Back to Basics: Fundraising Events - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

3:29AM Jun 25, 2021

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Keywords:

event

people

becky

talking

production

fundraising

cultivation

donors

create

basics

gala

gift

stage

goal

team

leverage

online

put

mission

giving

Hey, I'm john. And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast.

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So let's get started. Hey, Becky, Happy Friday.

Welcome.

I am so proud that you're here today. Because this topic is not your favorite.

This is not my jam. And I really equate events to buying tires for your car. Nobody likes to do it. No, no, maybe people do. Maybe they do. It is not for me. But it is a necessary evil, that can be for good. So today, we're gonna break down the things that we don't like about events. And we're gonna lift up all the beautiful parts about it, because we're in a brave new world here. And events do not look the same as they did pre pandemic.

No, they do not. So this is part of our back to basic series, we've been running on Fridays, and we're going through just some of the core aspects of a development office that makes you high performing. And just so we're putting some basics out there for you to think through, but also putting our own bent of what we think takes it to the next level in terms of best practices. So we're talking all things fundraising events today. And so where do you want to start?

Well, I love that you talked about this is about raising money at events, there are a lot of events out there that are friend raising, they're creating awareness for certain things, we're just going to ask you to kind of put those back into the parking lot, because we're talking about how to raise money at events. And I just think that the world is entirely different. Now, the way that people are used to consuming information, the way that they're even used to going to events, we had a whole year of basically virtual events. And now everybody's asking themselves, what do we do now? What do we do now that people have enjoyed being in their pajama pants going to a gala? How do we capture that and really set it on fire? So I love talking about the arc of we're for good in this because we think you can do events in a way that is so smart. So strategic, level up your game and still be entirely human and present at those events. So yeah, let's break down the basics. I mean,

to me, that's what makes events what they are, you know, it's like one of the few things that really can be experiential, in terms of a donor side of of house. And I love that you can thread together all these great production elements and experience an emotion and tie it to a fundraiser, like, Where else can you really do that. So I love that this space will allow us to talk about that. I would love to start with goals, because I feel like I'm sorry, we always go there. But if you don't have a goal for your event, you're going to be so far off course. And I feel like this is the thing that really trips up the most organizations, especially those that have events that have been around longer than Methuselah or whatever, what is that even an expression? But you have to know what what is the purpose? And you kind of talked about this a second ago, Becky, that some events exists just to be a friend raiser or to grow awareness that's great for fundraising events. I mean, it's truly like, what is your goal? How much are you really trying to raise? Is this even a good avenue to do that, you know, I think those are very valid questions to come at. But if you get your goal, right, it's going to help keep everything else in check. I mean, you know, we're not going to get from us that, you know, spending money on overhead is going to be a bad thing. Because honestly, we believe in spending money on production and, and on the things that are going to help create the correct kind of experience. So we're not going to throw that at you. But we are going to challenge you to be laser focused on creating something that's meaningful as it relates to your goal, because otherwise, you're just doing it just to do it. You know, and I think that's a good place to start.

I think that's a really solid point. And I would say, just to layer on top of that, if you want to elevate your goals, don't just start and stop at an event goal, a fundraising goal, you have to think about it so much bigger. The event is the conduit to, in our opinion, launching all kinds of fundraising strategies. It's a time where you have so many people in the room physically or virtually. And it's like, the goal cannot stop and start on that day. There are so many goals that can be launched by using an event as a platform from a major gift perspective, from a plan giving perspective with programs. And so it's not just about the day. So that will be the challenge for this conversation is how do you use an event to launch multi prong strategies for your fundraising shot? Okay,

so once you get your goal, right, and that's something that you really want to pull your whole team into, and I love what you're talking about that it should fit into your overall development plan. It's not just a single day that the events happening, what's happening before and after. That is really key. You want to build a plan, and this plan is going to give you not just direction of how you are going to grow, and scale up to the night of or the day of whatever the event that you're building toward. But it's gonna keep you really intentional to doing the right steps along the way. Because, again, if you're not thinking of it just as this one day, this is an opportunity for a ton of touch points, it's a time that you can cultivate people through a volunteer capacity, or through maybe testing a major gift opportunity. getting to know people at a different level through events is going to be one of the biggest parts of building a plan, the right way is you're going to have all these connection points with people that you normally don't get to spend time with. And so look of it as the hole. And again, if you're only looking at the day of the event, you're missing out on all this cultivation that can happen. Think through this lens, you know, we were involved in a really prominent gala here in the metro that we were involved in. And over the course of time, we realized that those relationships that you get, that you build along the way are the things that really live well beyond the event. And so during that phase, right planning, well involving people in that process is going to lead to so much more down the road, than if you just try to hamstring something together really quickly.

