Nonprofit fundraising events are a great way to engage your nonprofit community, widen your network, attract new donors and volunteers and fundraise for your cause.
However, to get the positive results you're looking for, events take thoughtful planning–and lots of hard work from your team.
Here are eight ways to help you successfully organize and manage a nonprofit event.
Identify Your Goals
First, define who your event is for and how much you aim to raise. From here, you'll be able to clarify additional goals you need to be successful. Will you need nonprofit volunteers to help run the event? If so, how many? What venue will work best? Will you seek out sponsors for donations and in-kind gifts? Will you need media attention to get the word out about your nonprofit event? Clearly outlining your goals and needs early on will help the event run smoothly.
Create an Event Budget and Schedule
Make sure you allocate appropriate resources for your event by creating an event budget and listing all required expenses. These include labor costs, promotional materials, space rental costs, and a buffer for unexpected expenses. If you're seeking sponsorship from a for-profit company, your budget will help you identify what kind of support would be most helpful.
Once you have your budget, create a schedule that outlines critical dates, like advertising deadlines, invitations and bookings. To keep everyone on the same page on the day of the event, create a run-of-show that outlines a detailed itinerary for the fundraising event, including locations and staffing.
Choose a Theme
Setting a theme for your event will get your nonprofit community excited and engaged. From a classic masquerade to a throwback disco night, event themes can come in all different shapes and sizes. Try polling your members, staff or volunteers for popular ideas. Whatever you choose, make sure that it is something that will connect with your target audience.
Recruit Volunteers
If you're planning a large-scale event, you'll need volunteers. Get the word out to your nonprofit network that you're looking for support, and make sure you have an easy system for volunteers to sign up to get involved.
GivePulse offers a straightforward, all-in-one platform to recruit, manage, communicate with, and schedule volunteers for events while selling tickets to attendees.
Set Up Online Registration
Now that your event is on the calendar, you'll need a simple way for guests to register and pay for their tickets. An online registration system that connects with your nonprofit database will streamline registration, payment and communication with guests.
Through GivePulse, your nonprofit can sell tickets, track attendees and get your guests excited with fun updates and reminders.
Promote Your Event
It's time to get the word out! Share news of your event with your nonprofit community by sending out invitations, posting on social media and asking volunteers and members to invite their friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all of your marketing channels.
When you list your event on GivePulse, it's easy to share it on your organization's social media accounts. Our platform will also encourage your guests to post when they register so that others can get involved, too.
Make it Effortless to Give
Make it easy for donors to contribute to your cause. By accepting donations online, you offer an accessible way for everyone to give what they can, whether they can make it to your event or not. GivePulse makes it simple to set up a fundraiser and accept donations online. And, because it also tracks event attendance and volunteer engagement, you'll have a comprehensive way of measuring the success of your event–through hours worked, gifts given, and tickets purchased.
Streamline Your Event Management With a Nonprofit CRM
Organizing a fundraising event can be stressful and complex. One of the best things you can do before getting started is to invest in a nonprofit CRM to streamline your process.
Through GivePulse, you can create, schedule, and promote one-time and recurring events, recruit and schedule volunteers, manage ticket sales and track your donations all in one place. Once the event is over, you'll have all of your data stored online to measure your success, recognize your supporters and use everything you've learned to make an even bigger impact next time.
Ready to make your next nonprofit event your best one yet? Schedule a demo with GivePulse today.
About GivePulse
GivePulse's mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights. We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and volunteerism.
Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, GivePulse works with 650,000+ groups, including colleges and universities, nonprofits, businesses, K-12/school districts and cities and municipalities. Together, we connect millions of people in an effort to create positive social change.
Start making a difference today by visiting www.givepulse.com.