Fundraising events are necessary for every nonprofit organization. They give you the opportunity to interact with donors, give back to the community, and raise money for your cause.
Poorly planned fundraising events, however, can be detrimental to your overall fundraising strategy.
4 Tips for Planning a Successful Fundraising Event
Plan Ahead!
Event planning requires a lot of planning ahead. From finding the venue to organizing the guest list, it’s important to give yourself plenty of time to finalize all the details.
If you hold annual events, it might be beneficial to outline all the tasks that go into planning that particular event. This can save you and your event planning team a lot of time – and help volunteers stay organized should they help.
Use Your Raiser’s Edge Platform
Did you know your Raiser’s Edge software can help you plan your fundraising event? It sure can!
Raiser’s Edge software can help you manage your event to-do list, create and maintain the seating chart, and compare your event performance to the previous event. Use your RE software to your advantage and spend more time creating the experience than focusing on the nitty gritty details.
Send a Series of Personalized Marketing Emails
Email is one of the best ways to spread the word about your upcoming fundraising event. Using a series of emails, you can target specific donors (local vs. not-local, attended past events, high roller donors, etc.), and tell them about your event.
- Send an email to your local donors and invite them to your event.
- Tell your high-roller donors about your upcoming event and ask them to donate (or come to the event).
- Let your whole list know about the event and how they can get involved.
- Send reminder emails!
Send Thank You Notes!
After your event is over, whether your attendees donated or not, send them thank you notes to show how much you appreciated their support. You can also tell them how much you raised, how it’s going to impact the mission, and how grateful you are to have such amazing supporters.
If your organization benefits kids, you could have kids write a special message inside the thank you notes as a little extra touch 🙂
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Fundraising events can be fun – and are a great way to raise money and support for your cause. Follow these tips to ensure your event is a success!