The Big Push Event Guide

Giving loneliness the Big Push

60YEARS

Big Push

What is The Big Push all about?

The Big Push is a sponsored 5KM buggy push event designed to raise money to help combat loneliness among new parents. They’re also a great opportunity to get out and about with other parents. Take part in one of our existing events or register your interest in creating your very own event!

Through #TheBigPush and other NCT challenge events in 2016, we’re fundraising for an exciting new project to support our volunteers and practitioners to become real agents for change by promoting positive mental health, breaking down the stigma around mental health, and supporting new parents to get the help they need. The project builds on our #beyondbabyblues campaign, which is raising awareness of perinatal mental health issues at a national level and calling for better support services across the UK.

Why take part in The Big Push?

• Mental health issues affect at least 1 in 10 women during pregnancy or early parenthood.

• Women can also experience depression during pregnancy, as well as other maternal health issues such as anxiety or posttraumatic stress disorder

• Fathers can also experience anxiety, stress or depression around their baby’s arrival

Unfortunately, many parents suffer in silence and don’t get the support they need, often reaching crisis point. When a new mum or dad suffers from any form of mental health problems, it can be a really difficult time for the whole family.

How does The Big Push help?

Funds raised will be used to develop perinatal mental health awareness workshops and a range of practical resources to be rolled out across the UK through our network of local branches. Our volunteers and practitioners will be trained so they have the knowledge and confidence to recognise the signs and symptoms of different mental health issues, and be able to signpost parents to specialist services. The workshops will support these aims and bring together NCT volunteers and practitioners working in the local area to make a real difference to parents who might be struggling with their mental health.

The first stage of the work is planned for 2016, and will involve developing practical resources for branches, an online training module for volunteers, and designing the face-to-face workshops.

The second stage, aimed for 2017, will involve rolling these workshops out across our branch network, which supports thousands of parents every week. The more funding you can help us raise, the quicker we can progress to stage two - and get these workshops running far and wide!

We want to make sure no new parent suffers in silence with mental health difficulties. Your support and fundraising will help us make that a reality.

We want organising your event to be stress free. You can find plenty of resources on babble to help make your Big Push a walk in the park.

We will be in regular contact with you but if you have any questions do get in touch by emailing fundraising@nct.org.uk or calling 020 8752 2388.

Good luck with your planning!

As someone who has suffered from Post-Natal Depression (PND); and recovered from it thanks to the friends I made through NCT; the issues supported by the Big Push are very important to me. I really wanted to give something back to NCT and help other parents suffering from PND.

Izzy, York

Step 1: Get a team together

Having a small project team of volunteers to help organise your Big Push event.

Produce a volunteer brief to keep your volunteers engaged and on message, include:

• Purpose of the event and how NCT will benefit

• Potential date, time and locations

• Costs covered if any (you may not know all at this stage)

• Contact details of organiser for emergencies

• Food and drink provision

• Any entertainment for the day?

• Role descriptions

Step 2: Choose a date

You can plan your event for any day in the year, although we recommend April to November. Think about half term and bank holidays and avoid competing with any local established events. Likewise, the time of year may mean you’ve got a better chance of good weather!

You can use the Claim a day tool www.claimaday.com/search/ to check on events happening at the same time as yours, and you can register your event too.

The key here is to try and maximise the amount of people you will get at your event.

Step 3: Choose a venue, route, check risks, and get permission

When thinking about a venue you want to pick somewhere that isn’t too far away from your branch. You’ll also want to think about what makes a good venue for your event (you may want to visit a few potential venues first). Once you’ve got a venue in mind, check who owns the land and see if you need permission to use the route from the owner;

10 Steps to Big Push

this is usually the local council. Ensure your venue is available and there are no planned road closures on the day. Make sure your route is suitable for wheelchair access too (use the risk assessment).

Once you’ve confirmed that the venue is available you can begin with securing it. Each venue will have different requirements for you to book it. It’s important to fill in their forms, apply for the relevant permits or licenses and adhere to their processes. If you need any help please email fundraising@nct.org.uk.

If you are planning a large event you should get in touch with the local police and it is a good idea to contact local businesses and residents who may be affected. The venue will be able to give you guidance on this.

Think about First Aid! More often than not the venue will have first aid provisions but you will need to discuss with them about what they want as adequate cover. It doesn’t hurt to have a first aid box on-site and a clean place to administer any first aid. If you’re venue requires it then British Red Cross can provide you with a trained first aider for your event but be aware that this is chargeable. Make sure you keep an accident book to log any incidents, what happened and what First Aid was administered. Again, the venue will give you guidance to whether you need this or not.

Planning your route

The Big Push is officially 5km in length but don’t worry too much if your route is a shorter or longer route. You may need to tailor based on your venue or your particular group size! Your venue may be able to suggest some routes that have worked for them in the past!

