The last two months of the year are hectic enough for most event creators. Add “nonprofit” to your title, and you’ve got an extra layer of stress. Now is the time for your organization to take stock of its fundraising goals and how best to meet them if falling short.
If you’ve got one final fundraising event coming up in November or December, you have to compete with all the other parties, fundraisers, and holiday events that happen this time of year. But you can with a watertight plan — starting with this guide.
Trying to self-fund your nonprofit will leave you exhausted and feeling alone in your work. Nonprofits need supporters to grow and thrive. Nonprofits need a team of people who care deeply about the work pulling together and working toward a goal. This is how nonprofit organizations gain momentum. A nonprofit cannot be a solitary enterprise.
Keep on reading to discover 10 best practices for raising money at nonprofit events.
- A great way to raise awareness and funds for your nonprofit is to sell products on your website. Even if you’re not a designer, with some help from friends, family and local businesses, you can come up with products that will raise funds and draw attention to your cause.
- Once you’re on your organization’s page, scroll down and click the “Fundraise” button: When you click “Fundraise” from your organization page, that will ensure that the fundraiser is linked to your nonprofit and all you need to do is follow the prompts to create your fundraiser. Select ' Get Started '.
- When you combine that with the data your nonprofit is collecting in your reports, your impact stories sky-rocket to a new level of significance with your funders. Keep Up with Trends Keeping up with nonprofit trends is essential to giving the best service delivery you can, which can lead to more funding.
- Develop a fact-supported need statement. Aside from just telling the funding organization that the website you plan to build will help your mission as well as theirs, provide data from a reliable source to support the need for the project. Create a logical budget that shows the expenses of building the website for the project.
1. Find an event format and theme that attracts donors
People are excited to support a cause, but they also want to have a great time. Remember: “Raise money” is not a theme — “singles charity night” is. To attract donors, come up with a fun, unique idea that they’ll be excited to attend (and recap on their social media feeds).
Tip: Get your creativity flowing with this list of 100 unique fundraising ideas.
2. Set a realistic event budget
You’ll need to raise funds above and beyond the amount you’re going to spend. A budget will help keep your costs in perspective and get more for your money. Make sure it includes every single detail — from the venue to the catering to the parking valets.
Always leave a little room in your budget for the unpredictables. Better to exceed your goals than have them eaten into by unforeseen expenses.
Tip: Check out the tactical advice in this post to master your event budget — and spend more money on the cause.
3. Select a wallet-friendly venue
Some venues might be willing to discount or event donate their space to be associated with a good cause. If you have any flexibility with your date, it can help secure a venue at a lower cost. Keep in mind, though, that your venue should infuse your event with flair.
Tip: Use this list of questions to vet your venue before signing a contract.
4. Find charitable event sponsors
Sponsorship is a billion dollar industry. If you can get a piece of that pie, more of the money your nonprofit raises can be used for charitable causes instead of catering.
Although it may sound heartless, sponsorship is not philanthropy. And it’s certainly not the same as advertising. Savvy sponsors expect you to wield your event’s in-person influence to give them a warm introduction to your event audience.
If you want to build a strategic relationship with sponsors, get to you know your attendees better and how your event can help them achieve their specific business goals. The more you can prove that your event attendees are their target market, the more revenue you can generate from sponsors.
Tip: Check out this three-step framework for nonprofit sponsorships to learn more.
5. Sell tickets and registrations online
Advancement in event technology has made it easier for people to find events and purchase a ticket or registration. The same goes for your fundraiser — without an event website and registration process online, especially one that’s mobile-optimized, you’ll miss out on attendees — and funds.
If you don’t have a ticketing or registration partner, make sure to choose one that gives you and your staff valuable insights about attendees and donors. Eventbrite, for example, provides tools to track ticket sales and donations in real time from any device. With those reports and data at your fingertips, you can get more back for your buck.
Tip: Discover the new rules of selling tickets online in this guide.
6. Promote your fundraiser across the web
For a charity event or fundraiser, spreading the word is crucial — it directly affects your ability to hit your goals. Traditional models include mailed invitations, phone banks, and direct mail. Today, though, there are many digital options you must also use, including:
- Email marketing: At every stage of your sales lifecycle, you should be tapping into your email database to share an invite, discount, or sneak peek of your event — and make your existing attendees feel special. Read these tips to send better emails.
- Social media advertising: Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn have powerful tools to let you send targeted promotions to the right audience. But don’t spread yourself too thin. Take this quick quiz to find out which social networks makes sense for your nonprofit events.
- Event discovery sites: Most event-goers have go-to event discovery websites they rely on to make plans. And if you use Eventbrite, you can automatically distribute your events on discovery sites across the web. These include Bandsintown, Goldstar, Songkick, Eventful — and, of course, Facebook Events.
How To Generate Funding For Your Nonprofit With A Website Free
Tip: Take your skills to the next level with our Event Marketing Course and Certification.
7. Lean on your community to fundraise
Are you taking advantage of your community of supporters to fundraise? With CrowdRise, for example, you can enable ticket-buyers to create their own fundraising pages to support your cause. Suddenly, their networks are a new fundraising audience for your cause.
