By Aunico:
I started raising money for Macmillan in 2010, shortly after I was diagnosed with breast cancer myself. Part of my way of dealing with this horrendous thing to have to go through at the age of 30 was to give something back and try to fundraise to help others going through this. I heard about the coffee mornings fairly early on due to the big publicity put out by Macmillan leading up to it, and thought it sounded a nice easy fundraising event to start with.
In the end, that first year, I held two – one at a church in Selly Oak, Birmingham, and one at my workplace, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Northfield. The work one came first. The hospital had done something similar before, and had some flasks and coffee/tea supplies in already so I went to buy some extra supplies and made sure there were plenty of cakes being made by some willing co-workers. I also got some Macmillan booklets – these didn’t all get taken, but anything left over I left around the hospital for patients to look at. I used some of the games and info sent through in my coffee morning pack, and sent emails in advance and on the morning to remind people. There were little invitations in the pack and I used these as well.
The main bulk of the organising was done over a couple of weeks, and we raised about £250 which I was thrilled with! I also managed to get some press publicity – I had emailed a newspaper who then got in touch wanting to hear my own personal cancer story. The photographer turned up at the coffee morning and took a lovely picture of me, and of my wedding photo (I had got married shortly before the cancer journey kicked off the previous year).
The one in Selly Oak didn’t go so well – pretty much no one turned up apart from the immediate family, a friend of mine, and the vicar! I’d tried to advertise it a bit beforehand with the congregation, and we put a big banner out on the road, but in the end thanks mainly to the kind-hearted family members, we raised £50. Lessons were learned this year, about advertising, maybe linking in with the church more – apparently they do a regular Sunday morning coffee morning, so it might have been best to merge with that for a week.
In 2011 I just did the one at work as that had been so successful the previous year. It went smoothly and I raised about the same number of money. It felt much more a relaxed affair – the previous year had been my first and I remember being really concerned with it going well and whether anyone would turn up! I didn’t worry quite so much about the invitation bit well in advance, as at work people tend to be happy to wander up and buy cakes anyway, so preparation beforehand was much more relaxed. Putting posters up is an easy way of promoting, especially in the patient areas if possible so the public can see what is happening too.
So, now onto my third coffee morning. I am having fun with this one, trying to sort out a suitable venue and date and with two weeks to go I’ll be checking we have enough people to make cakes and help on the day. This is the first year I’ve put the event on the map on the Macmillan website, and it has already led to a couple of interested phone calls: one from an ex-patient who makes cakes for various charity event, and then also from a tutor at a local college who is offering her students to help on the day!
I know there are other ways and means of holding a coffee morning, but I have always stuck to the ‘traditional’ coffee and cakes, and this has so far worked pretty well. I would recommend holding one as it’s easy to set up and prepare for, and proves very popular with work colleagues!
