7 ways to maximize your fundraising event revenue
Special events can be a lot of work, so if you’re going to commit to a fundraising event, you should make sure you’re getting as much out of it as possible. Once you determine that your primary goal is to raise money, check out the following tips for increasing your revenue.
1. Make a budget and stick to it.
Before you get started, make a budget. Try to get everything down in your expense column that you can think of. You may need to do a little research to get realistic quotes from vendors. Your major categories will be venue, catering, rentals (including A/V), decor, event programming, media, and printing. Depending on the type of event, you may have other categories as well. And it’s a good idea to add in a Miscellaneous category and budget an extra 10-20% for unexpected expenditures.
For the income category, brainstorm different ways your event can bring in money. Major opportunities will be sponsorships, ticketing, donations, a raffle or drawing prize, and possibly event sales. Different types of events will have different opportunities. Be realistic with your calculations, and communicate with your volunteers and Board members what those are. If you’ve budgeted that you’ll bring in $1,000 from your raffle, make sure your team members know what exactly that means: They will need to sell 200 tickets at $5 each.
Once you make a budget, stick to it. If you need to increase an expense category, make sure you have a plan for recouping that cost elsewhere.
2. Get everything donated.
The best way to keep your expenses down is to not have any. Encourage your team to get as much donated as possible. All of your vendors should give you free or discounted rates in exchange for sponsorship recognition — especially the venue, since they will be listed on all of your promotional materials. Negotiate with the venue for things like allowing outside beverages and waiving corkage fees, and then get wine donated from a local wine store and a keg donated from a local brewery.
It may be helpful to use separate vendors for things like venue, food, and drinks. That way, each vendor is donating a smaller amount and may be more willing to give. On the other hand, if you can’t get everything 100% donated, it may be better to use a venue that also provides catering since bundling services into one larger contract may make them more willing to give you a better discount. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and negotiate.
If you can’t get something donated, ask an individual or business to sponsor the cost (see #4 below).
3. Confirm costs and read contracts before you sign them.
It can definitely be tedious, but always have a contract in place — and actually read it before you sign it. You don’t want to end up with any expensive surprises after your event has already passed. If a vendor makes vague assurances about discounts or donations, make sure you get that confirmed in writing. It can sometimes feel awkward, but it’s really important, and you can always tell them that your organizational policy or your auditor requires advanced vendor contracts (which should be true!). Plus, it’s better for them to have those discounts explicitly listed in the bill so that you can give them a receipt for tax-deductible donations. And make sure you ask about costs whenever you’re offered additions or even hospitality. I once had hotel staff kindly offer bottled water to our volunteers setting up for an event — and then found a charge of $2 per bottle on our bill the next week.
4. Focus your efforts on the biggest ROI: Sponsorships.
In terms of cash money, special events can have a much lower return on investment (ROI) than other types of fundraising like major gifts. So when you are planning, you should at least focus on where you do have the biggest ROI within the event: sponsorships. You’ll spend the same amount or less time trying to secure sponsorships that you’ll spend on setting up event logistics, and other than time, there’s no other expense involved. It’s “free” money, and often big amounts too. Compare it to something like a raffle, which requires both securing item(s) and selling tickets, often for a lower return.
Treat your potential sponsors like major donors — keep in touch with them throughout the year. Remember that it will take repeated contacts to get them involved and that it’s easier to renew a sponsorship than to get a brand-new one. Assign your most trustworthy team members to getting last year’s sponsors to come back this year at a higher level. Have all of your team — volunteers, Board members, staff — focus on leveraging their contacts to secure new sponsorships.
5. Make it easy for donors to give.
At every step of event preparation and at the event itself, make sure it’s super easy for your guests to donate. On your event registration form, add a line for extra donations in addition to ticket sales. When you send printed or digital save-the-dates and invitations, include a spot to send a donation in lieu of attending. Have multiple asks of different sizes and types at the event itself. The trick is that as you add more opportunities, they should be more passive. For example, a direct ask at an event is a must, but you don’t want five direct asks to overwhelm or annoy your guests. Instead, have one direct ask and then many other passive opportunities, such as a raffle, auction or item sales, program sponsorship or pledge drive, a wine wall, or an angel tree. The bottom line is that you already have people in the room, so don’t miss any opportunity for them to give.
6. Don’t leave money on the table.
If you have a captive audience, make sure you’re asking for all you can. Like #5 discusses above, you don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to collect donations, and your donors don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to support your cause. When I first started working on a small nonprofit’s annual auction fundraiser, they had a very clever “dessert auction” in addition to their silent auction. During dinner, tables bid collectively, and the highest bidding tables got to pick, in order of their total bid, from a selection of lovely cakes and pies donated by local bakeries. At first, they had only 15 or so desserts available for about 30 tables, thinking that scarcity would drive up bidding. But we realized that guests were really bidding on the chance to have first pick, so having 30 desserts for 30 tables didn’t reduce the top bids at all, but it did give us the chance to collect donations/bids on 15 more tables. Even though they were at lower price points, 15 tables worth of bids was substantial money that we were leaving “on the table” when we didn’t have those desserts to offer.
7. Make sure your guests leave happy.
And the golden rule of events*: Make sure your guests leave happy. You want your guests to have a positive feeling about your organization, and you want them to return to your event next year!
The other downside to the limited number of desserts in the dessert auction (discussed in #6 above) is that half of the guests were leaving without any dessert at all. For guests who paid a deccent ticket price to attend, it felt cheap to not get dessert. Once we expanded to have enough desserts for everyone, even the lowest bidder got something for dessert, and the dessert auction felt more like a friendly competition rather than a battle between winners and losers.
* BTW, the sub-rule to the golden rule of events is to never run out of food or booze. Because that would definitely get in the way of your guests leaving happy. :)
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