Do Your Donor-Cultivation Events Effectively Support Your Fundraising Goals?

When is a donor-cultivation event more about building your organization’s profile than it is about fundraising? How can you be sure that your “friendraiser” is actually moving you towards the achievement of your fundraising goals?

Events can be great fun, excellent for networking and for catching up with people in the community, but sometimes I wonder how good some of the ones I’ve attended have been in supporting the organization’s fundraising objectives. For example, some larger events, like fundraising galas, can struggle to raise funds above the costs involved in putting them together in the first place. When you factor in the time spent by staff and volunteers in organizing a gala, it could even be a money loser. In such cases, is raising awareness of your cause at such an event enough?

The fact is, different events have different objectives. Some are all about raising money on the night, while donor cultivation events, or non-ask events, can be highly effective in supporting your fundraising program in other, sometimes more significant, ways. In this two-part series, I share some of the ways to use these events to best effect.