Hold your own

Anywhere! From your village hall, to your local church, temple, gurdwara, mosque or school (you could combine it with an already-organised carol concert or event), to a larger concert venue or even your own living room. The world is your oyster.

Singing for Syrians began with the idea of holding events in the month of December, around Christmas time, as we organise our main annual event, the Carol Concert & Drinks Reception in December, so you can take advantage of our national marketing and publicity during this period.

However, if you are unable to organise something in December, you are most welcome to organise something any time of the year that suits you best. We will still provide all the help and support you may need. So, it’s up to you.

Choose your favourite time of year, and theme it appropriately! Talk to us if you need any help deciding.

The personal element is important. Tell your guests why you were inspired to hold a Singing for Syrians event and encourage them to do the same. Ask someone who knows a bit (or a lot) about Syria, has been there, or has reported on it, to speak. Think journalists, writers, artists and students. We also have a flyer which tells you more about the Singing for Syrians campaign and has an overview of the projects we fund. We have also put together a testimony by one of the doctors we fund, which you can either read out or hand around. If you would like posters detailing the work that Hands Up does, just let us know. Finally...our library of readings includes pieces from Syria that you could incorporate into your event.

Invite friends to get involved and ask them to encourage their own friends, family, colleagues and local communities to attend by spreading the word. You can also download the info flyer and poster and distribute it in your local area – outside school gates (you may need permission from the school – but if you are a parent, you will find most schools will not mind), community centres, churches, other places of worship & supermarkets – again it’s a really good idea to get friends involved to help with this kind of thing – the more the merrier. You may want to ask your local school to give a shout out in one of their regular newsletters to parents!

Ring up the local press and send them a copy of the downloadable local press release template which you can personalise with your event’s details. Don’t forget radio as well as newspapers. Harness the power of social media including WhatsApp & Facebook groups by sharing your event as widely as possible. Get your friends to share too, and be liberal with your use of the hashtags #SingingforSyrians and #SyriaStillMatters.

On the resources page we have all the basic things you’d want, such as flyers and suggested readings. Finally, we have this video that you can show at the beginning of your event, showing the kind of work we do, and an interview with Rayan, a girl from Eastern Ghouta, who has benefitted from our work. In addition to this you may also:

• You may request a speaker to come along either through us or from your own contacts.
• Hold a raffle offering prizes donated by friends, family or local businesses
• Hold an auction at the event – get local businesses to donate items or services to auction in return for a chance to speak to the audience?

On the resources page we have all the basic things you’d want, such as flyers and suggested readings. Finally, we have a video that you can show at the beginning of your event, showing exactly what the charity does, and an interview with Rayan, a 10-year-old from Eastern Ghouta, who has benefitted from our work. Speak to us about your event as early as you can so we can discuss other ways we may be able to help.

We’re always just an email or phone call away, so if you need other help don’t hesitate to get in touch. Email us at [email protected] or phone: 07871886316.

This is entirely up to you. You may ask for an entry fee as part of your fundraising, or you may want to simply keep it free and do the fundraising while you have a captive audience during your event. Once you have completed you event, you can either transfer the donations to us by BACS with ‘SFS’ as the reference or send us a cheque made out to the Hands Up Foundation with ‘SFS’ written on the back. Please do send us an email with your details and amount you have donated, requesting a receipt if you need one.

Once you have completed you event, you can either transfer the donations to us by BACS with ‘SFS’ as the reference or send us a cheque made out to the Hands Up Foundation with ‘SFS’ written on the back. Please do send us an email with your details and amount you have donated, requesting a receipt if you need one.

The address to send the cheque to is: The Hands Up Foundation, Unit 205 Clerkenwell Workshops, 27/31 Clerkenwell Close, London WC1R 0AT.

Beyond the obvious, inviting family and friends, social media is a great means of promotion which includes any WhatsApp or Facebook groups you may be part of. If you let us know you’d like help promoting the event, we’ll put it out on all our channels and make sure the punters come rolling in!

All funds from the Singing for Syrians campaign will go to the Hands Up Foundation. The Hands Up Foundation funds vital health and education programmes in vulnerable Syrian communities. Currently, these are a Primary Health Clinic in Tal-Abyad serving a local community of 50,000 people, a school for Syrian refugee children in the Bekaa Valley and a prosthetics programme on the Syrian-Turkish border. You can read more about our projects here.

The fundraising regulator offers great advice on how to return to fundraising activities in a responsible and successful way – please click here for further info.

If you want to ask something else, or just want something clarified, then get in touch! We’re more than happy to answer any and all queries, by email: [email protected] or phone: 07871886316.