When you have an idea of the route, you should walk along your route to check everything. Use the risk assessment form to assess any potential hazards like roads and ponds, facilities like toilets, public transport links or car parking and a meeting point. The venue may ask to see this.

Think about how you are going to mark the start/finish lines? Will you need route signs along the way? The more straight forward the route, the easier it will be for participants to navigate but route markings (signs and balloon) and stewards at difficult points will always make things easier!

Also think about how many volunteers you will need on the day; at the start, middle and end of the day and along the route as stewards and how they will be managed e.g. breaks and shift times so they can have lunch etc. Use the Big Push event plan (available on the website and on babble) to help you plan the event.

Depending on your event, there are a few other things you may need to get permission for or think through:

Selling food & alcohol

You might like to finish your walk by selling food and drinks; this is a great way of making some extra money on the day. If you want to serve alcohol you will need to apply for a license, usually called a Temporary Event Notification or TENS from your local council. See babble guidance here.

Collection buckets

If you want to have any collection buckets at your event (to get in any on the day sponsorship) then you’ll need to check with the venue and may have to apply to the local council for permission.

Stall holders and Public Liability Insurance

If you decide to have stalls at Big Push, you must check that commercial stallholders and caterers have their own Public Liability Insurance.

It is recommended that these firms are advised in writing that NCT accepts no liability in respect of any injury, loss, damage or any other financial loss incurred by third parties arising from the provision of services, or the sale of goods by the vendor.

Insurance

Your Big Push will be covered by NCT’s public liability cover for up to £5 million. Please note this is liability; not contents cover. For further details see babble for the NCT Public Liability Insurance.

Please note that you should read and understand the additional guidelines regarding hiring bouncy castles.

To ensure that your event is covered by NCT insurance you need to fill in a risk assessment. Please complete the template on babble and return a copy to fundraising@nct.org.uk at least 2 weeks before your event.

Terms and conditions of entry

When participants register with your event, you will need to make sure they read and sign the terms and conditions of entry (available on the website and on babble). This is important to ensure they do not have any injuries or medical conditions which could affect their participation in the Big Push.

Please have several copies of the terms and conditions of entry available on the day at the registration desk and have a signing sheet for people to state that they have read them.

Contingency

Unfortunately, not everything is controllable and you may need to think about contingency plans in case something happens (wet weather for example!). Make sure you have all your venue, participant, volunteer team, any companies doing stalls/refreshments and press contact details so you can contact them if the event is cancelled. Have a plan of who would contact each group.

You may need to also put this on Facebook and have a notice at the venue too.

Step 4: Register your event

In order to register your event you will need to:

1. Register your branch interest on The Big Push section of the NCT website

2. Set your participant cost and set the event up on Intrabiz. If you are new to Intrabiz, information can be found here.

3. Put your event on the event finder, and your branch pages, so other local parents can see what is happening in their area. You can include route information, timings and format of the day.

NOTE: you should not be using JustGiving to sell tickets. JustGiving is for sponsorship only.

Step 5: Participants - Getting the word out

Promoting The Big Push locally is vital to the success of your event.

Participant Registration

You can set your own participation fee for your Big Push event. However, you need to consider costs of putting on the event and make sure you at least break even.

You may want to consider setting different amounts for different family members. For example to register to take part in the Big Push, participants will need to pay £5 for a single entrant or £8 for a family entry (2 adults). Under 12s can be registered for free. The reason for charging a registration fee is threefold.

Paying a fee to attend means registrants are more likely to turn up on the day, this allows you to plan in advance for the number of participants you are expecting.

Having to pay to take part encourages participants to sign up in advance. You then have their contact details and, in the run up to your event, you can tell them about all the fantastic work that your branch and the wider NCT are doing and encourage their fundraising efforts.

The registration fee will be regularly transferred out to your branch account. You can use this capital to plan you event.

The key to making your event a success is letting your members know what you’re planning. You can do this through:

• Using Intrabiz you can see everyone who has signed up for your event. You can then send them details of your event and how their fundraising will help new mums and dads.

• Advertising the event in your newsletter - advertise over a couple of editions. There are flyer templates on babble.nct.org.uk/bigpush that you can edit and drop into your branch newsletter.

• Emailing your branch members.

• Arranging for some of your volunteers to attend events like Bumps and Babies, and Nearly New sales, and nursery parties as “Big Push ambassadors” to talk about and generate interest in the event and get people to sign up.

• Making sure your local community knows why you are fundraising. All the money is going towards delivering and improving perinatal mental health services. Look at The Big Push website where you can see videos and information about why this is such an important cause. Likewise, if you feel comfortable sharing any personal stories you have or information about why you volunteer for NCT, this can also be a powerful way of getting others involved.

• Asking each branch committee member to bring a team!

• Using social media.

