Fundraising Events Taking too Much Time?
If you’re in fundraising, chances are you’ve hosted an event. Or two. Or two hundred. But why? Why is it that we think that an event will yield the most impactful fundraising revenue? Do we really believe that an event is our most productive use of time? And yet, most people believe fundraising = events.
If you’re like most fundraisers, you quickly realize that events are a LOT of time and work. When you look at time spent and event expenses, a majority of events don’t yield enough revenue to make much of an impact at all.
I want to let you in on a little secret – minimizing the number of fundraiser events you host will not only free up precious time for you to do other tasks, but it will actually enable you to build a robust fundraising program that yields the financial results needed to make a much bigger impact.
But, how do you even begin to make this shift in culture and focus your time on raising more non-event money?
Resist the urge to say yes to every event idea that comes your way - have a process in place to assess whether the event makes sense for your organization or not.
Consider a Special Event Audit to determine what the actual ROI is for each event - Examining revenue year over year, expenses, staff and volunteer time spent to plan and execute the event, and friends/new donors acquired are all indicators of whether or not your event should continue.
Don’t host more than 2 fundraiser events each year – focus on the ones that generate the greatest revenue, provide a platform to share your story, connect with the most well-qualified prospective donors, and minimize staff and volunteer time spent to raise funds.
Conduct events only if the ultimate outcome will be identifying and engaging new philanthropy volunteers and/or donors, or increasing gifts from current donors
Focus your time and efforts on conversations about the mission of your organization and listen to what is important to your supporters.
Build a volunteer fundraising structure that focuses on building relationships and connecting people to your mission one person at a time.
Invite people to support your cause with no strings attached (no promise of a great event, no sponsorship benefits highlighted). Just ask people to make a gift. The more you ask, the more you realize that people actually want to help. They want to be part of your tribe. And, they want their gift to make the biggest impact possible - to support the cause rather than pay for an event expense!
What do you think? Do you feel like you spend more time than you need to on fundraising events with very low yield? Schedule a free call with us and we would be happy to discuss some more profitable alternatives.
