5 Event Fundraising Best Practices

Fundraising events can be extremely valuable sources of revenue and awareness for any nonprofit organization. However, there is a lot more to successfully pulling one off than mobilizing a few volunteers and getting participants to encourage pledge donations to walk (or run or swim or bike, etc.).

In a webinar presented by nonprofit technology solutions provider Convio, 5 Best Practices for Event Fundraising: Proven Success Strategies of the Top Run-Walk-Ride Events, James Young, senior open strategy manager of Convio, and Jeff Shuck, president and CEO of event fundraising consultants Event 360, discussed the important aspects of executing successful fundraising events.

The webinar was based on information gleaned from a joint research study by Convio and Event 360, in which more than 170 Convio nonprofit clients using the company’s TeamRaiser for Special Events product were examined.

All fundraisers agree that, by and large, the goal of a fundraising event is to raise money. The question is, how do you raise money at events, especially when only about 30 percent of fundraising event participants actually raise any money, according to the study. A major key, Shuck said, is to focus on the right metrics. Problem is, most nonprofit organizations don't.

“One of the things that I think we all believe in the special events world and in the nonprofit wold is one of the ways that you increase money is by getting more people there,” he said. “What we found is that there’s not a very strong relationship between the number of people who attend an event and the total amount that is raised. Where there is a relationship … there is an extremely strong relationship between the number of gifts that are given and the amount of money raised.

“So really the trick right from the beginning, as we’re looking to improve the fundraising performance of events, is not just to focus on getting attendance to be increased,” he added, “but we want attendance from people who will actually solicit donations from other people.”

That leads to Shuck’s first best practice.

1. Recruit more effectively
Many organizations have a bias toward attendance, Shuck pointed out. But it’s more important to get people who are going to bring donors to participate than it is to get the most participants period — it’s a matter of quality over quantity.

Shuck suggested that instead of targeting a mass audience, target past fundraising event participants. “And instead of targeting all past participants, target those past participants who are actually fundraisers,” he said. Other groups to target include fundraising team captains, because team captains generally raise more money than people who are just on fundraising teams. But don’t ignore people on fundraising teams, because they generally raise more money than people who are not on fundraising teams. Shuck also advised that you target active supporters on your website and social networks, as well as promote family and team registration.

Once you know who to target, how do you recruit more effectively from a content side? Shuck offered these tips:

• You want as much traffic to your registration page as possible. That involves search engine optimization and finding out where you stand in Google search.
• Think about promotional points, partner sites, Facebook sites. Look where traffic is coming from that’s relevant to you, and make sure your registration pages are linked there.
• Segment. “Don’t ask everyone to do the same thing equally. Target your messages. Some people are coming to your event because they have a link to your cause. Others are coming because they like walking. Others are coming because their family members are asking them to come. Segment messages based on their drivers to participation,” Shuck advised.

2. The power of registration fees
In the study, Convio and Event 360 found that events that have registration fees end up yielding more money than those that don’t. Many fundraisers shy away from event registration fees because they create a barrier to participation. But knowing that up to 70 percent or more of event participants don’t raise any money for your organization, sometimes that can be a good thing, Shuck said.

“We don’t necessarily always want 8,000 people to come. Why do you want 8,000 people to come for free if only 30 percent are going to raise money?” he asked. Registration fees help filter out the people who weren’t going to donate any money or solicit others to give anyway. This sets the expectation that you're going to ask for money at the event.

However, Shuck did provide some caveats to registration fees:

• Registration fees will slow participation growth. If you really need to get 5,000 people there, the easiest way to do that is to make it free. Events with registration fees grow slower than those without, he said, although they raise more money.
• They don’t guarantee that participants will fundraise. You have to do more to convert them later.
• There are times when it’s smart to have no registration fee. For example, if your event is small or new and you’d like to get many participants to grow the event and establish its reputation.

“Registration fees are a way of setting value to the participant,” Shuck said. “When the fee is zero, it sets a very low value in their mind about how to measure your event and mission.”

3. Fundraising activation
As obvious as it sounds, it’s important to mobilize your fundraising event participants to actually raise funds. Shuck offered a few ways to do that:

• Fundraising minimums. Set minimums to let participants know there’s an expectation to raise funds.
• E-mail prompts. Successful groups actively use e-mail. The sooner an organization starts sending out targeted messages, the more money it will raise. Shuck provided the example of Breast Cancer 3-Day for the Cure, an event that Event 360 helps Susan G. Komen for the Cure organize. For the event, which raises about $100 million a year on 15 events around the country, Susan G. Komen sends segmented e-mail communications. Someone on a fundraising team gets different messages than someone not on a team. Someone who registered two weeks ago gets a different message than someone who registered eight weeks ago. Breast cancer survivors get different messages than supporters who are not breast cancer survivors. The organization talks to people differently but keeps them all engaged in segmented ways.
• Make it easy. Meet people where they are. Suggest content. Have template e-mails in place that participants can use. Set up URL short tests. Integrate communications into Facebook and other social networks.

Shuck cautioned the use of incentive levels. “Incentive levels do work, but sometimes they work too well,” he warned. “Sometimes when you have an incentive level of $50, people will fundraise to $50 and then stop. This a very complicated subject. You have to be very careful how you do it.”

He also pointed out that the study showed that 5 percent of fundraising event participants raise about 60 percent of the money. Therefore, you really want to know who those 5 percent are: who they are, what their spouses' names are, what their kids' names are, whether they had a good experience and how you can get them more involved.

4. Help your fundraisers succeed
To help stimulate as much activity to get your fundraising event participants to ask others and work for you, Young provided these tips:

• Provide early registration. The longer the time period participants have, the more opportunities they have to ask on your behalf.
• Show them their progress in relation to the goal and to others. People like to know where they stand, just as traditional donors love to know how their funds are used.
• Send scheduled coaching messages. Continuous communications keeps participants engaged prior to the event, and coaching provides directions on how to help.
• Stoke competition. People are competitive. Remind them where they stand, and fuel their competitive fire.
• Set and send incentives. Participants will strive to meet those goals.
• Acknowledge and/or reward milestones.
• Encourage team fundraising.

5. Focus on retention
“It costs less to have someone who participated in an event before come back than it does for you to acquire a brand-new participant,” Young said. “In some cases, that cost can be zero.”

Young offered these tips for event fundraising retention:

• Acknowledge past participants. Recognize the efforts that they’ve made in the past so they feel appreciated and want to come back. And get them back as early as possible to maximize their effectiveness in raising funds.
• Keep in touch year-round to maintain a relationship.
• Turn fundraising event participants into full-time constituents. Event participation churn is about 20 percent to 30 percent higher than your general constituent churn, Young said. If you can take event participants and turn them into constituents of your entire organization, you have a better chance retaining them overall. “Moving them into a deeper relationship is always a good thing,” Young said.