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Your Mama was right

February 26, 2010 By Sandy Leave a Comment

Yep, your Mama was right.  Everytime she reminded you to say “thank you.”  She knew what she was doing.

Everyone needs to be thanked.  In the world of fundraising, it’s a critical action.

I remember in one fundraising job I had, the first thing we would do following an event was to write the thank-you letters.  If I didn’t get started on them immediately, my Executive Director would aggravate me until I did.  It was a great habit to develop and I used it throughout my career.

I ran across a resource today that I want to share with you.  Lisa Sargent is a nonprofit copywriter and has a great website with some good resources on it.  One thing she offers is some free thank-you letter samples.  Check out her site at www.lisasargent.com.

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5 Tips for Maximizing Special Events

February 24, 2010 By Sandy 3 Comments

Since I’m sharing about Special Events this week, I thought I’d post some tips for making them better. Here are 5 tips for maximizing your events:

 1.       Clearly define each event you hold.

This is so important! Is the event a friend-raiser or fund-raiser?  Are you having the event to raise awareness?  Knowing your purpose will help you set the direction and expectations for the event to ensure success.  It will also help you narrow down the list of donors or potential donors you invite to the event so that you are getting the people that will help you meet your expectations and goals for the event.

 2.      Know how many events you can handle.

Be careful not to overload your staff and volunteers with too many events.  You want your events to be well-planned and effective.  One or two big events that are broad-reaching into the community are much better than lots of little events that use up all your time and energy.  Make sure that the events you do are a big deal to your staff, volunteers, donors, and the community.

 3.  Use special events as a chance to involve businesses.

Event sponsorships are a great way to involve local businesses and corporations in your special events.  If your event garners publicity, particularly through the media, you can probably secure at least one corporate sponsor.  Good candidates for sponsors are banks, communications companies, and other businesses that have broad target audiences.

 4.  Use a planning timeline.

Once you set the date for your event, use a timeline to back up from the event to plan all the details.  You can include things like sending a press release to the local media a week before the event, confirming with a caterer two days before the event, and so forth.  This great planning tool can help you keep track of all the details and avoid letting things fall between the cracks.

 5.  Use a committee of volunteers to plan the event.

Recruit volunteers to help you plan and execute your event.  You can get help pulling the event off and you will probably get some good ideas, too.  It will be much easier tending to all the details with extra hands.  Plus, involving volunteers in the work you are doing is a great way to get to know them and build a relationship.  After all, it’s all about relationships!

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Is it time to put your event to rest?

February 23, 2010 By Sandy 2 Comments

We’ve all been there.  We have a special event we’ve done a few times (sometimes LOTS of times), but it’s losing its luster.  And you realize it’s time to make the hard decision to stop doing it.  It can unpleasant, but the time comes when you must decide to stop hosting a particular event. 

Here are some signs that the time has come to retire a special event:

  • Revenue from the event is slipping.
  • Fewer people are attending.
  • Media sponsors aren’t interested anymore.
  • Corporate sponsors aren’t interested either.
  • If you included labor cost in your financial summary, you would definitely be losing money on the event.
  • Everyone is exhausted at the prospect of planning the event.

Unless the event is accomplishing something specific that you aren’t getting through any other channel (awareness or friend-raising), it’s time to shut it down. 

I remember working at the local food bank and the time came to stop doing a 5K race that we had done for several years.  We just weren’t raising enough money to justify doing it, and we had several other events during the year that were satisfying our need for publicity.  It was a tough decision, but we made it, and stopped holding that event.  It was very freeing actually.  And we had time and energy to put into other things.

Think about what else you could be doing with your time and energy that might generate more money, awareness, relationships, and goodwill for your organization.  You may be missing a big opportunity simply because you’re stuck in a rut with a particular event.

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Learning Lessons from your Special Event

February 22, 2010 By Sandy 3 Comments

It’s important to wrap up every special event you hold with a ‘Lessons Learned’ or post-mortem meeting.

After each special event, you should gather the committee members who worked on the event, staff and volunteers who participated, and other key people together to debrief them.  The only way you can make the event even better next year is to uncover what needs improvement.  Don’t trust your opinion to be the only important one – you need to hear from a variety of people about what worked and what didn’t.

Ask some of these questions and record your answers.  This will help you plan for improving the event next year

  • Did the event accomplish its purpose?
  • What went well?
  • What needs to be improved if the event is held again?
  • Did attendees seem to enjoy themselves?
  • Should this event be held again?

Be sure to put your answers in writing.  I can’t stress this enough.  By the time next year comes, you probably won’t remember all the things you meant to do differently.  If your Lessons Learned are in writing, you can simply refer to the document and get things right.

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