Eight Things to Do Right After Your Fundraising Event

29 Oct Eight Things to Do Right After Your Fundraising Event

29 October 2024

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

You’ve been working on getting your fundraising gala organized for what – like nine months now? And it’s finally over. You can relax now, right?

Unfortunately, not so fast. There’s still work to do, and you’ll do it if you want to maximize your long-term and short-term prospects for next year.

Here’s my list (Can you add to this?):

1. Evaluate the event – Gather Board members, staff, and event volunteers the day after the event and talk frankly about what went particularly well, what could have gone better, and any specific ideas for future events. Record verbatim notes.
2. Gather information about people who attended – Ask Board members, staff, and event volunteers to write notes about who they spoke with and what they talked about. You want them to be looking for clues as to what might motivate additional donor giving and whether additional follow-up might be warranted. Ideally, this would have been set up beforehand with Board members, staff, and event volunteers having received greeting and hosting assignments. These notes need to be entered into your fundraising software.
3. Make a decision about doing the event again – This should NOT be a given. Assuming the primary goal of the events was to raise money, calculate the net result in two ways: including everyone, and explicitly excluding any money staff and Board Directors might have contributed. (One may assume that these folks would have given regardless.) Compare these net results with the event’s fundraising goal. Look at the trend lines including at least the most recent 3-5 years. Talk frankly about the organizational energy expended and whether that same energy could be otherwise deployed with greater results. Now answer the question: Should you do the event again in 2025?
4. Set the date for next year’s event – that is, if you plan to do the event again next year.
5. Follow-up with people who attended – Thank them for coming and for any specific contribution they may have made. Remind them of all the great work that is possible because they participated. Remind them that they are an important part of these outcomes. Share with them the date of next year’s event. And follow-through with any follow-up identified in the debriefing.
6. Follow-up with people who attended last year and not this year – Tell them that they were missed. Remind them of all the great work that is possible because of their participation. Remind them that they are an important part of these outcomes and invite them to participate again this year by making a post-event gift, even though they were not able to attend (and enclose an envelope). Share with them the date of next year’s event and tell them you hope to see them then.
7. Follow-up with the event’s sponsors – Bring photos and share with them how successful the event was and how it stacked up compared with other recent events. Tell them that their sponsorship was an important part of that success. Share next year’s date and plans and ask them how and when they would prefer to be solicited to sponsor again. (Like NOW, maybe?)
8. Circle back with your Board members, staff, and event volunteers – share with them the successful parts of the event and tell them how important they were to the outcome. You might even consider this almost like a cast party – invite everyone to gather at a local restaurant at happy hour or following the next Board meeting just to celebrate a job well done.

THEN you can relax.

Cheers, and Have a great week!

-da

PS: Those of you who know me know that I am not a great fan of fundraising events. (See: Is it Time to Drop Fundraising Events?, The Hidden Costs of Fundraising Events, and 14 Ideas to Improve Your Fundraising Events [and 7 Reasons Not to Do Them]). They suck organizational time and resources away from activities that have the potential to raise more money. They attract “party” donors who tend to give more transactionally than philanthropically. And frankly, they don’t raise enough money after expenses for programs.

The third item in the list above is not trivial. Many organizations decide to do another event next year by default – we’ve done the event every year for ten years. Of course, we’re doing it again. COVID interrupted that, and some organizations used the opportunity to jump out of the fundraising event cycle. The truth is that you CAN raise a lot more money by releasing the time spent. BUT – you have to actually use the time on more productive activities – like one-on-one major gift cultivation and solicitation. And that doesn’t always happen.

PPS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by Erik Karits courtesy of Pixaby.