The Year-End Fundraising Event
A year-end fundraising event is a fun and exciting way to raise money and promote the
organization’s mission in style. Most of all, it can be the beginning of a major donor cultivation
strategy designed to bring significant returns to the organization in the coming year.
Fundraising events tend to be, however, an expensive form of fundraising. To be profitable,
your organization must be strategic in its planning and diligent in its execution.
This Topic of the Month outlines how to determine whether a year-end event is the right strategy
for your organization and if so, how to make the most of it through effective planning, executing,
and follow-up.
Is a Year-End Event the Best Fundraising Strategy?
A year-end event is only appropriate for those organizations that have the time, talent, and
resources to make the event a success. Even small events require significant time and
coordination. Therefore, it is important to determine if your team is ready to host an event.
Complete a mini-assessment by honestly asking yourself the following:
1. Weigh the costs against potential earnings. Do we have the money to invest in upfront
costs, such as venue deposits or printing?
2. Do we have an ability to secure sponsorships to underwrite all or a portion of the
expense?
3. Are there enough volunteers to assist in the execution?
4. Do we have enough time? The average time needed to plan, advertise, and execute a
year-end fundraising event is at least three months. The exception to this rule is a
fundraising gala; the average time needed for a gala is at least nine months.
5. Can we develop a year-end fundraising event that reflects and appeals to the age,
wealth, social, and business of our constituents or attendees?
6. How will the event affect us financially over the next few years?
7. Who is our competition for attendance? Are there any events scheduled in the next six
months that speak to our audience?
8. Do we have a special milestone, event, anniversary, or person to celebrate?
At a minimum, questions 1-5 should be answered with a “yes” prior to proceeding. If you feel
confident after conducting the above preparedness assessment, take a look what other
organizations with similar missions have done. Are there any lessons to learn from others or
successes to replicate? This is the one time that your organization cannot be faulted for not
reinventing the wheel. Borrow freely and learn from their mistakes.
Lastly, prior to proceeding with planning, you need to make sure both you and your team
understand that fundraising events are meant to raise money, not to raise friends or have
something fun to do. Events are, and should be, viewed as a development tool used in
coordination with other development efforts.
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Strategically Planning the Year-End Event
As soon as the decision to have a year-end event is made, a committee should be formed. The
committee should consist of 6-8 individuals who are passionate about the mission, have large
networks, and have experience in planning events. As we recommended in our Topic of the
Month paper on Forming and Using Committees Effectively, one staff member should be the
liaison to the committee. Ideally, members will also be donors to the organization.
At the first meeting, the planning committee should work with the organization’s executive
director to determine the following:
1. Who is the Chairperson of the Committee? This person can be one of two roles
depending upon the needs of the committee: either someone with extensive event
planning experience who can keep the organization motivated in the planning process,
or someone who can be highly visible and sell tickets. Either way, this person is
ultimately responsible for the success of the event and must be able to handle this
pressure.
2. How often will the committee meet?
Once the committee has been established, it should determine the following:
1. Financial goal. This is the first priority and determines every planning detail. The
committee should establish a specific monetary amount it wants to raise both at the
event and after the event.
2. Establish a budget. The organization should be willing to invest in the event. Where will
funds for upfront costs come from? Options include existing funds, ticket sales, and
sponsorships. How much is the organization risking if not a single dollar is raised from
the event?
a. Start with the biggest expenses. Items to consider are food, beverages, labor,
rental fees, advertising, transportation, security, parking, and per diem or hotel
fees for special guests.
b. General consensus is that the event should not exceed 30% of gross proceeds.
3. Event theme. What is the feel of the event? Formal or informal? Are you celebrating a
milestone or person? As part of this, how are you going to represent what your
organization does at the event? Pictures of people served? Personal stories?
4. Target Audience. The financial goal, theme, and demographics of your target audience
will affect the event’s programming, entertainment, the type of ask, ticket pricing, etc.
The committee must agree and be clear on the type of people the event seeks to
involve.
5. Date of the Event. The event theme and the target audience will determine the date.
Other factors to consider when establishing the event date are weather, competing
events or organizations, local or national sporting events, holidays, and the
organization’s other fundraising objectives. Several dates should initially be chosen in
the event the venue cannot accommodate the organization on its desired date.
6. Event Location. Your budget, target audience, and desired date will influence the
location. Will the event be held at a nice restaurant, high-end venue, or on-site? The
venue should be large enough for the number of people you will be inviting as well as
match the feel of the event’s theme. Remember that the venue can also be an
attraction. Consider an exclusive venue, such as a private club or, for smaller events, a
large home that attendees would want to see. As soon as the location is secured for the
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desired date, “Save the Date” notices should be sent, ideally no later than two months
prior to the event.
7. Event activities or entertainment. The agenda of traditional events can range from a
dinner and a silent auction speakers, musicians, bands, and/or awards. Whatever the
event, preferences of the target audience should be kept in mind. See below for
suggestions.
8. Invitations. The best scenario is for the committee to personally send the invitations. It
is generally more difficult for people to say “no” to a friend than to a paid staff member.
It is at this point that the event planning committee has resolved the primary issues and more
detailed planning can follow. Each of the remaining tasks should be delegated to the committee
members or to volunteers, with the Committee chair overseeing the process. At the second
committee meeting, it is suggested that a detailed action plan for each task is presented to the
committee for approval.