Yeah, I agree with that. And so if you're just looking at the basics, you're setting goals. You're building a plan, you got to build a team. And I want to compliment you, john, for talking about the team as being someone that's beyond the internal team, because we have volunteers, we have vendors, you know, we have lots of people pouring into our events, and the team has got to be broadened. And then that has got to be cast so wide. And don't forget that your fundraising event must fundraise, right? It's not about all of the sort of pre work that you're doing to secure sponsorships and to get matches and those kinds of things. We have people captivated in a place who are listening to our message, we have got to leverage those opportunities to fundraise. So I really think that this conversation is going to be fantastic. We're going to dive into some of the we're for good basics. And I wonder john, where you want to start with how you think differently about events and how we can create a new arc and that thinking?

Well, I think one of the core things is that, depending on how your shop is organized, events may be looked at as an annual giving tactic, or maybe that's managed by your annual giving team. Maybe you're big enough that you have an events team, or maybe it's falls into a different category, depending on where you're at. But our challenge, and this is kind of piggybacking off what you already said back is that it really is this team sport, if you if you go into it with the lens of that this is just an annual givings event, then your results are going to be focused like that, if you come at it with a team approach of how can our major gifts team be intricately involved so that we can position a few major gift asks that connect to this cause, or your corporate partnerships team or your foundations team, looking at how do we put all the chips together in the middle of the table are events going to be stronger, it's going to be more strategic, and you're gonna have a lot more opportunity to leverage a lot of those relationships around a moment in time, which that's what I love probably most about the event is that it gives you a deadline, it gives you a moment of celebration, and it gets all your favorite people in the place at the same time, even if it's virtually for a moment to speak into them. And so that's probably parlays into a little bit our messaging of why we think that's so critical. But that's one thing that I love about.

Hey friends, we wanted to take a moment to thank our amazing sponsor gift butter. Give butter is loved by over 30,000 nonprofits, student groups, sports teams, schools, companies, and people like you. And PS. It's also led by the three of us who are super fans of this incredible giving platform. Get better helps you collect donations like a boss, it's never been easier to add a Donate button to your website, collect dues from group members or link a payment form to just about anything, rethink the way you run fundraising events, sell tickets to your events, while also collecting additional donations from attendees and supporters. All with give betters unique fundraising features built right on top, it's buttery goodness at its finest. And it's helping you do more for your mission online. Sounds like good butter might be a fit for your organization, check them out at gift butter.com. The second one that we would say is staging is critical from the silent phase to the day of the event, and to activating all of those post event cultivation plans. And so here's here's an example. You know, I started out in annual giving at our former shop and then I moved into major gifts and so I had to mentally move my mindset from being Oh, here are all the tactics that need to be delivered for from an annual giving perspective to how do my major gift prospects and donors fit into this? And it's really about using the event to forecast How can I bring them in, show them a different part of our story? How can I host them How can I make sure that I have some of my physicians coming up and talking to them or planting a seed of Oh come over and Let's get a tour, all of a sudden, the event is not just an event, it is something that leads to something that's much bigger. And we've created all these connection points between the donor. That's one example from just major gifts standpoint. So it okay, I love that because it goes back to back to basics a couple of weeks ago, when we talked about major gifts that we said, all of your top prospects need to have these cultivation plans. And so this event should be part of that annual cultivation 100% 100%. So the web is weaving together, hope these

conversations are leading together as you've listened through these. Okay, ready for number 33. Production matters,

oh, boy, does it matter,

it really matters. And I want to talk I mean, Becky, you're going to go into messaging next. So I think that this kind of connects really well to this. But think of your event as a chance to tell a story. And we are going to leverage all the aspects we've already talked about that we love, or that at least I love about events, Becky is faking, she actually really does like events, I think

