Whether you’re gearing up for a year-end or affinity month fundraiser, you will want to prepare well in advance for a successful (and fun!) event. And, if you’re planning your fundraiser during the end of the year, you’ll want to take full advantage of when supporters typically feel the most generous.
Your Fundraising event doesn’t have to be an expensive gala. There are a variety of cost-friendly fundraising event ideas if you work at a nonprofit with a limited budget,. For instance, you could host a potluck or even a fun bowling event that raises money. Before you jump into making your fundraising event a reality, you’ll need to follow these eight steps:
- Identify Your Fundraising Event Purpose and Goals
- Budget for Your Fundraising Event
- Recruit a Fundraising Event Planning Committee
- Consider Your Fundraising Event’s Target Audience
- Organize a Ticket Sales Strategy for Your Fundraising Event
- Schedule Your Fundraising Event
- Review Your Fundraising Event Details
- Express Gratitude to Your Fundraising Event Supporters
By uniting your team to plan well in advance, you can run an effective fundraising event to drive revenue, expand your reach, and strengthen existing supporters’ connections to your organization. Let’s begin.
1. Identify Your Fundraising Event Purpose and Goals
Set clear expectations for your fundraiser, so you know how to measure your success. This way, you can ensure all of your fundraising logistics are on track before you get distracted by the event details.
Begin by quantifying exactly how much fundraising revenue you’d like to raise. From there, you can provide a more informed budget for your fundraising event costs.
To determine your fundraising goal, we recommend reviewing your long-term fundraising plan and creating SMART goals to advance your broader fundraising progress. That way, you can use even your smaller fundraising events to accelerate your larger nonprofit objectives.
SMART goals stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound:
- Specific. A goal that’s clearly defined is much easier to make progress towards. “Raising money for Program X” does not provide enough specificity. Instead, opt for clarifying how much money you’d like to raise, what date you’d like to raise it by, and the strategies you plan on using to raise your funds.
- Measurable. As mentioned above, determining the exact amount of funds you’d like to raise through your event is crucial. However, money is not the only metric to consider in fundraising events. You can also measure metrics like guest attendance and new donor acquisition.
- Achievable. Stretch goals are great, but realistic ones define what’s reachable. Consider your donor base size, the success of previous campaigns, the time of your event, and your average donation size to guide you toward an achievable goal marker.
- Relevant. Keep your goals relevant by connecting them to your event type. For example, if you are running a nonprofit fundraising shoe drive, your plan could involve earning X amount of shoe donations to further your cause.
- Time-bound. Provide a target date for when you’d like to achieve your fundraising event goals. How much do you hope to raise by the end of your event night? Will you be accepting donations for a time following your event?
Regardless of the specific goals you choose to target, you want to be sure they are measurable and quantifiable. That way, you can use evidence that your event was, indeed, a success!
2. Budget for Your Fundraising Event
Choosing a profitable fundraising idea ahead of time can minimize the risk of unexpected costs. Research and compare popular fundraising ideas that have performed well in the past and explore ideas that will engage your target audience. You never know; through your research, you might find that a hybrid or online event may work better than an in-person event.
When you work on your budgeting and planning, it’s not all just about dollars and cents. For instance, let’s say you want to send printed invites in the mail in addition to email invites. Printing costs can add up, but instead of covering this expense yourself, consider getting local businesses to sponsor the printing in exchange for free marketing. It’ll help them promote their brand and also help you save money.
Your budget should account for space rental costs, catering, entertainment, and other relevant fees. Also, you’ll want to raise more money than you expend to reach your fundraising goal. So take the time to think carefully about every possible expense and try to look towards outside sources for support.
Finding outside sources can but does not have to mean securing corporate sponsorships. Nonprofits can also ask donors for in-kind donations. If an organization is hosting a silent auction, for example, it can reach out to donors to help them procure exciting auction items.
3. Recruit a Fundraising Event Planning Committee
To ensure the success of your fundraising event, you’ll need volunteer help. So, look to your board members, staff, and volunteer team to become members of your event planning committee. Securing their time will lay the groundwork for a reliable planning team.
