1 Seek out volunteers. 

Work in your religious, workplace, or other community group to locate volunteers for your cause. Have people that you bring on spread the word to friends or family they think might be interested in helping out. If you need certain skills, like an accountant or advertiser, consider asking around for people known to have these skills.

Look for self-starters. According to Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, you should try to find volunteers who are excited about doing the work themselves. "We found the most success when we find engaged volunteers who are willing to take it upon themselves to run with their ideas. We have an event every other year that a group hosts for us, and there's a lot that goes into it. But that fact that it's an outside group that puts this on means that Direct Relief is able to benefit without having to invest resources that could be used elsewhere."

2 Delegate authority.

For large or more complicated fundraisers, it may be nearly impossible for you to make every decision yourself. For this reason, you should split up your responsibilities among a core group of trusted team members. For example, think about asking someone good with money to be in charge of the fundraiser's finances. Another person could be in charge of promotional efforts. For many segments of the fundraiser, you may need someone in charge so that you can coordinate the fundraiser as a whole without focusing on the smallest details.

3 Split up tasks.

Divide up tasks to different volunteers or groups of volunteers. This will not only increase your fundraiser's chance of success but also take some of the pressure off of you as you delegate complicated tasks to skilled volunteers. Just make sure that you have a structure in place for these different groups to coordinate with each other. To accomplish this, you might want to set up regular meetings of the entire fundraiser team.

• Form a committee to make sure all the planning and gathering of materials is accomplished.
  For example, for your charitable 5k, you might want to have one group in charge of post-race refreshments and another for setting up the course. These two groups would have to communicate to make sure there is enough room at the finish line for the refreshments.

4 Think about other professionals you will need to have on site.

For some types of fundraising events, you will need other professionals present to make sure that your events runs smoothly. For example, a concert would need sound and lighting technicians. Alternately, a 5k race would need medical professionals present in case any of the runners are injured. Think about your need for these individuals and incorporate the cost of bringing them on into your budget.