Too Many Eggs in One Basket: Maximize Fundraising Event Success

Many charitable organizations count on one annual special event to satisfy their agency and constituency needs. This is, I believe, a classic case of placing too many eggs in one basket.

No one would seriously suggest that an organization depend on one type of fund raising - foundation grants or direct mail or even special events - to sustain a cause. So, too, one event per year hardly allows an organization to reap the many benefits from, and meet the many appetites of, its potential community of support.

Although counting on only one event each year to bring home the bacon is not appropriate, holding too many is also foolish. So how many special events are enough and how do you judge which events are right for your agency?

How Many for Your Agency

Begin by analyzing attendance and dollar results from your previous events. Then analyze your current support constituency. Look at the age clusters as well as cultural and ethnic mix and examine economic characteristics, geographic dispersion, and other factors within your constituency. This analysis likely will point to the kinds of events that will sell to your crowd. And don't forget to ask your supporters what they want, too.

Also look at your competition. What are other agencies in your area doing and are their events successful? Information on competitors is useful to see what is working, though it is seldom useful to become a copycat.

In addition, what kinds of new supporters are you hoping to attract? Are dot-com types, downtown business executives, the social set, or the old money crowd the groups you hope to bring into your support community? Attracting different constituencies may require several different events.

Multiple Benefits

There are at least a half-dozen valuable benefits to be derived from special events. Raising money is, naturally, at the top of almost everyone's list. Attracting new constituents is usually near the top, too. Other reasons include:

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• Maintaining personal relationships with loyal supporters \t
• Throwing a spotlight on the cause and capturing positive public attention \t
• Attracting volunteers and developing leadership \t
• Cultivating major donors and soliciting corporate sponsorship dollars

No doubt you could add other benefits important to your cause.

Proof of the Pudding

In the early 1990s, I became development director for the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco, which ran several shelters for homeless men and two shelters for women who were victims of domestic violence and their children. Its $4.5 million annual revenue derived mostly from government grants, and required about $800,000 from private sources in order to balance its budget.

Up until my appointment, the agency had held only one fund raising special event annually, and the agency had a dangerously small support constituency that was mostly at or past the retirement years. No in-depth analysis was required to determine that new and younger supporters were needed.

Aided by wonderfully visionary volunteers, within a year we crafted two new events. The first, a three-hotel extravaganza with a reception and silent auction at one venue, dinner and program at the next, and dessert and dancing at the final site, netted $90,000 on a $130,000 gross. The social set plus business executives and professionals were the audiences that it attracted to our cause.

Encouraged by a couple of successful stockbrokerage executives, we also launched a run and walk through scenic downtown San Francisco. With their leadership, this event attracted nearly $150,000 in corporate sponsorship and over 2,000 participants in its first year. It also gave our agency three things it previously lacked: access at high levels to corporate offices, press and media attention, and many younger donors.

Finally, we reengineered the event that our traditional supporters enjoyed, turning it into the agency's annual donor recognition event. With corporate sponsorship secured by a new member of our board of directors (initially attracted to our cause by the three-hotel affair), this event became one that graciously recognized our supporters and added about $50,000 net dollars to the agency coffers.

New Frontiers

On January 4, 1999, I became vice president of the brand new foundation for Children's Hospital Oakland. The foundation officially opened for business that very day and inherited programs and donor records from previous scattered and inconsistent fund raising efforts that resulted in little donor retention.

Other elements of a multidimensional modern development program were also absent. Making matters worse, there had been little donor stewardship and almost no donor-focused events in nearly a decade. Thankfully, the hospital enjoys a terrific reputation for its services.

Our first move was to take on the corporate sponsorship generating Children's Miracle Network programs previously run by one of the hospital's auxiliary organizations. With CMN came a successful annual telethon and its ability to attract tremendous publicity.

Our earliest assessment of what was needed to jump-start a full-blown development program led our foundation staff to conclude that we needed to get close to the hospital's donors and other supporters - and quickly. So, along with laying plans for an annual fund, establishing a meaningful foundation grant-seeking effort, identifying major gift prospects, and building a new board of directors, we set in motion initiatives that led to a calendar full of special events.

In the intervening twenty months, the foundation hosted two donor recognition receptions and seven receptions for other purposes - all support-constituency focused. In addition, we conducted one run and walk and benefited from three golf tournaments.

There were three more events on the year's calendar. The first was a reception that honored the child artists who had contributed their artwork to the foundation's moneymaking holiday art cards program, that was in its second year. This event also kicked off the card marketing program, sponsored by a local newspaper publisher. The event and the cards provided a wonderful way to reach out to young families, including our many grateful patient families.

Next up was "Kid for a Night," an opportunity for our donors and sponsors to lay down their briefcases and put away their adult lives for an evening of games, magic, food, and fun. This event proved to be a great way to garner additional corporate sponsorships and provide for hospital staff member involvement. Finally, it offered a fun way to invite the broader community to support the hospital.

In December, the hospital was the co-beneficiary of the new Oakland Holiday Parade. This community-wide effort, managed by our foundation in partnership with the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, had already raised over $200,000 in corporate sponsorship. Among the reasons we worked so hard on the parade was that it allowed Children's to give back to its community. Since the parade attracted 30,000 spectators and was regionally televised, we also expected to benefit from a higher profile for the hospital.

These events are paying off. They are raising money, connecting the hospital with donors and other supporters, and providing opportunities to identify and enlist volunteer leadership and to cultivate major gifts. These events are also bringing greater public awareness of the hospital's services and needs. In view of all these benefits and more, it's not hard to see why we believe in holding a number of special events each year.

Written by James S. Armstrong, CFRE. Mr. Armstrong wrote < a href="http://www.josseybass.com/catalog/isbn/0-7879-5248-6/">Planning Special Events.