1. Pre-event and event agendas. An overall agenda should be provided to attendees,
typically in the form of an event program. To have a smooth event, however, a detailed
minute-by-minute pre-event and event agendas should be created internally for those
involved.
2. Invitations and final guest list.
3. Publicity.
4. Procurement of speakers.
5. Event materials, such as a Case for Support or a condensed Annual Report.
6. List of needed volunteers.
7. Secure sponsorships.
Note that some tasks are more ideal for volunteers, such as stuffing envelopes, checking
arriving guests into an event, selling raffle tickets, and preparing gift bags, etc. Staff members
are best suited to chores requiring greater accountability, like following up with key supporters
and managing the charity's donor information.
A week or two before the event, create a list of remaining tasks. Do whatever is necessary to
avoid any work on the day of the event so that you and your team can focus on the event’s
execution. Pre-event work should include drafting a general thank you email in advance so the
Executive Director can send it to all attendees immediately after the event. Include a fill-in-the
blank sentence that indicates the total amount raised at the event along with a statement of
appreciation for their role in making that happen. Also find a way to personalize the message
with a sample of photos from the event, quotes, or major highlights. Lastly, the list of event
attendees and corporate sponsors should be divided among committee members and provided
to them for post-event follow-up.
Executing a Successful Year-End Event
Attendees appreciate timeliness. Sticking to the internal agenda and ending on time is the first
challenge. The second is to expect the unexpected. After all, despite all the meticulous
planning and thinking through what may go wrong, things do happen. Being flexible will help you
make the most of what you have worked so hard to plan. Take all challenges in stride and
make notes for future events.
The most important activity at the event is asking for donations, commonly known as “the ask.”
The amount requested should be a specific dollar amount in addition to tickets sold. The person
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doing the ask should be a well-known individual who can personally speak to why he or she has
donated to the cause. The ask should be scripted and short, made two-thirds of the way
through the program before people start to leave and preferably after a powerful testimony
about the organization’s great work. The most successful asks also incorporate the following:
1. What the organization will be able to do with the funds raised that evening.
2. A review of the response card, making sure that one is available on the table for each
attendee along with a pen. The speaker should pause and allow time for people to get
their wallet, credit card, etc.
3. Instructions on what to do with the response card. Do they leave it on the table? Give
it to greeters walking around the room?
Lastly, each person must feel as if they were invited for a special purpose and the event would
be different without them. This sets the stage for relationship development after the event. The
Executive Director and/or Chairman of the Board should make it their mission to speak to each
person (using their first name or Mr./Mrs. if possible) at the event, expressing appreciation for
their attendance and support.
Maximizing the Event’s Success through Effective Follow-up
It is important to realize that a special event is often the beginning of a donor engagement
process. Don’t go on vacation the day after your event. Instead, realize that the first 72 hours
after the event is a window of opportunity for donor cultivation. To begin the cultivation process,
the Executive Director should send the previously created general thank-you email to all
attendees. Committee members should use the lists of event attendees and sponsors they
received prior to the event and contact each person, even if they had an at-length conversation
with the attendee at the event.
At the same time that attendees are thanked for their attendance and donation, committee
members should ask if they would like to get more involved or know of anyone else who would
want to learn more about the organization. Such conversations encourage the event attendee
to become more engaged with the organization.
Volunteers and those that who helped in the event execution should not be forgotten. Whether
it is a small party, a phone call, gifts, or cards, staff members and volunteers should know that
their dedication and support was appreciated. They are, after all, part of the donor cultivation
strategy as they are also potential donors.
Lastly, the committee should convene one last time to evaluate the event and plan for the
future. This should happen as soon as possible. The longer the committee waits, the more the
members will forget details that may be important to planning the next event.
A review of the event begins by answering the following:
1. What went right and what went wrong? The replies to those questions will contain the
answer to the next question.
2. Will we do it again next year?
3. Did we meet our goal? Did the event make a significant enough amount of money given
the time and resources invested in it?
4. What was the finalized event budget? Were there unanticipated expenses or budget
overruns?
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Other questions worth considering are the following:
1. Were the tickets priced just right? Did feedback from attendees indicate that the price
was too high or too low?
2. Did we secure enough sponsorships to cover a significant portion of the event
expenses?
3. Did we target a well-defined market?
4. Did the event divert or interfere with other fund-raising initiatives of the organization?
5. Did volunteers and staff communicate effectively? Did everyone know what he or she
was responsible for?
6. Did our volunteers understand their role and perform well?
7. Was our chairperson qualified and did he/she work effectively?
8. Did we experience avoidable mistakes?
9. Did we really carefully plan and execute to the last detail?
10. Did we have adequate staff support?
The answers to these questions along an updated status on follow-up success should be
personated to the Board of Directors at the next board meeting.
With careful planning, implementation and follow-up, every organization can have a successful
year-end event that encourages and engages donors while raising money to support the
organization.
Kimberly Reeve is a Managing Director and Michelle Fitzgerald is a former Senior Associate in
the New York office.
For more information, please visit Cathedral Consulting Group LLC online at
www.cathedralconsulting.com or contact us at info@cathedralconsulting.com.
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