A charity fashion show requires a good amount of planning, but it can also raise a lot of money.  Much of what follows is geared towards student groups that seek to plan a charity fashion show, but the information contained in this post can easily be adapted to suit other groups.

When organizing a charity fashion show, be sure to think about all of the different groups that can help you make your fashion show a success.  For instance, have your school’s fashion design club design the clothing; have your school’s TV production students film the show; have students from your school’s theater department do the lighting and set design; and get a charismatic student to emcee the show.  As for the models, you can select the models individually, you can ask members of your own group to volunteer, you can ask the members of a sports team to volunteer (in which case your charity fashion show would naturally appeal to a wider-range of social networks) or you can, of course, choose some combination of these options.

How do you make money with a charity fashion show?

• The number one way to raise money for your cause with a charity fashion show is to sell tickets.  You could have a student ticket price and a parent/adult ticket price.  Also, you can pair the fashion show with a dinner, in which case the cost of attendance could be much higher.
• You could hold a 50-50 raffle at your charity fashion show.
• You can sell DVDs of the show to participants and parents of participants.
• You could combine the charity fashion show with an auction.  This could be either a live auction or a silent auction.
• If your audience would consider it appropriate, you could combine the fashion show with a charity date auction.
• You can seek sponsors for your charity fashion show.
• If you’re looking for a particularly fun way of raising money with a charity fashion show, consider holding a contest ahead of time that determines who will have to model an embarrassing outfit.  Your contest can involve people voting with dollars.  See our post on how to run a kiss a pig fundraiser for a step-by-step guide.

Finally, get creative with the theme of your fashion show.  Many shows will be just fine without a theme, but charity fashion shows for some causes can benefit from the selection of a theme that underscores the cause itself.  For instance, some college environmental groups have held sustainable fashion shows in which the models only wear outfits created using discarded materials.

Below is an overview of a successful charity fashion show orchestrated by college students at UCLA: