Fundraising Through Events: Recommendation
From Betsy, Maryo, Janice
June 16, 2010
Events was a confusing category this year. Who was responsible for planning, ensuring, and
reporting on them? One big source of confusion was, there were both a board-driven events
council and a staff-driven events program council – were these two separate entities (with ohso-similar names) or separate entities? We suggest clarifying vocabulary and procedures, like
this:
The Finance Committee will have a draft budget by November. The budget line now called
“Events” will be called “Board Fundraising.” So, in November, the board will know how much it
needs to raise via fundraising events.
A board Fundraising Chair is identified in early December. Could be a new board member.
There is a staff person designated as liaison to the board fundraising group. This person also
chairs a Special Events Program Council.
The Board Fundraising Chair’s job:
a. The Chair brings together in November-December-January any board member
who has an idea for a fun event. At this meeting, a rough time of year, a
fundraising goal, and a board chair are identified for each event. The designated
staff member is at this meeting.
b. The Chair ensures that these Board-driven events, taken together, will meet the
Board Fundraising line in the budget.
c. The Chair works out the calendar of these events with the designated staff
member.
d. The Chair brings the calendar of Board-driven fundraisers, including date, chair,
and financial goal, to the February board meeting.
e. The Chair ensures that at least 90 days before the date of the event, the board
member who is taking the lead on an event, meets with staff to complete a
financial projection form and to complete the “special events planning form.”
During this meeting, they agree on:
i. the financial projection, and complete the financial projection form
ii. the various things in the special events planning form
iii. who is the target group
iv. a marketing strategy
v. who is responsible for what - all details. It is assumed that the board
member takes responsibility for most of it but clearly there are times the
staff must be involved – filing for permits, approving graphics and
marketing language, etc
vi. who is finding volunteers for the event. The board member might do it all
themselves, might find their own volunteers, might need to have some
volunteers from the GAC’s volunteer pool. Doesn’t matter – but it needs
to be clear.
f. The Board Fundraising Chair also ensures that some evaluation of the event is
done and a list of “lessons learned” is compiled. These both could be done in
one single page of a few bullets, and that the files are left at GAC for the future.
If the person who’s leading the event doesn’t want to do the “lessons learned,”
then the Board Chair might chat with them, jot down notes, and file those.
The designated staff member’s job:
a. The staff member attends the Board Fundraising meeting in December-January.
b. With the information from this meeting, the staff visits the Chambers (Gunnison
and Crested Butte) and My Gunnison Valley calendars to spot date issues.
c. The staff member meets with the Board Fundraising Chair and the Board events
are put on the GAC calendar. The staff ensures that there is an even distribution
of events throughout the three seasons, that there are no conflicts with other
GAC events (for instance, an event requiring the theater can’t happen when a set
is on the stage).
d. The staff puts them on the Chamber and My Gunnison Valley calendars right
away.
e. The staff member meets with the board chair of each fundraising event to ensure
that i-vi above are done, at least 90 days before the event.
f. The staff member finds members for, and chairs, the Special Events Program
Council, a group of fun-loving non-board folks who do additional events that raise
other money. This is separate from the Board Fundraising line.
g. The staff member ensures that the calendars for the board fundraisers and the
Events Council events are complementary.
h. The staff member ensures that, taken together, there is a wide array of events
that get a variety of people “into it.” GAC doesn’t serve a single clientele. There
may be events whose purpose is to get new people participating even if they
don’t make a lot of money. The staff person may see groups not likely to be
participating in the board fundraising events, so might encourage the special
events council to consider events that help broaden the spectrum.
i. The staff member presents an updated calendar to the board each month, and is
responsible for finding board members, when possible, to be present at the nonboard-driven events, to welcome people, etc.