Donors in Training

Greg Elfers, senior vice president of revenue development at LLS, spoke with FS about the challenges of special-event fundraising and the organization’s donor-development goals, and offered advice on donor and event-participant relationship management.

FundRaising Success: What are the challenges of running
such an expansive special-events program? How do you face them?
Greg Elfers: Like many of our counterparts, we are top heavy in special-event fundraising with our special-event campaigns. These campaigns all require a fairly high level of staff involvement, and a
significant portion of any nonprofit’s expenses is staffing. [We’re trying] to identify areas of revenue that are less staff intensive and result in a better net return. We’re in the process of developing our strategic long-range plan, and one of our long-term goals over the next three to five years is to have more of our revenue coming through non-campaign sources, like donor development, which have a low cost and high return.