After Your Event—Time to Raise Even More Money

Smile if you already know that a truly successful event is one that makes a lot of money after the event is over. This is true because fundraising events are excellent opportunities for cultivation. 

Hopefully, you and your team take advantage of this. I bring this up because nonprofit events are experiencing a renewed surge of popularity now that COVID is thankfully no longer a "thing."

Think about your last event. Were there any new faces there who had never been to anything at your organization before?  I'll bet there were.  Maybe they were friends of board members or a sponsor that filled their table with friends and colleagues. Every good event should be a chance for new people to see your organization for the first time.

While your event is still fresh in their minds, it's your chance to reach out to them as prospective new donors. If you're successful in doing so, you can raise even more money as a result of the good feelings engendered by the event.

4 Easy Steps for After the Event

1. Have a cultivation plan in place. Make sure that you've collected contact information from everyone who walks in the door. Assign staff and board members to meet and greet specific attendees. Have them ask if they can contact the attendee following the event.

2. Within one week of the event, have staff and board members reach out to those people they connected with to schedule follow-up conversations either by phone or in person. This is a great opportunity to get new people further engaged. Ask open-ended questions regarding how they felt about the event and your organization. Also, ask if they would be interested in getting involved (volunteering) or in some other capacity.

3. Send thank you letters to everyone who attended. For those just getting to know your mission for the first time, include additional information, such as a recent newsletter.

4. Be sure that part of your follow up is an appeal or request shortly after the event to those who didn't give as part of the event. Usually, this can be done in a direct mail solicitation. 

Remember, the money you raise at the event can be the beginning or the end. That's pretty much up to you.

Have you had any success using your events to raise more money and/or encourage future gifts? What's worked at your nonprofit?