Fundraising Event is for FUN

(Position Your Fundraising Event Well)

I have once met the fundraising and marketing chief of a local charity who shared with me his frustration over the new event that he proposed of which his Exco have a very strong but different view of the purpose and position of it.

Before I go on, here's what's going on at their discussion. Because the organization has a very narrowed donor base, with an extremely limited number of donor providing unrestricted funds, the event being put forward is a territory-wide fundraising campaign, centred on broadening the organization's donor base and help to secure a steady income stream along with making their name known consequently, that's it. In short, the event is positioned squarely on raising funds by inviting corporates and individuals to participate by taking a very simple act of a specific day alongside making a donation. An easy reference to the concept behind the event was the Causal Day organized by The Community Chest of Hong Kong. Although Exco member agreed to do this campaign, they insisted the action taken by participants have to be aligned with its mission and the work of the organization where they found that simple act being tabled was too simple and unable to tell what the organization is doing. They are fanatical in asking supporters to donate plus do something that simulates the physical difficulties their beneficiaries encountered day in, day out; which they were expected to spare an hour or two on the event day for doing so plus some sorts of training and preparation in advance is required. In another word, they are talking about a public relations event instead.

A public relations event is just that. It's a public relations event. I have no objection to doing a public relations event if that's what you set out to do. Plan it that way, budget it that way, and make sure you get the biggest bang for the buck. My concern is when people start with the idea of doing a fundraising event, don’t try to kill two birds or even multiple birds with one stone or vise versa. There is fairly common in thinking, "Oh well, we're not going to make a lot of money but at least it was a great opportunity for us to get good PR." The problem is that you still have the fundraising need and you probably could have planned a much better PR event if that had been your intent all along. So I like to hold my clients' feet to the fire. Everybody agrees on a goal, and until they reaches it, no one should sleep soundly at night. I want them to be absolutely focused on the fact that we have to meet or exceed that goal.

For a large-scale fundraising event to be a success, make sure to plan one that is simple to execute, easy for supporters to participate and more importantly people will enjoy. The theme of the event doesn't have to be related to the mission of the organization. Make it something where people will have a good time and will wanna pay the price of admission to participate (their donation). I can understand his Exco's concern, if a fundraising event isn't mission-related, how they could successfully get information out to the audience to keep them interested in the work of the organization. Let's not confuse fundraising with PR. The purpose of a fundraising event is to make money. I want people to have a great time. Now if an organization is a Hospice, do I really want to have people spending a lot of time thinking about dying people? The organization deals with one of the greatest needs in society – helping sick people die peacefully and without pain. But when the hospice does a fundraising event, it wouldn't design an event that is focused on its mission. That is for another time. Indeed, as part of the thank you, or as part of the ask, you can remind people of the services that the hospice provides. My only point is that the event itself should be fun.

By the way, I'm aware of an interesting annual fundraising event in the States that interested me, which is organized by a local hospice. It was called a fundraising nonevent. Knowing how tired of events people were, they advertised a non-event. You could sign up for all the things you wanted to avoid – the expensive parking garage, the mediocre meal, the untalented band, the cheap wine. It was basically a simple mailer that allowed people to support the organization without having to endure yet another evening out. All you had to do was just give money and you didn't have to come. Now that's for a certain kind of crowd that probably goes to way more events than they would like to. But, this was a very, very successful one.