I actually loved it once we figured out the formula to make it meaningful. Yes,

I really did. But you want to think about your event through a storytelling lens, it should have a soul, it should have a rise and a fall, it should have a journey. You know, a lot of times we talk about the journey that we want to take people on through the evening. And that's an exciting thing. I mean, think about as you're presenting your case, for support to somebody, you would want to take them on a journey, you know, you want to start with some of the, you know, groundswell of why this is a great organization, or why the mission is worthy, and then lead into this is how it really impacts a single soul person, and what is their storyline intersect with this mission? And how did philanthropy ultimately change the trajectory for this person's life or for other people's lives? And that is a moment that people will experience and remember, and we're not trying to get people to play to their emotions, we're saying that people experience and learn through story. So why would you not use that in your tool belt when you're crafting this nice experience. But if you cheap out on the production, you're going to cheap out on the potential experience. I mean, this means your production should be really tight, right? cues, matter. Timing matters. silence on stage, always, always terrified that someone's going to silently be walking across the stage, and you're gonna hear like tip tip tip, toes walking across the stage, it's like you want to be tight, and how things are pulled together. Because everything can create an interruption of the flow and of the mind, and you're trying to create an experience for people. So production matters.

And I would just put a little plug in here that back in the day when we were running production of an event was the most stressful thing ever. And when you're trying to cultivate and say hello to all of your people, make sure that everyone's in the places they need to be, and you're trying to run the show. It is simply too much. Now I understand that there are nonprofits out there who don't have the budget to outsource something like that. But if you do, let me just tell you, there is an end result that is a financial gain, because you're able to use that small amount of time to actually move relationships forward rather than executing the event. So small little plug there for outsourcing your production team.

And if I can say to if you invest well, and the production, let's say you're making either a video or a storyline, and you're telling these stories of the event. Keep in mind, we can link up this episode, we talked about this idea of a syndication mindset. If you build your event with a syndication mindset, which just basically means that when you spend time or money, or effort creating a really wonderful piece of content, you want to think through the lens of how can I use that in lots of different ways. So yeah, use it the night of the event or the day of the event. But what are all the other places? You can use this? Can you turn it into a social media ad? Can you put it in your newsletter? Can you put it in a print piece, and just you'll get so much more play out of the time that you've already invested?

Oh, I love that. That was a really good tip. Okay, number four, I am really going to challenge you right now on messaging. How many of you out there now I'm setting up my therapist, Chase Lounge's couch, lay down? How many out there have grabbed your last year's event script and updated the names. And that is your scripting for your production on stage. If you have Don't worry, because I did it one year, my first year in my former organization, we need to refresh every single year people that want to come to our event and hear the exact same message every time. I remember, we had a conversation. This is like going back a decade ago. And john and i are looking at this event script for a gala this would apply to I would even think as small as like a golf tournament or a luncheon or something like that. And we're like how do we make this different every year? How do we make this relevant? And so here's a little secret sauce of what we did that ended up being really transformational. We changed the focus of the gala. Every single year. We change the focus of our golf tournament every single year. So the passion project, and I'm sure a lot of you do that you have a different something that you're going to invest in each year. But I mean we We're working in a very large healthcare organization. And it's like, Okay, this year, this is the burn Gala. And everything about it is going to be centered around our burn center. And so our chairs are going to be our burn physicians, our matching gift donors are going to be our largest donors to burn, we're going to talk about all the incredible things we're doing, we're going to set their dreams on fire. So for over 10 years, everyone who's coming to our gala is learning about some hyper focus part of our business that we invest in, that we're proud of that serves our community transplant. Year after that cancer the year after that, and you see this momentum growing, and people get this sort of sense of pride. Your messaging needs to be threaded in a way that's telling a different story, a compelling story, it's getting to the humanity, and it's about celebrating the vision, and how do we bring donors into that vision? So refreshed your script, please do it for me, you will thank me, yourself and everyone else, when you have a different level of engagement,

I think I mean, you're so right, because it helps the fatigue of everybody involved when it gets to be fresh like that. And aligning it with your strategic priorities of your organization allows you to do that to tell different pieces of your story. So I love that huge, huge fans of that. Okay, that the fifth one that we would share with you is to really leverage digital. And you've heard us say already that the event is not just this one moment in time, but it is truly a continuum. The event is like the centerpiece that's happening. But what are you doing before? And certainly what are you doing after, and going digital that can be part of a social media plan, it can be part of something your online community can leverage. And certainly the way that you talk and share the stories of it before leading up and follow up afterwards. But by you know, taking hold on what's digital, I think you can really get a lot more play out of something that you're putting a lot of investment in from the event standpoint,

I love that. And digital is so important. We're going to hyper focus into that a little bit further into this conversation. Number six is practice. I think that's funny that we put that in there. But it's funny hashtag not funny. Because if you are really committed to what john was talking about in terms of production, you need to have your key players run through this script, they need to do it with the music with the pacing, they need to test out the microphone where they want to stand, we want them to be so comfortable on stage. And the best way to make them feel comfortable and at ease is to run through it with them, give them some pointers. And so stage that even if it's like two hours before the doors open to your event, love it.

