How to Plan a Fundraising Banquet

As many of us know, the most common expenses facing nonprofit agencies are in program costs and the amount spent on fundraising and development for the organization. However, effective fundraising keeps administrative costs in check and takes best advantage of donations to collect the largest percentage of profits possible from the event.

A fundraising dinner also offers a chance to make personal contact with donors and establish a one-on-one relationship that may lead to future donations.

Schedule a Date: Research other organizations in your area to avoid crossover event dates and calendar conflicts. Next, contact locations you feel may be a good fit and schedule a walk-thru to see the space. Look to book the location as far in advance of the dinner as possible - many prime locations fill quickly, as do busy people’s schedules. Discuss the date and location options with your organization to explore pros and cons.

Select a Location and a Theme: After researching and visiting available banquet facilities, select a location that matches with your target demographic. Close attention to matching the venue with the theme can also add to the event.

Secure Food & Beverage: Solicit food and drink donations for the event from local restaurants, caterers, and food vendors. Aim to accept donations that match the theme and the event to make a coordinated menu. If some donations don’t match with the theme, such as popcorn for a formal banquet, don’t alienate the donor, but use the donated food for a later event or for another fundraiser planned for a different date.

Solicit Auction or Raffle Items: Auctions and raffles are a great way to raise additional funds at an event. By securing the items to be raffled and auctioned in the form of in-kind donations, all profits from the endeavors will go directly towards your cause.

Assign Tasks to Volunteers: Utilizing volunteer services can equal additional savings on staffing but require organization and management. Prior to the event, volunteers can sell tickets, promote the event through email and social media and assist in soliciting donations. During the event volunteers work can help to serve the food and welcome guests.

Good luck and let us know if there’s anything we can do to help. 

• Tweet

Sports Team Fundraisers

Sports fundraisers are imperative for a variety of reasons - to buy new uniforms, to provide teams with the proper equipment to practice and compete, and to pay for travel expenses or entrance fees in order to play in various tournaments or leagues.

Most everyone can agree as to why it is important to keep our youth sports teams thriving; these organizations enable participants to be active, competitive, and social while learning new skills. Other benefits include building strong characteristics like leadership, commitment, and responsibility, while learning about teamwork, trust, and working together to achieve a common goal.

Putting on a successful fundraiser to support these ideologies is crucial, and by utilizing a basic marketing concept known as “The 4 P’s,” successful sports fundraising can be a home run.

Product: Appealing to the masses is of the utmost important and it can be as simple as selling raffle tickets, or as challenging as organizing a 5K. Regardless of what the product that is chosen may be, it must have appeal, an overt benefit, and be easy to sell.

Pricing: You want to set the price point so your organization is making enough money to reach its goal efficiently, but not too high where potential supporters will hesitate to purchase and help the cause. However, keep in mind that many people are willing to pay a slight premium when they know their money is going towards a good and charitable cause.

Placement: When marketing your fundraising campaign or selling your fundraising product, location is key both online and offline. First you’ll want to create a virtual hub for your information. A fundraise.com page will easily provide one singular place to drive online traffic for details and donations.

Offline, you will want to position yourselves where a large number of people are sure to pass you consistently, such as outside the local grocery store or a favorite coffee spot. Being able to sell your product at one of the team’s games is also a great idea, because those attending the games most likely already have vested interest in the program.

Packaging: Try to personalize the area you are selling your product from as much as possible. Brand your fundraise.com page, online, and create signs that attract attention and state the purpose of the fundraiser, offline. Then have the kids that are looking for support, marketing and selling your product or event. Example - if you are trying to raise funds for a youth baseball team, consider having the team present is going to make the appeal to the consumer real and put a face to whom they are supporting.

Good luck and let us know if there’s anything we can do to help!

• Tweet

More “Sizes,” More Donations:

Customized Messaging Maximizes Online Fundraising Efforts

Ever see something that’s “one size fits all,” perhaps a shirt or a pair of gloves? In concept it seems like a great idea – one universal solution with the potential for seamless execution. However, much like the fact a “one size fits all” shirt will perform much differently for a 6’4” 250lb man than for a 5’2” 102lb woman, the same is true in regards to your holiday email appeals.

