Keys to Hosting Successful Fundraising Events

Keys to Hosting Successful Fundraising Events

Introduction

A fundraising event is an event designed to raise awareness and donations for an organization’s mission. A fundraising event can be a concert, silent auction, half marathon, neighborhood cookout, golf tournament, and more. Non-profits use fundraising events to raise money to fuel their missions. Events allow donors and other community members to actively engage with non-profits, as opposed to just donating. Meeting with donors also gives organizations the chance to reiterate their mission and discuss ways people can get more involved in their work.

Practically any type of event can be turned into a fundraiser, but some event types are more successful than others. That’s because some provide more opportunities for non-profits to promote their mission and show donors how their support directly makes a positive impact.

There are no second chances at a great event so the best that one can do is to plan, prepare, and, importantly, be ready for the unexpected. It is important to remember that while an event will never be perfect, it does have the potential to create a lifetime memory for supporters and give a significant boost to the quality of their relationship with an organization. Therefore, whether the event is catering for 50 or 5,000 people, it must always be meticulously planned and implemented.

Fundraising events have become an increasingly important tool for many non-profit organisations given the difficulty in recruiting (or engaging) donors through other channels. It has been argued that events can be valuable in driving awareness of the cause and/or its associated service provision. Furthermore, they can also be used to great effect in the context of stewardship, helping build long-term relationships with supporters, acknowledging and rewarding them for the contribution they have made to the organization. They can be particularly effective in the major gift context where they can assist in the identification of new and potentially high-value supporters and add an enjoyable social dimension to supporter relationships as individuals participate in activities such as networking events, dances, dinners, galas, and auctions.

However rosy the picture might seem, the events market does have its challenges, notably because they can be very costly to run in terms of time and money. Many non-profit boards, therefore, regard events as an element of the fundraising portfolio that involves much greater risk. There is the obvious risk that the event might not turn a profit (if that were the objective) after what can often be substantive set-up costs, but there is also a risk associated with what economists refer to as the “opportunity cost.” Could the resources have achieved a better return if they had been invested elsewhere? And then there is the very considerable challenge posed by the competition. A lot of non-profit organizations conduct events, making it increasingly important for organizations to make their offerings distinctive, offering genuine and superior value for supporters and other relevant stakeholder groups.

In Fundraising Principles and Practice (Sargeant and Shang 2017), Karin Cox identifies four primary reasons for organizations to engage in fundraising events:

1. Fundraising

2. Identification of Prospects

3. Education and Cultivation

4. Recognition.

Although the purposes of these events are not mutually exclusive, identifying the primary purpose of an event prior to planning and implementation will help drive its success. The table below illustrates the various categories of events and the costs and outcomes associated with each. The matrix is, therefore, a useful tool for managing expectations about what a given category of event can achieve.

As the table makes clear, there are several purposes for a non-profit event that are not solely limited to raising funds. An event may seek to thank the current donor base and act as a way of developing the already existing relationship between donor and organization. It might also encourage new supporters to get involved by explaining the work that the charity does or be used as an opportunity for networking, possibly with a view to securing other categories of support (e.g. corporate sponsorship). Alternatively, the event may seek to solidify the organization’s brand within a specific community and to raise awareness of their work.

The Dos and Don’ts

The Dos

• Explain The Benefits

  • Be as transparent as possible about where monetary donations go

• Carefully Consider Timing

  • Plan well in advance

  • Consider whether – or not – to link the event to a specific program or initiative

• Create A Host Committee

• Make It Easy To Give And Celebrate Gifts Big And Small

  • $50 can be a lot for someone and that should be greeted with the same gratitude and respect as $500

• Make Sure Your Event Is Accessible

• Keep The Programming Flowing

• Find Sponsors and In-Kind Donations

The Don’ts

• Don’t Pay For A Venue If You Can Help It

  • The cost of renting a venue is likely the biggest ticket item in your budget so having a space donated can make a big difference in your overhead. It’s also a way for a donor who might not have the financial means to donate a large sum to still support your organization in a major way.

• Don’t Lose Your Receipts

  • Deduct expenses at the end of the year

Tips for Hosting Quality Virtual Fundraising Events

Fundraisers expect many of their events to continue happening online (or in hybrid format) in the post-pandemic era. Here are seven essential elements:

Look for that Cinematic Moment

As a former film-score composer, Sondra E. Woodruff II knows what it takes to make an onscreen moment emotionally affecting. Now the producer for engagement and social impact at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh), Woodruff says she leaned on her composition background to plan virtual fundraising events, searching for "that cinematic element that makes it feel live."

Her knowledge informed the planning of Hotline Ring, a collaborative virtual fundraising event the theater hosted along with six other local performing-arts groups.