Okay, the last one in this, we're for good art of how you approach events is don't think small, don't play small. This is really a chance for you to raise your standard, raise your goal, raise your benefits that you're offering your guests and your production. I mean, this could be something that is not only memorable, that is a jumping off point for all of these cultivations that are happening, cultivations as if it's a noun, all the cultivation that's happening in this room or this space tonight, it's worth it to dream bigger. And so part of that dream, and I'll thread this together with messaging is share your dreams from onstage. And if there is something that we've seen that is very true is that we really believe that the more you talk about your vision, the more you talk about what's next, lifting up the curtain, don't be so buttoned up that you can't talk about your dreams, Dan pull out a challenge just early in the season with that message is there's gonna be somebody in that room, whether you find out that night or you find out months later, that you're planting seeds for people that want to be involved with you long term. And that vision casting that and dangling it almost is going to encourage people to stick around and invest at the next stage. So don't play small, don't just be so hyper focused on the event that you don't cast a vision of what's to come.

I'll give an example of how that worked out for us. So we had a mental health gala one year, and our lead physician was on stage talking about, you know, a dream he had for a future addiction center that was on the roadmap. And I remember that night, he sort of just dangled that out there and just loved it into the crowd and said, You know, we're going to need the community to rise up to make this a reality. And I could think of four or five people that walked up to him, who would have never been on our radar that we would have never known that they had a connection connection to that part of our service line. Who said I'm very interested in this and let me know how I can help. Three of those people ended up on our campaign committee. So casting vision really matters, especially in large crowds. So this is great. Okay, so I want to get down into how do you value your events and your fundraising strategy because one of the reasons I don't typically like events as a fundraising strategy is because I don't think that most organizations have a strong strategy, and they don't have a strong enough ROI and I feel like that kind of hang Over all of us and events, it's like, you know, the old industry standard of it was like 50% ROI was 50%, which is insane to me that you would spend half of your fundraising goal to put on the event. And so if it leads to major gifts, that's a different solution. But we need to elevate our game, I want you guys to go and look at your sponsorship levels, I want you to look at your benefits that are tied to them. Are you valuing yourself enough? Are we giving enough meat to our donors in terms of what they're getting for their sponsorship, because I'm telling you, if you have a five to $10,000, high highest level signature sponsor for your event, it's probably too low. And so we we need to level up, we need to add value into what we can do. I mean, we need to pull in what we can do with our digital footprint to get messages out. I mean, the this is going out. In public relations alone, if you're sending out press releases getting coverage for this, you have the potential for 10s of hundreds of 1000s of people to see your message that has resonance with someone who really wants their business or their organization out there as a signature events. So level up, your event is worthy of having a larger price tag on those sponsorships. And you need to dive in and do some self reflection on what is the value tied to that.

Okay, that's so good. So this last year has taught us all that everything is moving at least the ability to go online. And I think that footprint is going to stay on events for a really long time, if not forever. But let's talk for a minute about online events and hybrid events. Because I do think this has kind of changed the game and kind of set set a new course for this. But when you think about your online events, just one of the key things that I really want to leave here is you really need to go back to the drawing board and reimagine the event. If you're going to do a purely online event, it is not enough to just set up a camera and just stream it. And you need to come at it with a completely different strategy. In the same way. I mean, it's like the visitor experience is going to be different. As you posture yourself differently. If you're getting on the couch to watch Netflix, you're going to look a little bit different than if you're going to sit in a gala room, you may have a capacity to sit for a lot longer in that setting than you would if you're not being entertained. But you really have to reimagine the online experience is it's shorter, is it engaging? Is there a way for feedback, all of those kinds of channels that need to be opened up have to be unlocked. If you're moving online.

I think one of the great stories that I heard on the podcast was from Dana Snyder talking about a major event that she watched play out that had an in person and an online component to it. And she was talking about the level of chatter that was happening in the online community. And that adds an entirely new layer of information to your event. When you think about having an in person event. You have someone on stage, they are talking they have captured the audience's attention. Everyone is paying attention. Imagine people that are streaming that. And they're all talking about what the speaker is talking about. They're engaging, they're asking questions. This is an entirely new avenue of engagement that we need to pour into, we need to have people on the back end responding, giving links pointing people to how they can get involved, how they could respond. I just think that there is something very interesting in having an online event or a hybrid event and it's going to necessitate that we engage in think about it so differently. And I love I just love the idea of someone being in there like silky pajamas, like hair up in a messy bun, like fully enraptured by the story of our mission and how they want to get involved. It's just very dreamy. It's very Becky.

