Events can be great fun, excellent for networking and for catching up with people in the community, but sometimes I wonder how good some of the ones I’ve attended have been in supporting the organization’s fundraising objectives. For example, some larger events, like fundraising galas, can struggle to raise funds above the costs involved in putting them together in the first place. When you factor in the time spent by staff and volunteers in organizing a gala, it could even be a money-loser. In such cases, is “raising awareness” of your cause at such an event enough?
The fact is, different events have different objectives. Some are all about raising money on the night, while donor cultivation events, or non-ask events, can be highly effective in supporting your fundraising program in other, sometimes more significant, ways. In this two part series, I share some of the ways to use these events to best effect.
Building an engaged contact list. Depending upon the nature of the event and the guests who show up, you may or may not have people’s contact details. I’ve been to a number of events where I was invited as a guest of someone else, so the organization didn’t have any way of contacting me afterwards. Nor at any point in the evening was I given the opportunity to provide my information. Other events I’ve been to were more open affairs, where people were able to just show up. Again, there was no effort to get my name so that they could follow up with me. Worse, on some occasions, I was asked for my details, and I didn’t hear a thing from them at all.
At a time when building a database of supporters is becoming more difficult and expensive, not capturing names and contact details of people who have already taken the time to come to one of your events is a big mistake. You could be missing out on a valuable opportunity to bring on new supporters in the longer term.
Building engagement with your mission. Some of the most powerful and successful events I’ve run have been mission-focused. These events are intended to move, engage and persuade people to become more involved. Unlike galas, where there are a lot of distractions and key messages can get lost, all the attention of mission-focused events are on the cause.
The key to making these events a success is having a good match between the people you invite and what you seek to achieve as an organization, a strong pull such as a good host and venue, and an opportunity for really powerful storytelling, where existing and prospective donors can hear first-hand how their support can make a difference. If possible, have people who can talk from their own experience of how the work has benefitted them, ideally in person but even by video.
Not unlike your Case for Support, and depending on the type of event, the evening should even have its own story arc, where people are taken on a journey towards a conclusion where guests feel an emotional pull to get more involved.
Don’t just focus on the money. When people come to an event, they are looking for an experience. At a donor cultivation event, or in fact, at all fundraising events, this experience should leave them feeling good about being there, and wanting to become more engaged in some way.
Therefore, when designing your event, you must think about the experience you want people to have and the feeling that you want people to leave with. When people are moved, excited and engaged, and when they can see what their role might be in changing the world, they are much more likely to be with you for the future, not just for the evening. Ultimately this will lead to people wanting to take out their chequebooks, and what’s more, they will feel good about it.
Give people choices. When you have a range of people in a room with different levels of involvement and different capacities to give, its important to give people options with regard to how and when they might like to support you. When you put everyone on the same level in terms of the approach, you could risk alienating some, while missing a great opportunity with others.
I recently worked on an event where we had guests who were potential major donors, people who were very influential in other ways, as well as those whose giving capacity was much smaller. We also had people there who had never heard of us before, while others knew us well. Because of this wide range of guests in attendance, we decided to give people choices that ranged from making a donation to simply asking people to agree to us staying in touch. As a result, not only did we receive more donations than ever before, we significantly grew our contact list. In addition, many guests offered to connect us to people and organizations who have considerable capacity to support the cause.
About the Author
Mena Gainpaulsingh is a fundraising professional and consultant specializing in fundraising strategy and management, from capital campaigns to grantwriting. She is the founder and CEO of Purposeful Fundraising, a consultancy firm that supports organizations to strengthen their fundraising capacity and to raise more money. You can reach Mena at mena@purposefulfundraising.com.