Woodruff took cues from successful YouTube channels, teaching herself how to use the streaming program ECamm. The fundraising event incorporated live elements, such as remarks from the theater's executive director and videos of volunteers answering calls from donors making contributions over the phone. The virtual event ran from 5 p.m. to midnight and beat its $100,000 fundraising goal, raising more than $130,000 to support the seven non-profits. Roughly 6,300 viewers tuned in during the virtual event. Add those who watched the recording after it wrapped up, and the number jumped to around 8,000 views. "If we were to hold this event live, our theater is only 350 people," Woodruff says. "To go from 350 to 6,000 is huge."

Choose Your Streaming Platform Wisely

The streaming platform is the new hotel ballroom. Fundraisers should choose their technology with as much care as they would a physical venue.

Think about how attendees will view the virtual event, says Samantha Swaim, a fundraising event consultant. Would the event stand out best on Facebook Live with an attendee watching on a computer or phone, or would it look better on a television screen? Now that smart TVs -- which enable users to stream videos -- are ubiquitous, YouTube is an especially appealing platform for virtual events, Swaim says.

Thoughtful design is also critical, says Megan Kincaid Kramer, vice president for community and convening at Catalyst, a non-profit that promotes women's workplace inclusion. "It's the difference in an in-person event, between putting a speaker on a completely blank stage versus putting them on a stage where you thought about the lighting, thought about the draping, thought about what the slides behind them look like."

Go for something clean and well-branded, Kincaid Kramer suggests. With the help of an event production firm, Catalyst ensures its virtual events include chyrons identifying a speaker's name and title, closed captioning, and screen backgrounds with the organization's and sponsors' logos. Catalyst also created a tip sheet for presenters at its virtual events.

Broaden Your Reach and Accessibility

Moved online, galas and auctions are no longer limited to those who can fit into a hotel ballroom or afford the steep ticket price. Whereas Catalyst, a member organization, once charged $850 for a ticket to its in-person Catalyst Awards conference, it charged its members $425 for a virtual ticket.

"We of course do not have to provide food and beverage, so we want to pass that savings on to the attendees," Kincaid Kramer says. Many of Catalyst's financial supporters are Fortune 500 companies, and she also hoped that halving the ticket price would allow firms to send more employees to the conference.

Swaim's clients, however, have waived ticket sales for their virtual events and have still seen fundraising revenue at or above what an in-person event traditionally earned. It helps that corporate sponsors and donors who contribute $5,000 or more are still giving, she says. What's more, these events are reaching a broader base. "About a third of the audience we're seeing is new," Swaim says. "This is an opportunity for your entire staff to participate, for your board and staff to invite their friends and family that live farther away, and for your clients to participate."

That wider reach is meaningful, according to Diego Aviles, vice president for development for the Northeast region of the United Negro College Fund. A donation of any size now grants access to virtual events hosted by the storied charity, which awards scholarships to students of color. "People want to make a difference at all different levels," Aviles says. "It's about giving them that outlet to create change and purpose, which has been taken away a little bit in people's lives when they sit at home."

Moreover, he adds, the accessibility of virtual events to donors of all financial means underscores the group's mission. "You kind of look back and you say, 'Wow, was that really the best way to talk about diversity and equity, when you're basically sitting in a dinner at a prestigious restaurant and only the people who have $1,000 or more can actually come?'"

Keep Invitations Casual but Creative

Just because the event happens online doesn't mean that promotion must be entirely digital, too. "When people have something in their hands, the viewership goes up," says Swaim. It doesn't have to be as formal as a traditional gala invitation with an RSVP card, just a save-the-date postcard will do, she says.

At the Children's Tumor Foundation, the chief marketing officer, Simon Vukelj, tapped volunteers to call supporters and invite them to upcoming virtual events. "Old school is the new school," he says.

When it comes to virtual outreach, fundraisers at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh) have reached new supporters through Instagram -- doubling their followers in a five month period. They posted a video promoting the Hotline Ring event to their Instagram page. And, along with the participating organizations, they emailed the video to their supporters and included it on their website's event page.

Keep your event page simple, fundraisers advise. Use a single streaming link there and be sure to embed it in every email and social-media post advertising the event so it's easy to find.

Now that so much of work and social life happen online, Swaim has also found success with an even simpler digital tool: the calendar event. Non-profits should ask board members to email meeting invitations to their contacts. "It's like you're doing the work for them," she says. "It's not incoming information that they have to do something with. It's just there on their calendar."

One of Swaim's clients, a statewide charity that typically hosts a 100-person annual gala, emailed virtual invitations to its supporters last year. In addition, volunteers sent calendar invitations to their connections. "That was their only marketing tool," Swaim says. It worked: About 600 people attended the virtual event.

Secure Corporate Sponsorship

Many corporate sponsors are still willing to support virtual events. While some industries, like hospitality, were hit hard by the pandemic, others were still able to give. The Children's Tumor Foundation, for example, asked volunteers on its event committee to appeal for support from their business connections. As a result, three corporate sponsors that had never before given to the foundation contributed a total of $750,000 and covered production costs for the May Zoomathon event.

