Events. Everyone needs them, but how do you do them right? A good event needs to do a lot of things, from telling the story of your organization's impact to achieve fundraising targets, all while not overtaxing your staff and volunteers. And it needs to be fun! With so much to think about, we spoke to three event veterans to bring you insights born from years of frontline experience.
Melanie McCarty, Associate Vice President, Special Events and Stewardship at Children's National Hospital in Washington began her career at the Ritz Carlton and has led events at not-for-profit organizations for more than 20 years in healthcare and the arts. Melanie advocates for thinking big picture about events at your organization. No matter your size, there is no event that will serve all your donors and stakeholders. Looking at your entire slate of events for the year gives you the perspective to design for all your audiences and helps you understand when an individual event needs to evolve, or even sunset. Zooming even further out, a great events program needs to be looking ahead to healthy and successful events three or more years down the road, by investing time in developing volunteer succession plans. Cultivating your next great gala chair is often an afterthought and a big strategic miss for many organizations.
Joan Cinquegrani is Owner and Lead Consultant at Five Grain Events in Chicago. She and her team have created hundreds of events over the past fifteen years for individual, corporate, and nonprofit clients. If you are in the Chicago area, you've likely been to a Five Grain party. A successful event means assembling the right resources and team, six-months or more in advance. Having both your fundraising team and volunteers, as well as your events team and key vendors all confirmed and in place with enough lead-time makes all the difference. Consistently successful organizations think multi-year to manage costs and build a memorable brand for their major events.
F+H Partners Co-Founder Amy Funk, in her 20 years of fundraising and consulting, has produced innumerable galas and events herself and has seen it all, through her work with clients. Big galas, intimate dinners, and everything in between—both good and bad! Fitting your event into a successful fundraising effort means carefully creating the guest list in advance to make sure the right people are in the room. If your event is not helping build new relationships or deepening existing ones, is it worth it? An event is not a point in time, it is a milestone in a relationship with your donors and prospects, bound to what came before and what comes after. Strong follow-up plans post event make all the difference.
Key Takeaways:
Have a strategy: Plan out how your events work together as a program that support your various goals and serve your different stakeholder groups.
Do the right things first: Get your team in place and take care of the big sponsorships and key event elements early. If everyone knows their role and is given enough lead time, your event has the best chance to be a success.
Focus on relationships: A good event is designed to build or grow your donor relationships. Ensure that your events are part of their overall journey with your organization.