Community Event Ideas; Bringing Your Neighborhood Together
Community events are great opportunities for bringing people together. From neighborhood festivals to large-scale celebrations, it doesn't matter what type of event you're organizing—there's no shortage of ways to connect with others in your town or city.
From charity fundraisers to neighborhood events, here are unique and creative community event concepts that will inspire you to host your next gathering. Whether it be to bring a community together, raise money for a good cause or promote your business in your community there are many reasons why you should host a community event.
If you want to build a vibrant local community, it helps to start early. Here are some ideas about how to go about doing just that.
1. Start small.
Don't try to run a huge event like a festival or concert, unless you're ready to commit a lot of time and money. Instead, start out with something simple, such as a block party or a potluck dinner hosted in a local park. This makes it simpler for people to get involved because everything needed is simple and most people have. You'll find that people are willing to help each other out, even though they don't know each other well. Having a small event will help people be able to interact more and will give you a chance to meet people and learn more about them.
2. Give everyone a role.
Create different roles within the group, including host, assistant, photographer, etc., and assign those roles to each community member to get everyone involved. If someone wants to take photos, let him or her do so. If someone wants to cook, make sure he or she does. Making sure people are assigned what they want to do helps with making sure everyone participates.
3. Be consistent.
Hold the same type of event every month. Once people see that you're reliable, they'll come back, again and again, to enjoy the event with you. This also allows people to attend more, for example, if one month your event is not on a date where someone can attend next month it might be.
4. Keep things simple.
Don't overcomplicate things. For example, don't require attendees to RSVP ahead of time, because that takes away the spontaneity of the event. Also, avoid long lines and high-ticket prices. Most people won't attend an event if they think they'll have to wait too long or pay too much.
5. Have a clear purpose.
What do you hope to accomplish with your event? Are you trying to raise funds for charity, promote a cause, or simply provide entertainment? Whatever your goals are, make sure your event aligns with them.
6. Last but not least make it fun!
People tend to enjoy themselves more when they feel included. So, make sure there's plenty of food and drink for everyone, and encourage people to bring games, crafts, music, and anything that will line up with your event.
Community events can be interchangeable with their purposes. As long as you are planning on hosting an event that brings in your local community each one of these are easily changeable to fit your event type needs.
Class or Workshop:
Hosting a class or workshop is one of the most effective ways to bring people together in your community. Classes are often easy to organize and offer great value for both parties involved. They provide a chance for people to learn new things, new information about their interests, and maybe even find some new friends. Classes can take place virtually or in person, depending on your needs and preferences. For example, if you run a yoga studio, you might want to hold a virtual yoga class. Or perhaps you sell handcrafted items and would like to invite a local artist to teach a painting class. Whatever it is, there are many options out there that allow you to connect with others and develop relationships in your community.
If you would like to make this a charity event you can ask whoever is hosting to donate their time instead of charging and then use the money that people buy tickets with as a donation.
Not a business owner but would like to plan a workshop to bring together your community? Tripadvisor allows you to look up classes and workshops in your specific area to help you start planning!
Pop-up Store:
A pop-up shop is essentially a temporary storefront where you sell your goods to the community. Pop-ups aren't just for retail stores; you can use them to promote events, fundraisers, classes, workshops, or even art exhibits.
To make it easier to set up a pop-up, look for spaces that provide easy access to parking and electrical outlets. Many pop-up shops use portable generators for power since they often run longer than expected, this is also useful if you are having a pop-up shop in a neighborhood or during a block party.
You can also partner with another business to open a pop-up together. For example, you could team up with a restaurant or coffee shop to provide free Wi-Fi and refreshments during your pop-up hours enticing more people to attend or offer raffle tickets to give away gift cards to the business you are partnering with to add extra entertainment to your pop-up.
Neighborhood food trucks:
Food trucks are a fun and unique way to bring people together. They're easy to set up, inexpensive to rent, and offer something different. Plus, they're portable—you can take one anywhere you want in a public space. You can also consider renting a couple of trucks and creating a food festival so people can try new things as well as have options to choose from in case they have food allergies or limitations. If you are having trouble figuring out what type of food trucks to rent, you can go to Street Food Finder and type in your location to see food trucks in your area that you can reach out to and request for your event.
