6 Steps to Make Your World Refugee Day Dinner a Hit

World Refugee Day on June 20th is coming up and in anticipation we’ve created a 6-step guide to hosting a dinner for “Night of a Thousand Dinners” to fundraise and raise awareness for the Adopt-A-Future campaign.

1. Choose a venue

Be it an upscale restaurant or a backyard barbeque, the venue will help set the tone for the rest of the night. It is important to consider your budget and guest list when picking your location.

2. Send out invites

A guest list consisting of a variety of people with different interests always makes for a good party! Websites like Paperless Post and Canva make it easy and inexpensive to customize your invitation. You can also reach out to local refugees or resettlement agencies and ask them to share their story at your event.

3. Tickets or donations?

There are a number of ways to raise money over the course of your dinner. Selling tickets can help cover the cost of the dinner itself and a donation to Adopt-A-Future. Or, the host can provide the meal and ask attendees to make a donation over the course of the evening. All donations will be matched by the Educate a Child Fund, so every bit helps!

4. Start the social media campaign (be sure to tag @una.usa)

Your event will have much better attendance if people are constantly reminded of it on social media. Create a Facebook event and get people to post that they are attending. Share personal stories about experiences with refugees. Post pictures and videos. Even if people can’t attend they might make a donation because they are more aware of the event.

5. Set the mood

Food and music make the party. Make a playlist on Spotify. Use Pinterest to find yummy appetizer recipes. Consider serving popular Kenyan dishes to allude to the purpose of the event. Get creative, this is the fun part!

6. Say thank you

You can still raise money after the event! The day after the party send your guests a thank you email including links to donate, join the UNA-USA, or sign the petition urging President Trump to maintain funding for the United Nations. Don’t underestimate the impact of your event even after the fact!

For more information and suggestions, go to our Night of a Thousand Dinners toolkit.