To reduce confusion and maximize your event payoff, you can organize your volunteers by leadership position based on your fundraising event type. With standardized volunteer roles in place, you can easily delegate necessary tasks. For ideas, some typical volunteer roles include:
- Ticket Sales Manager
- Catering and Venue Manager
- Volunteer Manager
- Donor Outreach Manager
- Marketing and Promotions Manager
However, the work isn’t over after recruiting volunteers. It’s essential to train them so that they can fulfill their responsibilities successfully. Consider including a volunteer handbook to keep all volunteer and event-related information in one place for supporters to reference. Include items like a welcome letter, volunteer role descriptions, contact information, and conduct expectations in your handbook.
4. Consider Your Fundraising Event’s Target Audience
Regardless of how well-planned your fundraiser is, if people don’t know about your event, they won’t attend. That’s why defining and targeting your event audience with a reliable promotional strategy.
Nail down your audience and their demographics, so you know exactly where and how to reach them. You can do this by segmenting your audience by similar traits, starting with donor type (small, medium, major, first-time, and lapsed donors). Then, within each donor segment, find their average career type, age, location, etc.
For instance, if many of your major donors are above middle age and respond well to email and direct mail communications, you might consider implementing those communication platforms into your event promotional strategy.
Depending on your target audience research, other platforms you can use to build your multichannel marketing strategy include:
- Email marketing
- Direct mail
We recommend attracting attendees using various promotional methods and leveraging your nonprofit website and current communications. Remember that some people will respond to print, while others prefer digital. As your RSVP deadline gets closer, recruit a team of volunteers to work the phones and encourage people to attend.
5. Organize a Ticket Sales Strategy for Your Event Fundraiser
Assemble your planning committee to determine a ticket sales strategy. You should begin selling tickets to your event as soon as possible to increase your potential guest count. To create a straightforward ticketing process, keep the following factors in mind:
- Registration process. Where will you sell your fundraising event tickets? Many nonprofits will create a designated event landing page on their website with an embedded registration form. Create a simplified registration form so guests can sign up with ease and define prices and packages with clear descriptions.
- Ticket packages. Reward early buyers with a discounted ticket rate or promo code.
Consider selling a higher-priced VIP ticket option or a family/group ticket option at a discounted rate.
- Attendee management. If you’re conducting online registration, you’ll have a lot of incoming donor data to manage. Partnering with fundraising event management software like Bloomerang or CharityEngine can help you tidy up loose ends. The best part is these software applications integrate directly with your existing nonprofit CRM.
With a thorough ticket sales strategy, you’ll be in great shape to manage and organize your attendee data.
6. Schedule Your Fundraising Event
As your planning continues for your event, determine the program schedule for your event. Lay out exactly which activity is happening at what time, so you can ensure guests are constantly engaged, and your team can follow your program schedule without a hitch.
If you plan on having speakers or video presentations, time everything. For instance, tell speakers how long they have to make their speech. Also, before you send out invitations, ensure you communicate dress code expectations if applicable. Think about the event, theme, and what you want participants to experience.
If your participants are expecting a fun dance-a-thon event, for instance, choose music that fits well with your theme and maintains an upbeat atmosphere.
7. Review Your Fundraising Event Details
You know the saying – practice makes perfect! Host a practice session or run-through with your team and volunteers to clear up any confusion and review individual event-day responsibilities and your event venue’s general layout.
For instance, everyone should know the location of the sign-in tables and the general, expected flow of guests. Your team should also know how to answer common guest questions or point to someone who can. In short, take time to get everyone prepared and ready for your fundraising event. Remember, the day becomes much less stressful when everyone knows how things will go.
8. Express Gratitude to Your Fundraising Event Supporters
Finally, thank everyone for attending your fundraising event! On the day of your event, make it a point to thank your donors and all your supporters and team members who helped you create a memorable event.
It’s also important to follow up after the event with thank-you messages. Consider making special calls or even sending printed thank-you notes. Even if you think people know you’re grateful, attendees will appreciate hearing about your gratitude and how their attendance or donation made a difference.
Wrapping Up
With a couple of planning steps and practice runs, you’ll be ready to hit your fundraising event out of the park! Remember to mingle and enjoy your event day. After all, it’s evidence of your team’s hard work. Chat with supporters and thank them for attending. You never know who might turn up at your event, so be open to facilitating new and engaging conversations.
Interested in more fundraising advice? Check out our recent articles on how to fundraise for every kind of event.
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