Every non-profit needs to host events all year around – the most important of all the events is the annual fundraising. For any event to be successful it should be able to grab the attention of the potential donors and promote the cause you are supporting. Hosting an event is not a child’s play, you need to focus on every step to push the event planning strategies to the next level with charity management software.
Here is a simple approach consisting of four steps to plan an event in a systemic way
Start Your Event with CMS
For reducing the complexity in planning an event the best method is to start it in an organized way. Charity software can streamline the scheduling and execution of the event.
Instead of buying event management software it is better to use existing online charity management software because CMS has everything you need from preparation to pulling off an incredible event.
The software for charities can be a powerful tool for the non-profit in the following manner:
- Customize the Event on Non-Profit’s Website – By integrating the non-profit’s website with the CMS you can easily supply the event’s information – registration, auction, catalogue items, date, time, venue, etc. Charity software can even be employed to emphasize on the sponsors and provide the attendees a real exposure.
- Better Guest Management – See who is attending and also the ones not coming. Organize the sitting arrangement, group the guests together if they request, appreciate people for registering the event and a lot more! All this will analytically help in tracking and supervising the guest’s information through the software.
- Analysis of the Database – Create reports from the database to determine how much you have succeeded in planning the event based on the numerical figures. The customizable reports in CMS ensure the database you maintain for the event is efficiently utilized.
Planning Event around the Guests
For organizing an event you need event planning strategies which are not only innovative but also productive.
Simply ponder over these questions:
- Will the supporters like to attend the event?
- Do the supporters enjoy the events organized by your non-profit?
- Have the supporters increased their involvement after attending the events?
A triumphant event is one that is not based on how good the decoration is or other showy details but purely on how to please the donors. The donor database stored in the charity’s software can be the best option to know your donors through the earlier visits.
In case you have visitors attending your non-profit’s event for the first time you will have no prior records to analyse their donor patterns. Then you should ponder over the following questions to plan your event strategies:
- Who are the People the Event is Targeting? – Find out the range of age, income, location, and the amount your target audience can donate to plan the elements of the event appropriately. Example – The level of donation by middle age people will differ in comparison to the younger people because the income of younger age group is lesser than the older citizens.
- What are the Interests of Donors? See what excites your donors and supporters the most. Is there anyone who would like to volunteer? If yes, then you can have an opportunity to host a community-service based event. On occasions you are targeting youth live stream your events or organize crowd funding as most the young people love to use the internet.
- What is the Preferred Medium of Donation? There are a number of ways to receive the donation from the supporters. It is crucial to provide the platforms which the donors prefer. A large number of people are enthusiastic about contributing via peer to peer fundraising because it results in a large fund collected through a small donation from different individuals.
Arrange the data that you collected through the above questions in different fields that inform you about every step in planning the event. It can involve the venue selection, auction items, food to be served etc.
Have an Insightful Registration
Make registration a mandatory process because this will let you know the number of people who will be attending the event. Customize the field in your online registration form to help you classify the supporters.
Here is a quick guide of how can registration help you:
- Honour the Regular Donors – You can group the regular donors together and provide them with rewards or small prizes for their contribution. Furthermore you can give special access to the prominent donors to the place, period and reasons of current campaigns to increase their optimism towards your charity.
- Apposite Seating Arrangement – Most of the people would be accompanied by friends or family; therefore, let the guests put information about the acquaintances for a better seating arrangement. As if you don’t plan the seat of the associated people together they will change the seats at the time your event will be running creating disturbances.
- Register Both Individuals & Groups – Many people do not donate individually instead you will receive a donation from entire family or group; for such situations it is better that you have both individual registration and group registration.
- Discount & Incentives – If you are auctioning at your event set some discounts and incentives for the people who registered your event earliest. This will make the donor enthusiastic about participating in your events for the next time.
The easier the registration process the lesser are the chances that people would leave the registration process in half way. So, design a registration form which can even be filled by a sixth-grade student.
Enhance Event Promotion
Without attendees an event cannot be successful no matter how good your event planning is. Although some people do not believe in promotional aspects today marketing an event has become an important part of hosting especially because the number of NGOs and other non-profits has increased.
Here are two significant things to follow during the promotional activities.
- Stay Away from Over Promotion – Flooding information to every person who ever came across your organization will not work. It will result in sending invitations to hundreds of people out of which only a small fractions will be curious to join the event. Look through the charity database and send invitations to people have been involved with your organization in past few months.
- Promotion through the Right Channel – Look through the charity software for the preferred communication channel of your supporters and promote your event through the channel your attendees are actively engaged.
You never know how, when and where someone connects with your organization’s campaigns; therefore, promotions are a must.
These were some vital steps that any non-profit organization can follow to plan an event in an unbeaten way. Event planning is sometimes required in churches too. The churches can also apply these strategies using church software such as church management software to plan events. Surely most of the steps listed above consist of elementary activities but are effective for giving the attendees a generous reception.