It's very Becky. Well, Dana dropped so many. And Dana Snyder has so you just referenced dropped so many amazing resources and tools. And so we will link all those up in the show notes. But we've had some great conversations this last year of organizations that have done this really well have figured out kind of charted a new course of how do you leverage the what's great about a hybrid event? What do you leverage that's great about an online event and really making the most of it. So we want to get those resources to you. And so check them out in the show notes for all of that.

And if you want to listen to Dana's episode that dives into all things, digital, all all things, digital fundraising, it's episode number 70. And we will also keep that in our show notes.

Okay, so just quickly, some best practices if you're going to step into this hybrid event space, that is where you're having a live and also having a virtual event going on simultaneously. You really want to level up your game in terms of high quality video, any kind of video portions of your event. There's a lot that goes into making a really great video, but it's going to start definitely with the camera and the lighting and some of the optics and the sound. So you don't want to cheap out with this because again, this is all you've got. You're comparing it to a real in person experience, you want that connection to come through as clearly as possible. And so investing in those tools and the team to be able to pull that off is paramount to doing that.

That was a great one. So the second one is create an event specific website for a virtual event venue, or I would even say create a landing page for your event. Specifically, this is going to do a couple things. One, you can allow people to come in and pre register on that site, gather all of their information. They're used to coming to the site, they're used to coming getting information. And then during the event, you have all of your information about how to get involved, who are the people, where are the videos, where are the links to volunteer, and it's all in one central location. And it's right there in your digital storefront. So I'm excited about it, I just think this could be a great hack. And we know that this can be really overwhelming. And so Dana Snyder has curated a list for us of innovative vendors and platforms that are doing hybrid events, or online events really well, we're gonna link them up in the show notes. And we'll give some context about what they do. So you don't have to start from scratch.

Thanks, Becky, that's so nice of you to put those together for us my joy to do it. Okay, let's round up this segment, kind of where we started is that you've got to make sure whatever kind of fundraising event, whether it's this hybrid that we're discussing, or online or in person, it's got to fit into your larger strategic plan. Because at the end of the day, it's just a tactic. And so if your strategic plan is not guiding all of this is like guiding your goals, you're probably wasting your time, truly. So get back centered around that, it'll get the team excited, it'll help you push through the large amounts of time and effort that it takes to execute something like this. But at the end of the day, it's going to align and it's going to lift, whatever goal that you're trying to make happen.

It always goes back to the goal. And and it's about thinking bigger, I mean, that would be the premise that I would say has just led this entire discussion is we want to think bigger. For so long, we have put on our Spanx and our false eyelashes and put a gown on. And we've played in the sandbox that is physically right in front of us. And we're telling you today that the world is so much bigger. And if you can leverage some of the digital channels, your community, the people who are pouring into not just an event, but pouring into your mission can grow and scale at an incredible level. So meet people where they are bring your mission to them, they need to hear it. And we know that a lot of you are like how do I pivot? Right now? What are other people doing? We've created an events focus playlist, a past podcast episodes. So head over to the show notes, check those out. And you'll get some more examples of what other people are doing in the sector. Okay,

so I hope this conversation has been centering to how you want to run at these events, because I think you should run out them. They're magical in their own way. And they definitely have a place in your tool belt. Just don't build your whole house on the event.

Don't and you know, it's almost gotten me excited to go put on my stilettos and put on a gown and let's make this happen. Remember when I was talking about showing up to this interview in a gown just to shock you?

Yes. Because we've been bribing Becky with chips and salsa all week that there's this conversation. So let's put in that order.

Well, we believe you can level up your game and the pandemic has given you an incredible opportunity to do a hard pivot move into these bigger abundance mindset shifts. And we really think that it's going to not only pay off in what you can fundraise, but it's going to enhance your engagement at a crazy level.

You got the Sprint's are written for you.

Thanks for listening to our back to the basics conversation diving into how you can reimagine your events today. You probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free. And you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. It's our own social network and you can sign up today at we're for good comm backslash Hello. One more thing if you liked what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and Your support helps more people find our community. Thanks, friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Rumi boys. Boom. Thanks for being here, everyone.