New online charity calendar to help fundraising efforts
The designers of a unique free online calendar dedicated to charity events is urging all charities, both national and local, to upload details of their events in advance of the website’s launch on 12 May 2010.
www.calendarcheck.co.uk is a new website designed to help organisers plan their events more effectively and boost fundraising potential by avoiding clashes with other high profile occasions.Organisers can search for competing charitable events and, having selected the perfect date, can simply upload details of their own event for free. Calendar Check also offers a means of directly communicating with supporters and creating greater awareness for their fundraising efforts.
Billed as the ‘who, what, where and when' of charity events, more than 20 of the UK's major charities have already endorsed Calendar Check prior to its launch, including Cancer Research UK, the British Red Cross, NSPCC, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
Nick Wayne from Calendar Check said, 
"The whole idea came from the number of times the Calendar Check team has attended charitable committee meetings which have ground to a halt because no-one could decide on a date. And even once a date has been agreed, there was no effective way of finding out whether it would be in competition with another event which would dilute the potential uptake of tickets and attendance.
"Naturally the more events there are on the site the more effective and useful the website becomes. That is why we want as many charities as possible to upload their details now before we go fully operational when we launch in May."
Events can be searched by date range, charity and type both nationally and by region. In addition to helping fix dates and avoid clashes, there are a number of other invaluable benefits the website will soon provide for charities, such as an online directory of services and product suppliers which will be regionalised to tie in with events in particular locations and postcode areas.
Calendar Check has already been welcomed by a large number of leading charities.
Lucy Burton, events manager at the RNIB said,
"We are delighted that someone has finally come up with such a fantastic idea and a much needed resource to aid events planning. Calendar Check will really help charities promote their events, bring in vital funds to support their good work and make the whole process a lot easier."
Anna Jackson of Children's Hospice Association Scotland, commented,
"CHAS is looking forward to being a part of Calendar Check. Having one central location for fundraising events will be a very valuable tool for us and for charities throughout the UK."
Cancer Research UK's Nic Clarke added,
"Cancer Research UK Relay For Life is really looking forward to working with Calendar Check on this exciting new resource that will help our supporters maximise their fundraising efforts."
There will also be an opportunity for charities to offer their supporters their own e-newsletters, which smaller charities may not have previously been able to provide because of their size or manpower resources.
Stephen Lewis, a partner at Calendar Check, who designed the website, continued, "We hope organisers and fundraisers will continue to upload their events throughout the year, from sponsored walks to car boot sales through to annual fundraising dinners and glitzy balls. Calendar Check is looking forward to helping maximise opportunities to make every charitable event a roaring success."
Further media information contact: Peter Downey or Rachel Barson, Source Marketing Communications, 24 Park Square West, Leeds, LS1 2PW. Tel 0113 380 1644 email peter@sourcemc.co.uk or rachel@sourcemc.co.uk