Events

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What if your event was born and raised on registration fees? How do you transition from them? I've seen and heard of some horrific stories of efforts to change to a no-reg fee environment. At least one nonprofit accomplished the switch successfully.

Over the past couple of months a number of nonprofit executives have reached out to me regarding their fundraising events. You'd be right—and wrong. What I'm really focused upon is getting clarity in your fundraising program objectives and then choosing the vehicles that will achieve those objectives.

When you reduce philanthropy to a transaction, you've placed yourself in the pool with everyone. Your cause becomes identical to everyone else's. Giving as a quid pro quo definitely has its limits—in any community.

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are five trends on software/technology, special events and staffing.

How do you turn participation in a fundraising event into a lasting donor relationship built upon common goals? How do you take responders and turn them into investors?

DoJiggy released this accompanying infographic, "The Value of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising for Non-profits." The infographic notes that peer-to-peer fundraising events open up a much larger audience, as your supporters and participants reach out to their own personal networks that may or may not be involved with your organization. And the proof is in the pudding. For example, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raised $185.3 million via peer-to-peer fundraising events in 2013 alone. Check out the full infographic for more details.

If you are the head of a nonprofit, we urge you to move away from using events to raise money. If you're an MGO who continually gets "asked" to help with an event, do everything you can to convince your boss it's a bad idea. And if you are a development director of a small nonprofit, you have to realize the best way to raise major gifts is to build relationships with donors and ask them directly to support your mission.

The University of Cincinnati Foundation nearly doubled the number of gifts it received this Giving Tuesday. Here are the four online giving best practices it gleaned from the campaign.

Check out the winners of the 2014 FundRaising Success Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence Special Events category from the Jewish Federation of Delaware, Art Institute of Chicago and MSPCA-Angell.