Hosting a fundraising event is a big undertaking, but it’s almost always worth it. While you might have other ways of collecting donations and connecting with donors and volunteers, events can be a great addition to your organization’s efforts. Here are some reasons you should consider hosting an event:
Bring in more volunteers
Events are a perfect time to recruit more volunteers for future activities and experiences with your organization. During your event, you’ll have brought together a large group of people and many of them have probably never volunteered with your organization before. Events are a good time to explain to prospective volunteers why contributing their time is beneficial to your organization and can be a rewarding experience for them. Events can be useful for connecting with younger people. According to Nonprofit Hub, hosting a nonprofit event near a college campus can be a great way to get students involved.
“Event management software can do wonders to help you streamline your registration process.”
Make sure to have people onsite that can help recruit new volunteers, and try to make the registration process for interested parties as easy as possible. Event management software can do wonders to help you streamline your registration process, and get new people set up for the next volunteer opportunity. Software also organizes volunteer information as it is added to the system, making it easy to access at a later date.
Gaining more donations
While there’s a lot of focus right now on online and mobile fundraising, events are still a successful fundraising tool. However, the success of your event depends on how it is run. Consider selling tickets to the event or having a suggested donation upon entry. Auctions and raffles can be useful tools for getting more donations once attendees are admitted. Stations or kiosks that accept donations or provide people with a way to register and donate via mobile devices are also a good idea.
According to Fundraising123, it’s also important to show donors how their money is being used, so consider providing event attendees with a pamphlet or displaying some posters that illustrate the impact of their donations. Donation management software can be a useful tool when it comes to collecting and presenting data. The software tracks and manages all of your donations and can make it easy to present that information to your donors.
Create a stronger presence in the community
Events are going to give you a way to expand your organizations influence and image among your community. They can provide people with a personal experience and build trust with donors and volunteers. Events also put your cause at the forefront of people’s minds. Even if they don’t donate or volunteer the day of an event, it is good to get people to think about your organization and the causes it helps. This allows you to gain or continue to build a positive image in local communities. According to Knowhownonprofit, it’s a good idea to acknowledge people who have helped your organization in some way. This can be donors, volunteers or board members. By showing your commitment to valuable people, it gains trust with event attendees and workers. Additionally it helps build a positive image.
Events are the perfect time to start building new relationships with donors and volunteers.Start important relationships
Events can jumpstart important relationships between your organization and volunteers and donors. While only so much relationship building can be done at the event, the basis for a strong future relationship can be created. Once the event ends, it is important to continue to work on the connections that were established. Donor management software can help you manage these relationships by sending out thank you emails, tracking donation amounts and keeping important donor and volunteer contact information. Software makes it easier to keep in contact with and utilize the connections you’ve made at your event.