- Social media like Facebook and twitter are really great ways of letting people know about your events. You may want to create an event on Facebook using your NCT branch FB page as a way of seeing interest and engaging participants.

- Post updates and tweet regularly so that people don’t forget about your plans.

- Make sure that you link back to the page on your branch website or event page.

Facebook

- Use your branch’s Facebook page to promote your Big Push event

- ‘Like’ NCT’s Facebook page

- When you name NCT in your posts type the @ sign before our name. Your post will then appear on our home feed and we can share your photos and videos. We’re likely to do this only after an event.

Twitter

- Use the hashtag #TheBigPush

- Use your branch’s Twitter profile to promote your Big Push event

- Follow NCT

- In your tweets use @nctcharity so we can see what you’re doing and retweet your content. We’re likely to do this only after an event.

• Using publicity materials.

- You can use the posters on babble.nct.org.uk/ bigpush, you can edit and place them where parents will see them, e.g. GP surgeries, children’s centres, coffee shops, libraries etc.

- You could also hand out flyers out at all your branch events and perhaps get permission to hand them out at the local supermarket.

- Local newspapers will often run adverts at no cost at the end of the week if they haven’t managed to sell all of their advertising space. Why not contact your local newspaper’s advertising manager and ask if they will run the advert for free if they have space?

• Local media.

We have written two press release templates for you to send to local newspapers. One is to generate publicity for the event and the other can be used to showcase the event after it has taken place. You just need to add the details about your event and can send photos from the event to your local newspaper along with the post-event release. If your branch has a volunteer publicity officer, do ask them for support. Once you have sent out the press release you can call the newspaper to check they have received it.

If they say they have not received it, just send it again to the named person you spoke to. Most local papers receive a huge amount of press releases a day, so you need to make sure yours stands out. You can ask whether or not the story is going to be used and if so, when.

• Using local celebrities

Getting a local celebrity involved in your Big Push could be great publicity for your event; they can also act as a great boost for your attendance numbers. Getting a local celebrity involved is usually done through personal local contacts. You can use the guide on cheeky monkey page here: babble.nct.org.uk/cheekymonkeys/resources

To be really effective, it’s a good idea to set targets of how many people to recruit e.g. to recruit 50 people one month before the event. To do this you could split roles and each have a target:

• One volunteer to recruit at church/religious gatherings (target 10)

• One volunteer to recruit at schools /PTA meetings (target 20)

• One volunteer to recruit from local walkers clubs/fitness centres/gyms (target 20)

Step 6: Get participants fundraising

Make sure you tell all your participants just how important their fundraising is and how they can make a difference. Let them know the cause and what their money will go towards.

Sponsorship Money

As with the registration fee, you can set the per participant fundraising target. You need to think about what people in your area are likely to fundraise for. Remember, this is all to raise money for an excellent cause and every little bit helps.

A great way to start is to set up your online fundraising page with JustGiving at www.justgiving.com/tnct. Create your fundraising page through “fundraise for us” and include the name of the organising Branch in the title. All money that is raised for The Big Push is subject to the 70/30 split but the branch will only receive the funds if the branch name is in the title.

For example:

www justgiving.com/NCTClapham-FredSmith

www justgiving.com/NCTPlymouth-JuliaSmith

The 70% that comes into UKO will be ringfenced for perinatal mental health work. The 30% that goes to the branch should also be used for perinatal mental healthwork as this is the cause people are donating

for. However, events like Bumps and Babies or other social events can be seen as combating isolation and would count towards this.

Just a reminder, do not use JustGiving for tickets. This is for sponsorship! Use Intrabiz for ticket sales instead.

Getting the money to your branch account

Once a month the finance team will transfer any money received from JustGiving into your branch account. If you have any questions about this please contact finance@nct.org.uk.

All income and expenditure from your Big Push event should be recorded by your treasurer like any other fundraising event. Add this as a new EVENT, with the event type “the Big Push” on Intrabiz (the Treasurers’ system). All income is entered from the BANK screen.

If your branch treasurer has any difficulty they can get in touch with Intrabiz directly by emailing Nicola Hilton on nicola@intrabiz.co.uk.

You can give your participants lots of tips about how to increase their sponsorship totals. How about a few friends agreeing to dress in fancy dress or dye their hair for the event if they reach a fundraising goal?

What is Gift Aid?

Gift Aid enables NCT to increase donations by 25%, by claiming back tax from HMRC - and it doesn’t cost the donor anything! If your donors are UK taxpayers, make sure they fill in their full name and address (with postcode) and tick the gift aid box on JustGiving.

Encourage participants to:

• Email friends and family with their JustGiving link.

• Place it in their status update on Facebook and tweet about it, directing people to their page.

Step 7: Maximising your branch’s fundraising

Think about how you can increase your fundraising on the day. For example, you could have some commercial stalls along the route or at the start or end or hold a raffle.

