How can I bring in lots of people for a charity event?

Use the nice folks at your local newspaper; they will probably have a section just for events such as you are describing…like the Metro section in the NYT.

Contact the churches and synagogues in the area. Someone always makes announcements after the services.

If there are universities or oolleges near-by, they also have newspapers and might give you a free plug. Contact the fraternities and sororities and other social clubs on campus also.

How many haircuts do you want to get done?

How many shavers will be there? Is there some kind of record you could go for?

Who gives money?

You could make it a world record attempt and get papers to cover it, or even television news and get lots of people there.

But I would use the personal approach. I would go door to door in the neighborhood and ask people to give a donation and commit to show up and get a hair cut. Or I would go to fraternities or sororities at local colleges and get them interested. They like to do charity stuff. They might get credit for it, too.

I would build a mailing list and mail people continuously. I would set up a meetup. I would set up a facebook. There are tons of ways of getting the word out these days. They all take legwork. If you are committed to doing this, and willing to spend the time, you can do well.

Bring in some pole dancing girls and offer a free lap dance for every guy who shaves his head.

Of course, you have to be wary of local ordinances about this kind of thing. Wouldn’t want you to get in trouble for doing charity.

Facebook it Twitter it and good luck!

Hey,
In Ireland at the moment there is an event called “Shave or Dye” Monks versus Punks which is a countrywide event organized for the past few years by a radio station Today Fm. They let people organise their own events in bars as well as having a larger event hosted by the radio station which aims to break world records for amount of heads shaved in an allotted time or this year the record they are aiming to break is for the most amount of punks in one place.
After having attended a couple of these events and help organize other events like it in past years I have found that advertising on local radio, talking to local businesses about spot prizes for raffles etc on the night, try local sports teams to get them involved, If you can get them involved and to tweet/ Facebook it from their accounts will only increase the amount of people that know about it. Any local celebrities or as I have found any celebrity might take the time to either add a spot prize attend the event or even just publicize it can only help.
The key is to get the event out there anyway you can and get people talking about it.
Good luck
and hope it all goes well for you.

Contact your local government. Politicians eat this stuff up. Everyone likes seeing the mayor get his/her head shaved.

Contact your local media and see about getting a spot on the local news and in the local paper.

Btw, good luck!

My husband is a professional lobbyist and fundraiser. He’d tell you it’s all about the friends and associates of your friends and associates. You begin by inviting everyone you know well—family members, colleagues, neighbors, and friends—and getting commitments that they’ll attend. But, don’t stop there; ask them to bring people from their own lives—folks you haven’t met or don’t know well enough to contact directly. When that next layer shows up at your event—acquaintances once or twice removed from you—your efforts are hugely successful.

This describes how Paul does the fundraising part of his job. He gets a wealthy person on board with his cause and asks that individual to host an event. The individual invites all of his/her wealthy friends. The wealthy friends, in turn, bring a few people. The room is packed to the rafters, and huge amounts of money get collected.

Thank you for the ideas, some of them I have thought about, others didn’t even cross my mind. @burntbonez that would be a good idea but this is a family event.