By Glen Newhart
Whether a massive national organization or a hyperlocal grassroots group, fundraisers are a key way for nonprofits to increase visibility in their community and generate much-needed revenue. These campaigns or events are a nonprofit’s chance to highlight its mission, connect with longtime or brand-new advocates and, of course, enhance the ability to support the cause that makes it tick. Pretty important, right?
With so much riding on fundraising events, a solid plan and process is required to make them a success. It takes creativity, teamwork and determination, but even the tiniest organizations can have a hit — there are just a few simple steps to keep in mind.
1. Determine Your Audience
Knowing who is invested in your organization — or who you’d like to become invested — is crucial to developing an event. For example, if you’re focused on encouraging young people to vote, a black tie affair with a four-figure price tag probably isn’t the right move, just as a rock concert wouldn’t be the best avenue for gaining support from C-level executives at white collar companies. Do your research into demographics of your existing supporters, and even your competitors’ supporters. How old are they? What causes do they seem to care about, and what events do they like to attend? Social media is an excellent, easy-to-use and low-cost tool for this.
Many organizations will find they have a very diverse base of support, which is fantastic. That gives the opportunity to host a number of events and programs that can appeal to a wide array of needs and interests. At Tri-City Hospital Foundation, we are fortunate to have the backing of thousands of wonderful members of the North County community – young and old, from all walks of life. Accordingly, we make an effort to address multiple audiences with our regular events: the outdoors, low-cost Tails on the Trails, a fall golf tournament and our high-end winter gala, Baile de Esperanza/Diamond Ball. Recently, we recognized the need for a moderately priced, interactive fundraiser that appeals to men and women from different age groups, and our upcoming James Bond-themed Casino Night was born. We’re looking forward to the new and valuable connections we’re bound to forge this March.
2. Set a Goal
You won’t be able to tell if your event was successful without one! What are you working to make a positive impact on? How much will that positive impact cost? When does it need to happen?
Understanding where you need to be will allow you to build a complete plan, effectively manage resources and determine a feasible process for meeting your goals. It may take one event, or it may take multiple events spanned out over several years.
3. Create a Timeline
And understand your resources. Whether you have a full staff or run a two-person show and needs tons of volunteers, you can handle your event — you just need to plan, plan, plan. Back out from your event or campaign launch date and decide when you need to drop invitations, connect with media, recruit volunteers, secure sponsorships … anything that needs to happen. From there, assign leaders for each task to ensure things are completed without a hitch — dividing and conquering and enlisting help is crucial.
4. Get The Word Out
As mentioned earlier, social media is a fantastic and essentially free tool all nonprofits can benefit from. Create a Facebook event, add regular posts to your feeds and put some budget toward “boosting” posts and tweets — you’d be surprised how far even $10 can go. Do your due diligence researching hashtags that make sense for your target attendee and include them as much as possible — it will help call attention to your content and encourage people to share — and call upon your volunteers and supporters to get their friends and loved ones involved.
A PR firm can be a huge help for connecting with print, digital and TV media and ensuring details on your event are seen by as many relevant eyes as possible. Even if keeping an agency on retainer all year long isn’t in the cards for your budget, considering hiring one on a project basis to give your campaign that extra oomph.
Email marketing is another simple and relatively low-cost method for communicating your organization’s mission and goals. Programs like Constant Contact or GetResponse allow you to easily build a database of your existing supporters and send nicely designed emails, complete with reporting on clicks, opens and more. And, put a call-to-action to sign up for newsletters on your website to continue to build your lists and reach more people. Growing your database and establishing an e-marketing program beyond just events will also help in the long-term sense to appeal for other critical, sought-after modes of support like planned giving and bequests.
Finally, reach out to other local organizations, like chambers of commerce or vendors you do business with. Many will be willing to share your news with their members and customers or trade advertising for event tickets.
5. Document Well
It’s the big day — take lots of pictures! Great visuals highlighting your attendees having fun and showing support are an excellent way to gain engagement and awareness on social media, recap your success in an email or traditional newsletter or send to media to increase your organization’s visibility and share how much of a success your event was. This will give existing and potential donors a sense of “feel-goods” — a huge factor in giving to charities — as well as showcase your ability to follow through on events and enact change in the community. Integrity is everything!
Glen Newhart, a certified fundraising executive, brings more than 20 years of experience to his role asTri-City Hospital Foundation’s president. Newhart has been honored with a number of prestigious professional recognitions and accolades, including being named one of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ “Outstanding Fundraising Professional” award winners.