This may seem like a very simple not very exciting event but what happens when you invite everyone from your community to come out and eat lunch or dinner together? Well, it turns into a massive celebration and encourages people to mingle with their neighbors over delicious food!
If you would like to add more to your food truck experience, you can always combine a food truck with basically any event you are hosting. As we mentioned they are portable and very simple to rent, it is a quick easy add-on that will be a crowd pleaser anywhere!
Donation Drive:
Organize a community donation drive. You can donate the items collected within the community or get in touch with a food bank or shelter near you that is accepting donations. This is a simple way to bring the community together to support an important cause.
Create a sign-up sheet with categories of what items you are trying to get donations of where people can write down what they are bringing to the drive so there is enough of each item to go around as well as no unwanted items. The sheet can have everything from food items, clothing, toys, school supplies, and more. If you are not sure what to collect for your drive a quick online search will help you, for example in Chicago Cradles to Crayon's or Greater Chicago Food Depository gives you a list of items to donate as well as where you can drop them off.
The drive can be held anywhere as long as you have space to spread out and stay organized, some options are a community member's home, a local park or library, or a space that is available to rent out for events within the community. You want to make this space in the center of your community and easy to access. Once everyone and everything has arrived sort these items into their categories and get them packed up to donate!
Movie Nights:
The idea behind the event is simple: take advantage of the beautiful weather and bring families together at an outdoor event. In addition to the movies if you would like to make this a larger event you can add, food vendors, activities, games, and even live music performances. Adding more layers to your event besides just a movie gives you more fundraising opportunities.
There are no rules about what type of films people can watch, but the most popular choices include comedies, action flicks, horror, documentaries, dramas, romantic comedies, and animated features. Some even offer children’s programming and special presentations to reach a broad audience.
Planning a community movie night is simple and typically low cost. Start with picking a movie that will be enjoyable for everyone to watch. Once you have that down all you have to do is pick a location and share with the community what time to be there. For supplies, you can let everyone know to bring their own blankets or chairs to relax and watch the movie on. For the technology side of this event, you will need a projector and a screen to view the movie on, these can be rented out, or ask around your community for someone to loan one out for the night.
Softball League:
If you've never organized a softball league before, don't worry—it's easy enough to do. You'll need to find a field where people can play and organize teams. Once you've got everything set up, you just need to invite everyone to gather equipment and join.
Once you've got players signed up, you'll need to decide how many teams you want to form. This depends largely on how big your community is. In smaller communities, there might only be two teams. In larger communities, however, you could easily have four to six teams.
After you've formed teams, you'll need to choose a name for each team. Most leagues require that each team use a different color jersey. So, if you're having trouble naming your teams, try choosing colors that go well together. Or, if you'd like to make things interesting, try creating a theme around your team names. For example, if you wanted to call your team "The Red Sox," your team members could wear red shirts.
Finally, you'll need to figure out what rules apply to your league. Most people know the rules of softball so creating a small online document where you can email everyone who has signed up to ensure they are up to date on all the rules is all you need.
If you are wanting to create a fundraising event out of this, you can do a softball tournament. Sell tickets and refreshments to generate donations.
Dinner Party:
A rotating supper club or dinner party is another great way to bring people together over food and get community involvement. Creating a supper club as opposed to a one-night dinner will allow people to bond more and see each other more than one time.
Pick hosts who will serve as community leaders, each will host a certain number of dinners throughout the month or even just host once a month throughout the year. Each dinner will feature three courses, you can either have a couple of menus for the community to vote on to decide what will be made or you can ask the community what they want and come up with a meal based on what they suggest.
Publish an online calendar with event registration so there's no waste of food and people know that space is limited. Be sure to keep track of how many reservations you've received and the total number of slots you're offering. If you run out of spots, consider extending the dates or adding more nights to everyone can be a part of the event.
The one issue when hosting events like these is that they require plenty of space. A community building would be best for this to keep costs low considering they will most likely offer space for no cost. If that is not an option a community leader's house if large enough is always a great option.
Cook-off:
A cook-off is a creative spin on a dinner party. Cook-offs are great because they bring people together with a little bit of friendly competition. They provide entertainment while giving everyone something to do. And most importantly, they make eating delicious foods easier.