Tip: Incentivize sharing of your cause on social media with a ticket giveaway.
8. Recruit, train, and manage your volunteers
What successful charity event isn’t run on the enthusiasm and support of its volunteers? The best place to look for volunteers is amongst your attendees, including people on your mailing list or who have registered in the past. You can also put out a call to your network for volunteers.
It’s important to choose reliable volunteers — you know, the ones who’ll show up and not give donors a reason to complain on Twitter. Use these three tactics to weed out unreliable volunteers and make sure your efforts pay of.
- Pre-qualify volunteers: Make sure you’re not just finding people who want to volunteer, but those who can actually do the job. When they sign up, ask potential volunteers what other events they’ve volunteered to staff, what their role was, and why they want to volunteer for your event.
- Create an orientation program: Whether it’s in person or online, overview what volunteers should expect on event day, and what will be expected of them.
- Designate a volunteer lead: Your volunteer lead will be responsible for getting volunteers up to speed on everything from logistics to onsite tech. Build in ample time to train volunteers so that there is no confusion or last-minute stress the day of the event.
Tip: Discover more nonprofit event planning tips on managing your volunteers here.
How To Generate Funding For Your Nonprofit With A Website Like
9. Create an accessible event
Event accessibility isn’t just a compliance issue. Making your event more accessible widens your reach and makes your attendees feel welcome. Most importantly, it creates an environment of inclusivity, diversity, and positivity — the perfect ingredients for a nonprofit fundraiser.
Start by making sure your event has enough space set aside for people who are using wheelchairs, are hard of hearing, have visual disabilities, or will require room for their service animals. Also be sure to use accessible signage with large, legible typefaces at multiple heights.
Tip: For more ideas on creating an accessible event, check out our guide.
10. Use the right event technology to raise funds
Having the right technology at hand can make a huge difference in the planning, promoting, and executing your event.
Eventbrite, for example, empowers nonprofit events with free tools like custom email invitations, built-in social sharing, and targeted event recommendations. And since we’re PCI Compliant, you can raise funds safely and securely.
Ready to get your fundraiser up and running today? Start your next nonprofit event with Eventbrite.
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Developing an effective and sustainable technology infrastructure can be challenging for many organizations, particularly for nonprofits. Fortunately, there are a variety of programs and resources available to help nonprofits with technology needs. The list below provides a good starting point for those seeking assistance with nonprofit technology planning, assessment tools, or funding opportunities, although it is by no means exhaustive.
Nonprofit Technology Resources
Idealware
An authoritative source for independent, thoroughly-researched, and easy-to-understand resources that help nonprofits make smart technology decisions for greater social impact in our communities.
Google for Nonprofits
Google for Nonprofits offers a suite of tools to help nonprofit organizations communicate and grow their web presence, including special programs for Gmail, YouTube and AdWords.
Network for Good - Fundraising Resources
An ePhilanthropy portal dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations further their mission with fundraising and donor management tools.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
An informative blog with easy-to-understand information, news, and resources related to nonprofit technology, online communications, and social and mobile fundraising.
Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)
NTEN is a membership group of nonprofit technology professionals with the common goal of helping nonprofits use all aspects of technology more effectively. Over 50,000 community members access NTEN’s capacity-building programs and services, including educational courses, the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and online and in-person discussion spaces.
Nonprofits on Facebook
Facebook offers tools for fundraising, donations, and community building that help nonprofits connect target audiences on their social media platform.
TechSoup
TechSoup provides nonprofit organizations with discounted software and services, as well as information and resources centered around nonprofit technology.
Nonprofit Tech Funding & Grant Opportunities
Center for Nonprofit Excellence
Each week, CNE sources three grant opportunities via online research and publishes them to a dedicated Grants page on their website.
How To Generate Funding For Your Nonprofit With A Website Reviews
Cisco Product Grant Program
Cisco donates networking technology to qualified nonprofit organizations to help them realize significant gains in productivity, scalability, and cost-efficiency.
Foundation Center
The Foundation Center provides grantseekers with information about foundations and the grantseeking process; their website includes a Foundation Finder directory for researching grantmaker foundations as well as funding prospect worksheets and other tools.
Google Grants
Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program that harnesses the power of Google's flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to nonprofits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online.
IBM Impact Grants
Initiatives to address specific societal issues, such as the environment, community economic development, education, health, literacy, language and culture.
How To Generate Funding For Your Nonprofit With A Website Without
The Progressive Technology Project
Technical assistance and funding to develop the capacity of grassroots organizations for using information technology to strengthen social change efforts.
Verizon Foundation
The Verizon foundation supports programs that create innovative eSolutions, help bridge the digital divide, foster basic and computer literacy, help enrich our communities, and create a skilled workforce. The Foundation's top Funding Priorities are: Literacy, Community Technology Development, Workforce Development, and Employee Volunteerism. We look to support funding priorities with technology elements in Literacy, Community Technology Development, and Workforce Development.