There are even more ways to recognize a sponsor in a virtual event than an in-person event. Company logos can be added to printed and emailed invitations, social-media promotions, the virtual event web page, and even electronic event programs. Typically, charities post recordings of the events on their website, meaning a sponsor could continue to get eyeballs after the event takes place. And with an event designed to feel like a TV show, charities can include short videos from the sponsors, which can run as commercials during the event.

It also helps to know the names of company representatives who will be attending. If representatives contribute during the event, the host or auctioneer can thank them live, noting their connection to a sponsor.

Keep It Short

Since virtual events can be viewed both live and after the fact, Aviles suggests thinking of them like a sitcom episode. Shows like Corner Gas and Schitt's Creek do well because episodes are in the 20- to 30-minute range, he says. "So our virtual gala is going to be in that time frame."

As he puts together an outline of the show, Aviles thinks about event speakers as characters. Some, like a national-news correspondent, may need no introduction, but others, like scholarship recipients, may need more airtime to tell their story. "Everything's got to be within that two- to three-minute window," he says.

That balance can be hard to strike. Cut between speakers too quickly, and viewers will get whiplash and miss out on points of connection. Stay with them too long, and viewers will tune out.

And while the Pittsburgh performing-arts groups found success with their marathon seven-hour Hotline Ring event, most fundraisers say shorter virtual events are generally more successful. "Fifty-six minutes is the magic mark that we've seen drop-off start to occur," says Swaim.

At Catalyst, Kincaid Kramer aims for half-hour virtual programs. That means that events that once would have been an hourlong in-person panel are cut in half. "Bite-sized content" appeals more to her audience, she says.

Keep People Engaged

Streaming platforms like Zoom and YouTube have chat features that allow attendees to interact with each other during the virtual event. Swaim typically advises her clients to tap a handful of volunteers to keep the conversation going. "If we have people breaking the silence, then we see a flurry of activity," she says.

It also helps to keep viewers on their toes. During its Hotline Ring fundraising event, Joseph Hall, executive director of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and host of the virtual event, changed his outfit before each of his live segments. Producers also included live Zoom calls with supporters, along with prerecorded videos. "There were just various live components that kept people like, What's next?" says Orlana Darkins Drewery, deputy director of the theater.

Swaim also suggests using a running chyron or nameplate that displays the name of the donor who just contributed. That immediate public recognition is a big motivator to give throughout the program, she says. Displaying a thermometer graphic that indicates how far the charity is from its fundraising goal is another powerful incentive, says Swaim.

Even in this time of virtual interaction, she encourages efforts to build a feeling of togetherness throughout an event. "People are motivated by collective action."

Ten Key Factors that Contribute to Success

1.     A High Degree of Donor-Centricity: Rather than think about what events might be needed to serve the purposes of the organization, events planning should be squarely focused on satisfying the needs and the motives of supporters. This requires that systems and processes be established to gather data about what these needs might be and that once known, action is taken as a result. It also requires that organizations measure the extent to which they are actually meeting donor needs. If measures of fundraising success are only financial and do not include relationship metrics such as donor satisfaction, commitment, and trust, an organization cannot claim to be donor-centric, and to excel in fundraising events, donor-centricity is essential.

2.     A Focus on Fundamental Human Needs: A focus on surface level motives is not enough. Outstanding fundraising events are those that offer outstanding psychological benefits to their participants. In simple terms, this shift can be thought of as a move from reflecting on what supporters might want to experience to reflecting on how those experiences might make them feel.

The extent to which an event might provide psychological benefits might become one of the criteria applied to whether or not that event should be run at all. So a charity gala, when designed well, can deliver a unique and better experience than any other gala event in the focal community. When a non-profit cannot deliver psychological benefits in the best possible way, it should learn from its competitors, innovate, or invest its budget elsewhere.

3.     Invest in the Team: Organizations running exceptional fundraising events have exceptionally talented and loyal events fundraising specialists. Retaining and developing these individuals must be central to any events strategy. This is obviously not a new finding as the retention of fundraising staff has been shown to correlate with enhanced fundraising performance. But what is new is that fundraising teams need to be nurtured not only in terms of their professional competence and motivation, but also in terms of their sense of overall wellbeing. Fundraising events have inherently more risk associated with them than many other forms of fundraising and experiences in managing these events can often be draining or even painful. A focus on wellbeing, therefore, helps build the resilience of the team to cope with the inevitable highs and lows that can accompany a role of this nature.

