To Event or Not to Event? That’s the Question

Have a fundraising challenge you want to crack? Weary of doing the same old, same old, yet hoping for different outcomes? Do you want the over-the-top results that come from superior strategy?

Email me with your particular problem and I'll arrange a quick consultation offering you a practical solution you can implement. I may even use your situation to share with my readers. Names are changed, of course!

Over the past couple of months a number of nonprofit executives have reached out to me regarding their fundraising events.

In case you haven't noticed, it's a hot topic. See the tongue in my cheek?

Many of you will have formed the opinion that I'm not too keen on events.

You'd be right—and wrong.

What I'm really focused upon is getting clarity in your fundraising program objectives and then choosing the vehicles that will achieve those objectives.

Principle 2 of The Eight Principles^TM is Begin at the Beginning^TM. Know what you're about and where you're headed before launching.

As an example, I was speaking recently with the executive director of a charity benefiting disabled adults who felt overwhelmed by all of his duties. Dave is a one-man shop and it's up to him if anything gets off the ground.

Events are time consuming. No way around it. As cash generators they're marginally successful or outright losers depending upon how you do your accounting. Hint: Real revenue is about the net after all your costs are deducted. More on that another time.

In Dave's situation it wasn't so much about an emotional commitment to an event or a dire cash need as it was about knowing what his real fundraising objectives were.

They were about raising money, right? In part, but not completely.