Summer is a popular season for charitable fundraising activities. It’s the time for picnics, beach outings, outdoor barbecues, and other such community-building activities.
Although there are currently so many restrictions on public gatherings, there are ways to maintain a safe distance when organizing events. We have here some suggestions, but make sure to check with your localities if they allow these kinds of gatherings. Compliance with your health board and local government for everyone’s safety is still primary over any kind of charitable activity.
Hold a serenaded sunset dinner at a secluded beach
This is not to say that beaches are safe from viral infections, but you will have a wider open area to set up. Be creative in setting up your tables — the diners safely distanced. The dinner is not for them to socialize but to listen to music while enjoying the sea breeze. Despite the inability to talk to others, it is still better to see people again in person than through their computer screens in video calls.
You can opt to follow what other places have done — people bring their packed food to gatherings. This way, they can take responsibility for the preparations for their food. What they would be paying then is for the scenery and the ambiance.
Make it a dinner worth their money. If you wouldn’t be providing meals prepared by some renowned chef, make up for it through your setup. String lights, do elaborate flower arrangements, cover paths with carpets. You can even integrate your design into the social-distancing arrangement. Use flowers to divide the diners, for example. Have rows of lamps separate the tables.
The beach is a less than ideal place to contain music, but it has been done. Place the live band in the middle and arrange the diners around. That way, everyone can enjoy the music at the same level. There is also a technique of choirs where they surround the audience. If you get a big choir who is able to do this, it would be a great experience. They would hear the music as if it was coming from all directions.
Set up a drive-in movie
Do a blast from the past and bring back the drive-in movie experience. You can hold it in a properly striped parking lot if you can set up a huge screen. See if some malls or real estate developers would want to sponsor your event and allow you to use their space for one or two nights. Schedule your screenings after work hours so that you could have exclusive use of the area.
If you couldn’t do big screens in large areas, you can have small batches of screenings in small parking spaces. Maybe there’s a patron who has a driveway that could fit eight to ten cars.
Now is the time to bring back the old black and white movies. If you couldn’t afford a high-end sound system, do a silent film festival. Moviegoers would still be able to follow the story even if your sound system isn’t optimal.
Hold auctions online
This has been practiced for a long time so you wouldn’t have difficulties in finding a platform for your auction. It is not as thrilling as doing it in person, but bidders might be willing to go to higher prices because they don’t need to set limits on the spot. There are also auctions where the bidder places their maximum bid, wait for a week, and see the results. This way, those who are very interested in some items will commit a high price even if there will be no other bidders.
Have pay-per-view televised fashion shows
Fashion shows are great to see in person, of course. But unless you are willing to hold one for a small audience that can be socially distanced, a televised one is more practical. The show doesn’t even have to be done on one stage. Like many fashion magazines that outsourced personal photos from several models shooting on their own at home, you can also have the models walk and shoot in their homes. Provide them with specifications — the lighting, acceptable background, minutes, resolution. This way, the quality of your frames will more or less be the same. You can have a stylist work with them, or they can choose their own stylists.
Because of the restrictions on gatherings, people have become more creative in exploring different options previously taken for granted. Limits do not hinder people from accomplishing things. Limits, on the other hand, only made people more creative and innovative.