Little ways to make a big fundraising push!

Goody Bags

• Goody bags make a lovely gift for your participants, but they are also a great way of getting in some extra income. You can include flyers and/or samples from local businesses who will usually pay for this opportunity and you can also give out information about your branch.

Hold a Raffle

• Raffles are a great way of increasing your event’s fundraising total. If your branch can source prizes that new parents will love from local businesses and contacts, you can raffle them off on the day. Please only pick and draw raffles on the same day. You can see more guidelines to raffles here.

Refreshments

• NCT events are frequently known for their yummy cakes - why should The Big Push be any different?!

• You could sell tea and coffee whilst your participants are waiting to begin the push and sell cakes as a reward after the finish line.

Why not invite a mobile catering business like a burger van to come along and serve lunch?

• The company could pay to attend and give you a percentage of their proceeds in return for advertising their business, just check your venue would allow this in the first instance.

• You could even serve some refreshing Pimms; just make sure that you comply with alcohol licensing regulations regarding Temporary event notices (see Event Plan).

Hold a family fun day

• Round off your Big Push with a family fun day in a local park and give your participants a chance to unwind with their children and friends. you could invite businesses like Monkey Music to come along and give a taster session; they would pay to attend in return for advertising and the opportunity to sign up parents to their services on the day.

Some ideas branches have used include having a bubble machine, face-painters, or doing a Teddy bear hunt around the walk!

Step 8: Get companies to sponsor the event or match-giveTalk to your employer, your partner’s employer or ask each volunteer’s employer to match-give whatever you raise. Many companies will match pound for pound your sponsorship total so doubling your fundraising total.

Contact local business to sponsor the event, many local businesses love to show their support for local events which help local families.

The Big Push offers companies lots of ways of getting involved with your branch of NCT – it is the perfect opportunity to put their brand in front of new parents in their community.

Good companies to approach are:

• Photographers

• Children’s clothing companies

• Solicitors or insurance companies looking to advise on financial planning for expanding families.

You could ask a local business to sponsor your event, invite them to purchase a trade stand or perhaps donate a raffle prize. Have a look at the Branch Guide to Raising Money from Companies for more ideas. Ensure you know their policy if the event is cancelled, and that they will not charge you a cancellation fee.

Step 9: On the day

Arrive at your venue early with your event plan so that you can double check everything on your risk assessment, set up registration desks and greet stall holders.

Brief your team of volunteers before participants arrive. Make sure they know where all the facilities are, what the route is and who to contact in case of difficulties. Likewise, what is everyone doing on the day? Assign people to set out the route and set up the registration table and anything else. Think about what needs to be done and how long you have to set up. You don’t want to be rushing to finish when participants arrive.

However, with a little pre-planning and working as a team, everything should go fine! Most importantly, have fun!

Documents to bring with you on the day:

• Event Plan with all emergency contact numbers for everyone and items to bring on the day

• Risk Assessment so you can check all hazards are minimized.

• Site Plan e.g. a plan of where the toilets, First aid kit, emergency access points and vehicle access points are. Make sure these areas are signposted in some way.

• Your Crowd Management plan e.g. how many stewards, where, what shift times?

• Any information on any third parties (stalls/ companies providing free activities)

• Any Press attending, or biographies on VIPs attending

• First Aid procedure e.g. let your volunteers know where the accident book is kept?

• Waste management plan: decide how to clear rubbish and waste and who has the equipment e.g. brooms, gloves.

• First Aid procedure e.g. Let your volunteers know where the accident book is kept? Is there a Duty Manager onsite for emergencies

• Photo consent forms

• Terms and conditions of entry and a signing-sheet to state all participants (who didn’t register online) have read them.

Ask yourself what else will you need to bring on the day? Think about everything that you might need and create a list.

Step 10: How did you do?Thank everyone that helped you to organise your walk.

Help inform your future planning by having a de-brief meeting and completing the lessons learnt page of Event Plan – did you achieve your objectives? Where there enough volunteers? Did you achieve your income target?

You could do a survey monkey to your participants to get their views on what the enjoyed and what could be improved.

Send us your event stories and pictures – we’d love to hear them and congratulate you on a job well done!

Once all JustGiving transfers have been made to your account give your participants an idea of how much you have raised in your branch by sending a thank-you letter. Remember, money still comes through after an event so you can send an email to all participants to encourage all to get their sponsorship money in and motivate them to participate in future NCT branch events.

Need help?If at any time you need any assistance or have any queries then do not hesitate to contact fundraising by emailing fundraising@nct.org.uk or calling 020 8752 2388.

© NCT 2016 NCT is a trading name of The National Childbirth Trust Limited company registered in England and Wales: 2370573

Registered office: 30 Euston Square, Stephenson Way, London, England NW1 2FB Registered charity in England and Wales: 801395

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