4.     Choose the Appropriate Mindset: Events can naturally serve to reduce distance and enhance feelings of connection and human warmth. A reduced sense of spatial difference can reduce other forms of distance and prime people to think in a “close” mindset. It therefore makes sense to make any requests for donations at the event or immediately thereafter explicitly from that “close” perspective. It should be a concrete, contextualized solicitation that includes subordinate and incidental features of what is happening or how the ask is being made. Where solicitations are being made shortly after the event, it can be helpful to remind individuals of the closeness they experienced before they are prompted to give money. The most appropriate mindset will vary as distance from the event (or event feelings) increases. Thus, in the longer run up to the event and in subsequent stewardship, the nature of the language should shift to be more appropriate to the distant mindset. In this mindset “why” is more important than “what”. The use of appropriate language is critical because it is respectful of how the individual may be thinking and thus the kind of approach they might be most receptive to receiving.

5.     Focus on Transformations Not Experiences: Planning focus should shift from planning the features of an event toward planning the experiences it will offer. Successful event fundraisers actively plan for these experiences to start in the run-up to the event and to continue into the stewardship thereafter. Organizers should integrate the core of this experience with the fundamental proposition of their organization and the values it espouses. In this way, the event can be perceived as authentic and help build genuine feelings of relationship with the non-profit.

6.     Drive Emotions with Effective Storytelling: All organizations have beautiful stories to tell of the difference they are making in the lives of their beneficiaries. However, not all organizations are good at collating these stories and sharing them in a structured way with their supporters. Deeply moving and intensely enriching stories are frequently going unheard. These stories are critical in enhancing the level of positive emotion that supporters can feel at an event. Emotion is good because it can prompt action, but it also makes it easier for individuals to explore how their support of the non-profit can contribute to meeting their human needs and shaping their sense of self. It is not the absolute level of emotion that is at issue, it is the difference experienced between the highs and lows that may be generated by an organization’s stories, and this cycle should be repeated multiple times through the experience.

7.     Constantly Drive Innovation: All successful event fundraisers give a high priority to innovation. They constantly look for new ideas or ways to enrich their old ones. They routinely canvas from staff, volunteers, and donors. Successful organizations are learning organizations, deliberately encouraging teams to be alert to new ideas and using staff development opportunities to help build the networks necessary to identify potentially fruitful ideas.

8.     Focus Innovation on Human Needs: Planning should take into account the human needs of supporters. Innovation is often triggered by falling numbers, participation, or satisfaction, but rarely is it triggered by a desire to enhance the wellbeing of those taking part. Enhancements to wellbeing may not be at the root of all innovation, but it should at least be a feature in a charity’s list of considerations.

9.     Focus on Technology: Enhancements to ticketing and auction technology is of particular significance. So too is the continuing integration of mobile technology making it possible to directly engage with proceedings at the event, share experiences, photographs, and social media interactions, etc. Some 80% of fundraisers claim better technology leads to better fundraising. Rather than focus on event functionality per se, technological innovation could be targeted at functionality that allows the individual user to experience a greater sense of wellbeing through their involvement with the event. Of particular interest here would be the needs for connectedness, autonomy, and competence.

10. Create Board Champions: No matter how great the idea or how rosy the revenue forecast might be, an unsupportive management and board can still stifle many potentially outstanding events. A deliberate reflection on the individuals and personalities that would be involved in decision making, actively considering when would be the best stage in the innovation process to involve specific individuals and how. It is particularly important to identify and cultivate champions on a board who, if necessary, will fight in fundraising’s corner and argue for investment in the event. Fundraisers should reflect on what individual board members might be looking to gain from their involvement with the non-profit. In that way, individuals can be drawn into events fundraising in a targeted and meaningful way and it will be much easier to build the network of advocates necessary to give life to new fundraising ideas.

Conclusion

Many non-profits regularly report that they are finding it harder to acquire new donors, harder to hang on to the donors they already have, challenging to maintain a regular stream of content for social media, and tough to maintain a satisfactory level of public profile in a crowded and competitive world where many non-profit voices are all shouting out at the same time. When run well, fundraising events are able to directly address all of these challenges.

Events are often a good source of new supporters and they provide an enjoyable experience for current supporters that encourages them to continue that support. They also provide a great deal of amazing content for social media and, with a good promotional plan and a media partner, events can certainly lift a charity’s profile.

With underwriters and sponsors, good relationship development work with supporters, and proper attention to communication activities in between the event dates, some charities have produced long-standing, highly profitable events that have developed their own core following with hundreds or thousands of people pleased to go back every year for a signature event that encourages supporters to keep giving.

Overall, events can play a major role as part of any fundraising program, and, like any activity, it is important to plan thoroughly, to execute well, and follow up post-event with a suitable strategy and an approach that engages supporters so they stay connected.

Fundraising events can be a great way for organizations to raise money and awareness for their cause. From classic events like a silent auction to more creative concepts such as escape room games or virtual concerts, there are plenty of things fundraisers can do to make events successful and enjoyable for everyone involved.