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Episode 11: When to Change the Theme and Venue of Your Annual Fundraiser
Before I provide you with some tips for how to highlight all the wonderful things your organization is doing, allow me to introduce myself!
Hi! I'm Lisa Clark and I help nonprofits and fundraisers like YOU raise money through events so you can meet your annual revenue goals! I'm also the host of a free Facebook Group, Raising with Lisa Clark, a free group for fundraisers, NPOs, development team members, volunteers, and supporters. I included a link below so you can request to join right away!
Link to Join Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/112148672944584/
Hosting an annual fundraising event at the same “Bat time” at the same “Bat place” can definitely cause donor and board fatigue. Right! You might be on year five of the event and perhaps attendance is going down? Or, you just don’t see the spark in your guests when you ask them “Hey, are you coming again this year?” They reply, “Maybe???” Your staff might be a little bored, too.
Before I get into how to make your programs and services a integral part of your event, I want to make sure you’ve picked up my FREE mini checklist on how to create a pipeline of new donors for your next big fundraiser. If you haven’t already grabbed it, the link will be provided below.
My FREE checklist will definitely help to create a pipeline of new funding so check it out.
Speaking of which, your annual fundraiser likely provides some decent funding to your annual campaign. But, year after year, staff and donors and even the board can grow a little tired of the same thing. Does this mean you should change the venue and change the theme. Not necessarily. I’m going to give you a few reasons that warrant you changing the venue and the theme AND give you a few reasons you need to stay put! But first, I want to share a story with you about how an annual golf tournament hosted at the same time and same place worked for over 20 years and is still going strong to this day.
While working at Stanford University, Athletic Development, I helped to organize an annual golf tournament called, The Shultz Cup.” The tournament was aimed at raising money for the Men and Women’s Golf program. A Golf Tournament is a perfect example of a theme you really can’t change. This was the daily agenda for the golf tournament:
1). Checkin
2). Meet and mingle with guests
3). Lunch
4). Pledge of Allegiance
5). Tee Off
6). Cocktail Reception
7). Welcome and State of the Union by George Schultz
8). Dinner and dessert
9). End
Approximately 100 golfers every year. Same men and women. Actually, over the years, more and more women participated. That was nice to see.
This event wasn’t broken. No need to change it at all. It worked. No one complained. Everyone looked forward to attending. The ONLY thing that changed each year was the giveaway and the State of the Union Speech by former Secretary of State, George Shultz. That’s it. Oh, and we switched back and forth from chicken to beef year after year! LOL!
Now, here is an example of an event we decided to change up. We hosted an event at a venue that had a capacity of 225 headcount. We hosted a VIP cocktail reception followed by a cooking class with a celebrity chef followed by standing dinner and live auction. It was a huge success. So much so that we sold out every year and basically, outgrew the venue. Good problem to have but we had to make a decision to find a new venue. We did this because we believed we were leaving money on the table. It was also a challenge to find a celebrity chef year after year. We ended up moving forward with a different space. We were super nervous but it ended up being the right move. When we made the move, we elected to introduce a new them as well.
Reasons to Change it Up:
- Capacity issue - you outgrow the venue.
- You see a drastic drop in attendance two years in a row.
- You see a drastic drop in funds being raised two years in a row.
- You break even year after year.
- You do an evaluation of expenses and realize it’s cheaper to go with a different venue and this change allows you the opportunity to possibly change up the theme, too. This also allows you to announce to your supporters that a change in venue and theme will be more dollars raised for the organization!
Ok. As I mentioned earlier here’s my FREE Checklist on How to Create A Pipeline of New Donors for Your Next Big Fundraiser? Click the link to get the instantly downloadable checklist that's easily implementable (is that a word?)!
https://risingwithlisaclark.lpages.co/donorchecklist/
Connect On Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raisingwithlisaclark
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/raisingwithclark
Check Out My Website: http://risingwithlisaclark.com
View all episodes
By Lisa ClarkBefore I provide you with some tips for how to highlight all the wonderful things your organization is doing, allow me to introduce myself!
Hi! I'm Lisa Clark and I help nonprofits and fundraisers like YOU raise money through events so you can meet your annual revenue goals! I'm also the host of a free Facebook Group, Raising with Lisa Clark, a free group for fundraisers, NPOs, development team members, volunteers, and supporters. I included a link below so you can request to join right away!
Link to Join Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/112148672944584/
Hosting an annual fundraising event at the same “Bat time” at the same “Bat place” can definitely cause donor and board fatigue. Right! You might be on year five of the event and perhaps attendance is going down? Or, you just don’t see the spark in your guests when you ask them “Hey, are you coming again this year?” They reply, “Maybe???” Your staff might be a little bored, too.
Before I get into how to make your programs and services a integral part of your event, I want to make sure you’ve picked up my FREE mini checklist on how to create a pipeline of new donors for your next big fundraiser. If you haven’t already grabbed it, the link will be provided below.
My FREE checklist will definitely help to create a pipeline of new funding so check it out.
Speaking of which, your annual fundraiser likely provides some decent funding to your annual campaign. But, year after year, staff and donors and even the board can grow a little tired of the same thing. Does this mean you should change the venue and change the theme. Not necessarily. I’m going to give you a few reasons that warrant you changing the venue and the theme AND give you a few reasons you need to stay put! But first, I want to share a story with you about how an annual golf tournament hosted at the same time and same place worked for over 20 years and is still going strong to this day.
While working at Stanford University, Athletic Development, I helped to organize an annual golf tournament called, The Shultz Cup.” The tournament was aimed at raising money for the Men and Women’s Golf program. A Golf Tournament is a perfect example of a theme you really can’t change. This was the daily agenda for the golf tournament:
1). Checkin
2). Meet and mingle with guests
3). Lunch
4). Pledge of Allegiance
5). Tee Off
6). Cocktail Reception
7). Welcome and State of the Union by George Schultz
8). Dinner and dessert
9). End
Approximately 100 golfers every year. Same men and women. Actually, over the years, more and more women participated. That was nice to see.
This event wasn’t broken. No need to change it at all. It worked. No one complained. Everyone looked forward to attending. The ONLY thing that changed each year was the giveaway and the State of the Union Speech by former Secretary of State, George Shultz. That’s it. Oh, and we switched back and forth from chicken to beef year after year! LOL!
Now, here is an example of an event we decided to change up. We hosted an event at a venue that had a capacity of 225 headcount. We hosted a VIP cocktail reception followed by a cooking class with a celebrity chef followed by standing dinner and live auction. It was a huge success. So much so that we sold out every year and basically, outgrew the venue. Good problem to have but we had to make a decision to find a new venue. We did this because we believed we were leaving money on the table. It was also a challenge to find a celebrity chef year after year. We ended up moving forward with a different space. We were super nervous but it ended up being the right move. When we made the move, we elected to introduce a new them as well.
Reasons to Change it Up:
- Capacity issue - you outgrow the venue.
- You see a drastic drop in attendance two years in a row.
- You see a drastic drop in funds being raised two years in a row.
- You break even year after year.
- You do an evaluation of expenses and realize it’s cheaper to go with a different venue and this change allows you the opportunity to possibly change up the theme, too. This also allows you to announce to your supporters that a change in venue and theme will be more dollars raised for the organization!
Ok. As I mentioned earlier here’s my FREE Checklist on How to Create A Pipeline of New Donors for Your Next Big Fundraiser? Click the link to get the instantly downloadable checklist that's easily implementable (is that a word?)!
https://risingwithlisaclark.lpages.co/donorchecklist/
Connect On Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raisingwithlisaclark
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/raisingwithclark
Check Out My Website: http://risingwithlisaclark.com