-third of the invited guests will attend. For example, to get 50 attendees, you will need to invite 150 people. Once you’ve got your guest list, choose your preferred electronic method for inviting and registering guests, such as EventBrite, Evite or Facebook. Send out your first invitation at least four weeks in advance and track your RSVPs. The last couple weeks before the party, you may need to make phone calls to increase commitments to attend. If you’d like your party to be open to the public, let us know so that we can help promote it.
5. Let Everyone Know It’s a Fundraiser
   Be sure to indicate in all of your event communications that this is a fundraising party to support the LGBT Center of Raleigh and that all donations are tax deductible. Like all fundraisers, house parties only work if someone actually asks for the donation. The Center will provide donation cards that clearly explain the different donation methods available. For those friends who cannot attend the event, remind them that they can still support the Center by donating online at www.lgbtcenterofraleigh.com/site/contribute.html.
6. What the Center Provides
   We will send a representative to the party to talk about the Center and why it’s important to support it. We will also provide brochures, sign-in forms, nametags, and donation cards for your party.
7. Collect Contact Information
   Be sure to collect contact info, including email addresses, phone numbers and donation amounts from everyone who attends the event and forward this to the Center so that we can report on your success.
8. Send “Thank you” Notes
   It’s important to send personal thank you notes to everyone who made donations within 72 hours of your event. You can expect to raise between $500 and $5000 for the Center and we’ll do everything we can to help ensure that your party is a success!