Many non-profit organizations, individuals, social entrepreneurs, and companies have various reasons to raise funding. For one, it may not be a wise financial decision to put all the money from your pocket for a social cause. However, if you’re able to find people that are willing to donate a small amount of money, you can then collect enough funds for a social reason.
The cause for raising a fund could be anything–from helping social entrepreneurs to offering help to street dogs. If you’re not planning your tasks right, fundraising can be difficult and may take a long time. Like all other operations, you need clear strategies and tactics to collect enough funds to fulfill your goals.
How Can You Successfully Organize A Fundraising Event?
Not everyone who goes out to raise a fund becomes successful; many organizers go through failure in achieving their objectives. Still, many individuals can successfully raise funds. For instance, you can check out Hour-A-Thon Twitter where they’ve posted a successful fundraiser, collecting thousands of dollars within a few hours.
You must keep in mind that you may need to have some specific tactics for convincing people to donate for a cause. Here are some ways to help you organize a successful fundraising event:
1. Have An Authentic Cause.
First, make sure you’ve got an authentic cause. You should offer a purpose that makes people feel they’re contributing something to change society and a person. For instance, helping a cancer patient or providing education to poor kids are authentic causes.
By having an authentic cause, you can have a straightforward promotional and operational plan. It’ll also help you make a proper mission statement, which will encourage more people to participate.
2. Have Clear Goals.
Have clear goals on how much money you want to raise. Receiving money can be done via ticket sales, collection via corporation donations, money raised via silent auctions, and types of events you want to organize.
If you’ve set the right expectations, you’ll know how to move forward in the right direction.
3. Create A Budget.
You can’t expect to run a successful fundraising campaign without creating a budget. Hence, make a budget of how you’re going to spend the collected money. In addition to that, you must also leave room for unplanned stuff.
Your budget must include everything from the venue to the parking valets. You must also have a plan for what you’ll do if you’re able to collect extra money.
4. Pinpoint Target Audience.
Write down everything from the age, sex, demographics, and other critical factors of your target audience, especially if they’re millennials as they’re always seeking new ways to donate. Doing so will help you find the best ways to reach your donors and potential attendees.
By pinpointing your target audience, you can plan a better marketing campaign as well.
5. Identify Effective Events.
Once you’ve pinpointed your target audience, you need to decide useful types of events that’ll appeal to them.
A relatively young audience may find it interesting to participate in a fun run or a concert. On the flip side, an audience of professionals may prefer a formal dinner or auction.
6. Soft Launch Your Event.
A soft launch will help you gain momentum in your fundraising campaign. At first, you can get in touch with dedicated supporters and past powerhouse fundraisers. After sending out emails or texts to them, you can get feedback to see if there’s room for improvement.
Once you’ve started collecting money in your soft launch, it’ll make it easier to raise more money during your fundraising event.
7. Focus On Branding.
If you’re a non-profit organization, emphasize branding by ensuring that your brand, color, and logo are unified. Your branding will help grab attention and make your campaign highly visible. When you add a strong branding to your marketing campaign, it’ll also improve your return from your social media, email, direct mail, and other marketing campaigns.
When you have strong branding, you’ll attract more donors as no one want to waste their money for nothing.
8. Assemble Leadership.
You must assemble the leadership team based on the needs of your event. Create a single committee or multiple task forces for significant events. You can delegate a team to lead specific duties such as marketing, venue setup, ticket sales, soliciting sponsorships, etc.
9. Set A Date.
The date is a critical factor that’ll determine the success of your campaign. You must select the day and time, which must be suitable for your attendees, donors, and other guests. You must have enough time to market your event, so consider it when selecting the date.
It’s also essential to make sure your program doesn’t collide with other local events, holidays, significant sports games, etc.
10. Create A Campaign Video.
Adding a video on your campaign can increase your chance of getting a donation by 50%. Hence, a video is one of the most potent tools to grab attention to your campaign. You can use an explainer video to spread awareness of your subject, then add a call to action at the end of the video.
You can add videos to your campaigns, blog, landing page, video-sharing platforms, etc. You can also experiment with explainer videos, testimonial videos, and other types of videos.
11. Market Your Event.
Every product/service needs marketing, which includes a charity as well. By spreading your words effectively, you can meet or even exceed your fundraising goal. On the flip side, not promoting the charity can lead to failure.
You can use both traditional and modern marketing channels to your advantage. The conventional marketing channels include direct mail, magazines, and mailed invitations. On the other hand, current marketing channels include content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, etc.
12. Offer Education to Peer-To-Peer Fundraisers.
Educating your past fundraisers can be a great strategy when it comes to Peer-To-Peer fundraising. Some of your past fundraisers can get creative and lure their friends and relatives to participate in an event. All of them can create a personal page and start campaigning effectively if they’re well educated.
Give them examples of how past fundraisers were able to collect funds. To increase their effectiveness, offer them enough toolkits and logos, pre-approved images, fonts, and other resources.
13. Connect Donations With Impact.
Lastly, your donors must feel their money is making a difference, even if it’s a small impact. Show them how you’re using their money to help fight the cause. You can use past case studies of your organization to win their trust.
You can use compelling photos, videos, and statistics on your campaign page to let them know that you’re utilizing the donations properly. Display statistics visually like how many bed sheets you distributed, the number of students educated, etc. All in all, give them a clue about how their money is changing the world.
Final Thoughts.
Planning and organizing a fundraising event are exciting, but it takes a lot of work from your end. By having clear goals of your fundraising campaign, you can know whether you’re going on the right path or not. Once you’ve got a clear purpose, you should perform marketing accordingly. Alongside marketing, you should also get your time, activities, and venues to maximize your chances of achieving your fundraising vision.