So why don't we host one every month? We could use some help organizing and judging the event though. So, let's start cooking up a plan.
1. Choose a theme. This can be a grill-off, Italian food, or any type of cuisine that the community wants to battle it out and see who is the best!
2. Choose a location. This can be a local community building, or you may ask for a volunteer to donate their home for the night for the event to take place there.
3. Set up an official judging panel. Ask for volunteers who are willing to be the official judges of the cook-off. It shouldn't be hard to find someone willing to taste all this delicious food.
4. Give away prizes to the winners. To entice people to participate more include some fun prizes for those who win the cook-off. You can create a cooking theme basket or have the community pitch in for a bigger prize of your choice.
5. Share the best recipes with the community. Bringing a community together to judge the best food and not give them the recipe of the winner? You can't do that! Have each contestant type up their recipe and print out the winners so others can enjoy them at home.
6. Create a video about the event. Share on your community's website or social media page. Doing this will show people who didn't come what they missed and encourage them to come to your next community event.
7. Lastly, make sure to set rules ahead of time and a schedule to follow. Remember this is a friendly competition don't set too many rules but enough to let everyone know what will be going on and have no confusion. Creating a schedule for the night is a simple step to keeping things organized.
If you want to go beyond the basics and think out of the box, consider hosting a contest where participants submit their favorite recipes and have contestants see who can put their best spin on a classic recipe.
Trivia Night:
Who doesn't love a trivia night? You can host a different-themed trivia night each month for your community, anything from sports, movies, or celebrity trivia. This is an easy way to get the whole community involved as well as introduce them to people with the same interests. It can be single-person teams, pairs, or groups. Trivia is simple to put together, based on the theme of the event you can create your own questions or look up questions online that are related to your theme, there are plenty of websites that have trivia questions accessible for your use.
There are not many rules to this game but make sure everyone is on the same page when they arrive. Make sure no one talks outside of their group for answers or looks up any questions online.
Create a sign-up sheet for people to register, if this is not a charity event you can keep the tickets free. If it is a charity event where you would like to make funds you can charge people to register for the event as well as provide food and drinks at the event. To keep the costs low you can ask for donations of food and drink as well as volunteers to be the mc and read aloud the questions to the guests to keep costs low. On the other hand, if you are just hosting an event to bring together your community you can skip the ticket costs and have the event be free.
Block Party:
A block party is an event that has been bringing communities together for years and years and will be for years to come. Yes, it is simple but there is a reason why it is still being done to this day, it works. When hosting a block party, it is really up to you what you want to include. Mostly it is food and drinks with entertainment for both kids and adults you can make it as big or as little as you'd like it to be, there are no rules.
A block party is typically used to bring a community together if you would like to create a charity aspect to it you can include small events within the block party that require tickets to patriciate in. For example, if you are organizing a block party in the fall one activity that could be included and charged for would be carving pumpkins, have pumpkins for purchase as well as all the supplies needed to carve them available for guests.
Including a live show of some sort is always a crowd pleaser that brings in a lot of people. A show can be anything, a band, a magician, a dance performance, the possibilities are endless and cater to your community and event when it comes to picking out what to include. Another easy way to pick out the perfect live performance is to ask your community if they are musicians or can perform for the block party.
Talent Show:
A talent show is a great way to get people out of their comfort zones and have fun while doing so. It can also be a great opportunity to meet new people and make friends within their community. There are many different types of talent shows, but they all share one thing in common: They allow performers to showcase their talents and win prizes.
Talent shows are for all ages, you can pick what age group you would like to participate in your talent show or do different age ranges so everyone can be included and compete
To keep things simple, create a sign-up sheet and have people sign up with the talent they will be performing, and age included this way when you are putting together age groups you know how to organize them all. Typically, it will be a younger age group signing up for this but making sure to encourage family and friends of all ages to come will help with making it a larger community event, as well as help, generate more funds if you decide to make it a fundraising event.
Now that you have some exciting and inspiring community event ideas fresh in your mind, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of event could bring everyone together and begin the planning process. Whether you want to host your very first fundraising party or host a fun block party, there are many ways to make your community feel special! Social
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