While organizations often provide highly relevant content in direct mail appeals – based on giving history, interests and past actions – that same approach isn’t always carried over to email appeals.

Delivering relevant content to your audiences can significantly increase email click-thru rates. Remember, what works in offline fundraising also works for online fundraising.

Utilize Your Information:

1) Provide stats about last year’s big event:

  - How many people attended last year

  - How much the event raised last year

2) Personalize your emails:

  - Thank people for last year’s gift

  - Include last year’s gift amount

  - Include how last year’s donations were used

3) Hyper Personalize Information

  - Recognize the various micro-demographics within your donors

  - Figure out the motivating factors & specific interests of your micro- demographics and include information that appeals to them

Create the Data:

What if you only have someone’s email address? How can you personalize? Start finding out more:

1) Ask for interests during the email signup process

2) Give current subscribers the opportunity to tell you what they like

3) Capture more information during event registrations

4) Get creative with how you capture information at events

5) Analyze the stats of previous emails

 Offer options:

1) Include funding opportunities that match your donors’ interests

2) Position your ask in a way that speaks to donor interests

Your donors will likely only take a few seconds to decide whether to read or delete your email. Relevant content that catches people’s attention has the ability to establish a personal connection with people and keep them reading.

If you’re not delivering personalized content, your email could negatively impact your relationships. Think more “sizes,” more interested readers, more engaged donors, and ultimately more donations.  

• Tweet

Six Essential Questions for a Successful Fundraiser

• Tweet

Post-Event Fundraising in 4 Steps:

The money you raise at an fundraising event can be the beginning or the end. It’s up to you…

1. Start at the fundraising event: Have a post-event plan in place… Collect contact information from everyone who walks in the door – especially if they are a “plus one” or a guest of someone else. Assign staff and board members to meet and greet attendees and have them ask if they can contact people following the event.

2. Follow up after the fundraising event. Within a week of the event, have staff and board members reach out to those people to schedule follow up conversations. This is a great opportunity to get new people engaged. Encourage open-ended questions, such as how people felt about the event and the organization, and if they would they be interested in getting involved.

3. Send thank you’s. Send emails or letters to all who attended the event. For those who are just being introduced to the organization for the first time, include additional info, such as a recent newsletter.

4. Ask for a donation. Follow up with those who did not give as part of the event, shortly after the function. If you don’t ask, you’re significantly less likely to receive.

• Tweet

Ten Tips on How to Fundraise

1. Asking for money is easier than it seems:  Many people quiver at the thought of asking someone for money.  Don’t worry.  More often than not, both you and your potential donor share a lot in common, many times that is the shared interest in the organization on whose behalf you’re asking.
2. You are not asking for money for yourself:  Don’t feel like you need to apologize for asking for a donation; you are giving another person to share in the awesome experience in which you’re already engaged.
3. People need to be asked: One of the biggest reasons people do not give is because they are not asked; remember to ask. Fundraise.com’s online fundraising tools make it even easier to ask.
4. More involvement equals to more giving: Donors who are actively involved with organizations give more because they see more and want to do more - involving prospects with your cause will mean to amplified financial support.
5. Recent. Frequent. Generous = The Power Three: Your best donors are those who have given recently, given consistently and given generously; they are also the easiest donors to upgrade. Nurture your relationships with these donors as they are your best ambassadors for soliciting other donors.
6. Personal is best:  A personalized email, phone call, or visit is the best form of solicitation.
7. Aim high:  Why do we always ask for the very minimum? Why not ask for an amount that is high enough to challenge and flatter your prospect.  Most people give from their income, and do not give more than they can afford.
8. Guilt is overrated:  Most donors resent the use of guilt tactics and are much more likely to give if you focus on matters that tug at the heart strings and show them how their donation can make a difference.
9. Courage, Enthusiasm, Patience, Persistence: Muster the courage, unleash the positive energy, practice patience, be persistent, and you will see success.
10. Say “thank you” often:  Aim not only for the donor’s first contribution but also for future giving; even if a prospect does not give, it’s important to thank them for their time. If you keep the interaction positive you’re much more likely to get a donation when this person is more able.

