Common Sense Nonprofit Event Planning Advice

Let’s begin with the Big Kahuna piece of advice: Ask yourself WHY you want to do this event.

Were you to bring your event proposal to a wise shaman or mentor, this is the question they would ask you first – well before asking what theme or format you have in mind or what color scheme you want to use!

And yet this is the one question I find nonprofits failing to ask.  Does anyone in leadership on your staff or board think either of these things?

• Events are an inevitable part of the diversified fundraising mix.
• Events are the primary way to generate awareness and funds.

Events are neither inevitable nor primary.

Events are merely a means to an end.

And since they are extremely resource-intensive, one thing is critical — and too many nonprofits skip right over this step. Please, don’t let that be you!

Think long and hard before embarking on a strategy that could potentially derail other more lucrative and cost-effective approaches.

Events have their place, to be sure; it’s up to you to put them in their place. You must take charge, lest your event(s) take charge of you!

What is Your End Goal?

You don’t buy a drill because you need a drill. More likely, you need to create a hole. And there’s something particular you want to fill that hole with, right? Maybe the drill will give you that perfect hole or, perhaps, there’s another more effective tool. It depends on the size and purpose of your desired hole. The same is true with nonprofit special events.

You don’t create an event for the sake of having one.

No matter what one or more board members or other leaders think would be swell. No, you hold an event for a specific purpose. For example, to:

• Build awareness of your mission
• Attract new donors
• Find new volunteers
• Find new users of services
• Cultivate current and future major donors
• Attract corporate support
• Raise $XX,XXX in a short amount of time
• Kick-start a special campaign
• Thank current supporters
• Build a sense of connected community

Once you know your purpose(s) you’re better able to assess if an event is the most effective strategy to yield the desired result.

ACTION STEP (Fill in the blanks): We want to hold an event to accomplish the following, in order of priority (try to limit to your top three objectives):

1. __________________________________
2. __________________________________
3. __________________________________

What Other Non-Event Strategies Will Best Reach Your Ends?

For decision-making purposes, I like to create a matrix with:

1. Purposes on one axis.
2. Strategies on the other axis.
3. Checkmarks in the most relevant columns.

Even though you think everything may be helpful to some extent, all strategies are not created equal for every purpose.

To avoid checking every box, which is a useless exercise, I recommend prioritizing and seriously considering just the top two to four strategies by conducting a quick-and-dirty ROI analysis.

[The checkmarks placed here are not definitive. Nor are the strategies. I’ve filled in this template for one particular charity. You may find certain strategies more or less effective for the purposes I listed. Or for alternative purposes not listed here. For example, if you’ve collected opt-ins for text messaging, you might find video really useful for thanking donors. If you have a vibrant volunteer services program, you might add short-term volunteer activities to your strategies list as a way to attract new donors. And so forth.]

[ROI] What are the Pros/Cons of Each Strategy?

Some strategies may be more likely to help you reach your ends than others.

Some strategies may be significantly more expensive and/or labor-intensive.

Some strategies may be more within your current wheelhouse than others.

You want to consider every angle before settling on your best marketing/fundraising approach.

For example:

EVENT PROS

• Events bring people together. They’re useful for creating and connecting community.
• Events facilitate in-person conversations. They’re useful for major donor cultivation, provided you plan ahead to assure quality conversation by making sure someone is assigned to greet and get to know the folks with whom you wish to build deeper relationships.
• Events are fun. They present a good way to build your brand, make folks feel warm and fuzzy about their engagement with you, and set up your follow-up appeal.
• Events can create memorable favorable impressions. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a good event showcasing your vision, mission and values may be worth 10,000 words.

EVENT CONS

• Events generally reach a narrow number of people. If your goal is creating broad brand awareness, this may be too limiting. If your goal is to attract business sponsors, your target audience may be too small to entice them.
• Events are resource-intensive. While folks are planning the event, you may be losing opportunities for individual annual, major and legacy fundraising.
• Events, on average, cost 50 cents to raise a dollar. When you take into account the true costs, including staff time, most are lucky to break even. So if your goal is primarily to raise money, there are often less expensive ways to do so.
• Events run the risk of being one-and-done. It’s important to incorporate before, during and after tactics to assure it is part and parcel of your overall philanthropy facilitation efforts. You want transformation as a result, not merely one transaction.

Your Homework:

This advice was hard-earned, after three decades of putting on events for five different nonprofits where I served as the chief development officer.  Over time, I learned a thing or two. It all seems very common sense now, but I’ve noticed somehow when we cross the thresholds of our offices we too often take off our common sense hats. Please don’t!

1. Determine your end goal.

2. Brainstorm other strategies that will help you reach your goal.

3. Consider the pros and cons of each strategy.

4. Decide if an event is, in fact, your best strategy to reach this goal. You want to get the best bang for your fundraising buck, right?

5. If so, move forward to plan the event!

In my next article I will share some top proven fundraising event planning tips. Watch this space!

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Photo by Claire Axelrad