Organising an event is a great way to bring people together to give information, raise funds, or offer support to your MS community.
See Group Handbook B3: Giving information
See Group Handbook B5: Fundraising
See Group Handbook D1: Offering MS Support
- Your event objectives
- Event volunteers
- Finding a venue
- Our events risk management system
- Recruiting speakers
- Publications and branded materials
Your event objectives
As you start to plan your event, it's important to ask:
- Who is your event for?
- What will it achieve?
By thinking about your audience and whether you want to give information, raise funds, or offer support, you can decide upon the best type of event for you.
Event volunteers
We couldn’t provide events without our volunteers. Make sure your event volunteers know what to do and who can help by checking out their role page.
Information events
Putting on an information event provides a great opportunity for people to get together, discuss current issues, and learn the latest about MS.
Fundraising events
Organising a fundraising event can be a fun and exciting way to raise money.
Recruiting event volunteers
You may need to recruit new volunteers to help run your event.
- Find out more about Organising your team
Finding a venue
When choosing a venue, it needs to be:
- Suitable for the type of event you’re holding
- Within your budget
- Accessible for everyone attending
Word of mouth is a great way to find out about local venues. Talk to members of your group who may know somewhere suitable.
You should visit a venue before booking - ideally with a wheelchair user so you can check if it's fully accessible. Our Access Audit will also help you make sure a venue is accessible before you make your booking.
Our events risk management system
You must use our events risk management system to ensure your event meets legal minimum standards to keep you, your members and visitors safe. The system also helps protect the MS Society financially - and you from personal liability.
Risk assessment or guidance?
Some events your group organises require you to complete a risk assessment. Other lower risk events are covered by our new, simplified events guidance documents.
Recruiting speakers
If you'd like someone to speak at your event, your local staff team may be able to help you find a suitable speaker.
- Get contact details for your Local Networks Officer
- Get contact details for your Regional/External Relations Officer
Once you’ve verbally agreed with a speaker that they’ll present at your event, you must send them a letter confirming what you've agreed using our speaker invite letter template. Remember to ask the speaker for a copy of their presentation before your event so you can check you’re happy with its contents.
- Download our Speaker invite letter template
- Copy and paste the contents onto one of our Letterhead templates
Publications and branded materials
Our Online Shop is your one-stop shop for everything MS Society – from our award winning information resources, to branded merchandise that creates a great impression when you’re fundraising, campaigning and raising awareness.
- Find out more about ordering from our Online Shop
- Learn about Making MS Society information available
Back to Organising an event