• Tweet

School Fundraising Ideas

School fundraisers can support many of the projects and extracurricular activities that parents and teachers want their children to experience like guest speakers, after-school activities and athletics. However, ideas for school fundraising are sometimes hard to find, and then it’s often difficult to figure out which one has the most likelihood of success.

The process of developing a school fundraiser should begin by examining what resources you have available. Do you have a large, energetic group of parents and teachers? Do you have a supportive local business community? How many people are on your fundraising committee and how much time do they have available?

Assessing and analyzing your school & local business community can help you decide which is the best type of fundraiser to use.

Here are some good ideas for school fundraising:

Pancake Breakfast: Pancakes are easy and inexpensive to make and provide both a solid way to make money and a great way to bring your community together. As a bonus perhaps contemplate adding a “flapjack-flipping contest” as a fundraiser within a fundraiser. 

Car Wash: As long as you’ve got a parking lot, access to a hose, some sign-making materials and a small team of motivated sign-spinners, car wranglers, and sponge-wielding washers, there’s a good chance you’ll find success with a car wash.

Bake Sale: What better way to leverage an army of stay-at-home Moms & Dads than a bake sale. Got bakers fatigue? Consider baking goods of a different variety than usual or take your sale social on Twitter with a hashtag or on Facebook with a group.

Cookie Dough: Cookie dough fundraisers are a popular and pre-packaged way to raise funds. There are plenty of store bought options or you can make and pack your own and get fun with flavors – bring on the M&Ms, peanut butter cups, and chocolate chips!

Silent/Live Auction: Auctions are a great way to utilize access to items, activities, or experiences owned by some members of your community that other members of your community would be interested in using. Ideas include summer rentals, tickets to sporting events, or a dinner with a celebrated local chef.  

Gala: Looking for a fancy reason to buy that dress you’ve been eyeing in the storefront? Throwing a gala could be the perfect excuse to get everyone together, dressed to the nines for a party with a purpose. 

Run/Walk: Get physical with a run or walk. This type of event will appeal to many exercisers because it involves a low-intensity activity that is also group-friendly. 

• Tweet

Online Fundraising Tips

Looking to score higher levels of success with your online fundraising campaign? We’ve compiled this short list of tips certain to help get your quest for funds moving in the right direction.  

Communicate: Develop a clear, concise, compelling request for donations. Make people believe in you and your cause and let them know how their gift will be used.

Connect with prospective donors with a well-written fundraising page, and a clearly crafted email and keep them posted on the progress on your campaign. 

Email: Fundraise.com makes it super easy for you to import all of your email contacts and create custom emails to send to friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, and potential cause-supportive donors.

Email is potentially the most important step towards receiving donations. 

Spread the Word: When you ask your family, friends and coworkers for donations, ask them to help you spread the word by clicking the “Become a Supporter” link on the righthand side of your fundraising page.

Leverage Your Networks: Do you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media sites? Publish your link on your pages to keep your friends and followers updated with your progress. 

Update Your Signature: Consider including your fundraising page link in your email signatures.

Embed a Video: Fundraise.com allows you to embed any video link to your page for an enhanced donor experience.

Add a Widget: You can add your Fundraise.com widget to any existing websites - blogs, personal or organizational websites, or social networking pages. Widgets are an easy way to turn existing traffic on other sites into supporters for your cause.

Post a Message: Forums are also a great way to get the message out about your online fundraiser or event. Think about sites you already visit or search online for new communities with like-minded interests in your cause or organization.  

• Tweet

Finding Your Audience Online:

A couple members of the Fundraise.com team were lucky enough to see the Boston Lyric Opera’s latest production of Macbeth, currently playing at the Shubert Theatre; music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei, after William Shakespeare’s drama.

