Fall is right around the corner. It’s a great time of year to feel good, celebrate family and friends and GET OUTSIDE to soak up the remaining weeks of Vitamin D! For many nonprofits and schools, Fall is the peak of fundraising season. Our experience as New England’s pioneering peer-to-peer fundraising software provider gives us insights on how to ensure you have successful campaigns to raise money for vital programs.
Below we share the top keys to success in your autumn event.
Emphasize Fundraising and Stop Relying on Registration Fees
- Create a fundraising culture in the event. Many organizations are content to simply charge a registration fee and recoup their costs and possibly make a little more. This approach ignores the immense potential of peer-to-peer fundraising.
- Organizations that charge little to nothing to attend an event and instead require that the attendee raise money for the organization tend to do so much better. The math here is difficult to refute. You can charge someone $20 to attend the event or ask them to raise $100.
- The end result is always more attendance and much higher revenue for the event. For those of you who are worried about attendance, keep in mind that it’s better to have an event with 100 attendees who each raise $500 for you than 500 attendees who pay a $20 registration fee.
Make team fundraising easy and fun!
- Events that allow and provide incentives for team fundraising raise the most money.
- Costumes, costumes, costumes! So much fun and great photo opportunities.
- Teams that encourage each other, motivate each other, and hold themselves accountable raise the most money.
- Invest in a post event celebration versus the swag bag. Make your event a happening that people look forward to attending every year.
Communication + Encouragement = Fundraising
- Update your membership in the weeks and months leading up to the event.
- Let them know how much has been raised so far and how much is left to go.
- Recognize the top fundraising teams and individuals.
- Remind everyone about why it is important to raise money and who will benefit from their efforts.
Have goals and display your progress
- The goal can be dollars, or number of donors, or attendees, etc…
- Remember that it’s just as important for your event attendees to have their own goals.
- Your fundraising website should require that event registrants set a goal and the system should remind them of their progress throughout the process.
Sponsors
- Your Sponsor should have their own fundraising teams in the event. Peer to Peer fundraising is the perfect form of social responsibility form the company’s perspective. Instead of simply writing a check, employees can leverage their own networks to generate donations to vastly increase the sponsor’s impact on the organization without scaring any shareholders.
- Find Local food/drink vendors to provide free or discounted items.
- Demonstrations and booths from small business vendors can also add to the fun. Massage chairs, local restaurants, arts and crafts vendors can all personally benefit by being at your event.
Have a deadline!
- Open ended fundraising campaigns are much less likely to hit fundraising goals than peer-to-peer campaigns with distinct fundraising deadlines.
- Like any project, most people need to know when they have to be done.
- Asking for money can be complicated for anyone and life can get busy. Without a definitive deadline, many people will simply never ask on your behalf.
By following the simple guidelines above, you can make sure to create an event that is impactful, fun, and will stand the test of time.
At Blue Sky Collaborative our goal is to help you maximize the benefits of online peer-to-peer fundraising to achieve your campaign mission. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.