Fantastic music, ghoulish scenery, and a sinister plot had us chatting about a myriad of topics. One of which, though seemingly unrelated to the performance but a relatively obvious observation, was the median age of the audience - skewed older, much older.

Not that this should come as a huge surprise; the opera, for many, is an acquired taste. Like nice wine or aged scotch, the lyric opera seems to require a certain mature appreciation for the arts.

So then how does an organization like the BLO capture the attention of a maturing younger audience, turn them into enthusiasts, and eventually add them as supporters or better yet donors? A good place to start looking is online….

Living in a technological world, where anyone’s content is available at the click of a button, it’s still difficult to get the word out to not only a large audience, but also the correct audience. 

Knowing your target audience is an essential part of being able to reach them effectively. For example, if an organization like the Boston Lyric Opera is looking to appeal to local patrons of the arts, the people they want to reach are probably those within the Boston arts community or those with some vested interest in the cultural offerings of the city.

However, since Boston is a major metropolitan area and the BLO is an accomplished group with prominent media coverage outside of the city in news outlets like The New York Times, they could easily launch a campaign designed to appeal to opera lovers nationwide.

Once you’ve determine exactly who you’re going after, here are some tips to aid you in your initial approach…

Appeal to the Group

Any writing or posts you craft should be worded, formulated, and directed right at your desired demographic. Whether you’re looking to connect on a small-scale (your family, your community, your campus, or your profession) or on a larger-scale (people across your state, your country, or even the world), by properly conveying how donating to a particular cause affects your potential donor base and can improve their surroundings, will make them more likely to listen and respond.

Speak to them in language that’s engaging and that they’ll immediately understand. And don’t be afraid to craft different messaging for different target groups.

Communication Tools

The best way to reach your target audience is to connect with them in places where they’re already congregating. There are tons of ways to search online for like-minded people on a bigger scale. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are a good place to start, as is the power-blogging site, Tumblr. Using easily accessible, free tools like these allow you to find groups already invested in your cause, and enable you to start conversations with people who actively care. 

Don’t rule out the power of offline, either. Many tasks are more efficiently completed online but sometimes meeting people face-to-face is worth its weight in gold. Check out networking sites like meetup to find groups already connecting in areas near you.

Promote Conversation

Through online communication - social media, blogs, forums, etc - the ability to converse with your audience is essential. Create a two way street where those intrigued and interested in your organization can pose questions or comments about the effort and engage those people on a personal level.

Look to develop the same atmosphere in type as you would any positive in-person interaction and you’ll see your online and offline communities grow.  

• Tweet

Write a Better Online Fundraising Email

Soliciting friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and businesses for monetary donations is not always an easy job; especially when the economy is suffering and donation dollars are tight. Before you hit the send button in your email box, take time to write an effective fundraising letter that can speak properly to potential donors on your behalf and help get you one step closer to securing your ticket sale or donation.

Make it personal. Tell the recipient why you care, why you’re spending your own time and energy working on this cause and what their donation would mean to you, personally. At the end of the day it’s more about the messenger than the message, itself, so focus on being your best you.

Keep it simple. Today people are inundated with more information than ever before thanks to improved technology and constant access to it. That said, the person you will be contacting will most likely be busy so a few short paragraphs that get right to the point should do the trick.

Use details. No one wants to throw money at an endless problem with no short-term solutions in sight. Associate people’s ticket price or donation amount with tangible items or actions that give donors hope. Examples include food or supplies that can be purchased, renovations that can be made, treatments that can be paid for or people/animals that can be saved.

In the first paragraph, briefly outline a few facts about the organization that will be benefiting from the fundraiser but make sure to explain how it relates to you.

In the second paragraph, talk about the type of event (bacon and beer, casino night, 5K run, speedo run, etc) the date, the time, and how much fun the event, itself, will be.

In the third paragraph tell the donor about where their money will go and that their donation will be tax deductible, including your organization’s federal tax id number if possible.

Finally, thank the person for taking the time to read your email and for their potential support. Include a link to your Fundraise.com page and let them know you’re available to field any questions they may have. 

• Tweet