Having a successful fundraising event can provide an exciting launchpad into your organizations future endeavors. The influx of new donors and raised money can bring brand new opportunities that were previously unknown to you. Whether you held a gala, fun run, golf tournament, dinner, or other fundraising activity, your post event time is crucial for setting a foundation for your future events. This is where effective communications and solid strategy can turn your event attendees from first time givers to lifetime supporters. Joni B’s has assisted and managed numerous charitable events and fundraisers that raised millions of dollars for great causes across the United States. Here are five strategies we believe will help you maximize your post event impact.
Track Your Data
After your event, your immediate focus should be on logging all new donor and fundraising data into your donor management software or customer management software. If those terms are foreign to you, don’t worry! These software are free or paid tools that help you organize and optimize your donor and/or customer data to help your organization flourish. You can see at a glance views of donation history, marketing history, locations, and other information to help guide your future decisions.
Many of these software integrate with other popular software and tools. This helps you automate many tasks such as accounting, email & social media marketing, and other aspects of your organization that you may have been manually running. Being able to see all of this information in one place can help you get a better view of your donors and push you to make more informed decisions when it comes to deciding on your post event strategies.
**DMS and CRM software examples we like include Hubspot, Salesforce, Donor Perfect, Kindful, Bloomerang, Virtuous, and Charity Engine.**
Say Thank You!
Once you have all of your post event information logged and organized, you should move on to thanking your donors for a successful event. This thank you can be personalized in email form or a physical mail out depending on your budget. It is important to not only thank donors for their support at the event, but also to emphasize how their donations will be used to impact the future of your organization. You can even extend an additional thank you to all of your sponsors, underwriters, and item donors for their integral part in making the event a success.
Communicate!
New donors that gave to your event are a brand new lifeline that can energize your organization for months and years to come. It’s in your best interest to get those new donors plugged into your communications strategy and engage with them before they go cold. Add all new donors into your email marketing strategy as soon as you can after your event. New donors may be interested in volunteering or getting involved with your organization. But if they never hear from you after your event, you will most likely lose them. You do NOT need to bombard them with emails, but make sure they get on your list(s) and receive some form of initial contact. Email should be a massive focus of your post event strategies to stay connected and engage all of your new found supporters.
Segment Your Email List
Yes, you should have multiple email lists. Email segmentation is a very powerful tool that can help you save money in your email marketing. Segmentation is when you split your email list into sub lists based on a number of criteria. Being able to market to specific groups is a powerful strategy that can make your marketing more effective and less expensive. You can target the exact people you want and make sure they are more likely to open and engage with your emails.
Some examples of segmentation criteria can be:
- Donation History- You can filter based on donations which include total value, frequency, etc.
- Location- Planning a small event in a specific region or area, you can segment your list to only email those within proximity to that area and invite them. This keeps you from emailing your entire list who may be spread out all across the country.
- Volunteer- Looking to gather volunteers, you can filter out a separate list that contains only volunteers so you can find help for your activity.
- New donors- Creating a list of new donors can help you send introductory emails and updates to them specifically. That way you don’t send basic information to your longtime supporters who are already familiar with your organization.
Most email marketing platforms have endless segmentation options and filters. Almost any criteria you can think of can be used to segment your list. Having multiple sub-lists within your email list can help maximize email marketing potential and keep everyone connected to your organization. Another great feature to utilize is email automation, or journeys (depending on what platform you use), which can help you send automatic emails based on subscriber criteria, actions, and more factors.
**Some email marketing platforms we like are Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Drip.**
Celebrate Your Success!
This final post event strategy is always the most fun and creative. Use photos and videos of your successful event to promote your organization on social media like Facebook and Instagram. You can also include this content in marketing materials like mail outs and emails. Send your photos and videos with a brief description about your event to relevant local, regional, and national press and/or blogs. You never know who might pick up your event to cover and amplify your success.
Make sure your organizations website is updated with the results and photos of your fundraiser to help drum up interest for future events you have. Upload recap or highlight videos to YouTube, TikTok, and your website so visitors can see a glance of the fun. All of this content can be used to provide interest and drum up support months after the event is finished.
Take your Event to the Next Level
These 5 tips will help you plan your post event strategies to maximize your future organizational endeavors. By organization your data, thanking supporters, opening a line of communication, segmenting your lists, and celebrating your success, you can establish a bright future for your organization and its supporters who follow you.
If you would like to have more event planning, fundraising, and decorating tips and trips delivered straight to your inbox, please join our email list and follow this blog.
If you have an upcoming fundraiser, gala, or other important event and need help to take the pressure off of you in planning and organizing, please contact the Joni B’s team HERE. We would be happy to be “The Answer to Your Event Question!”
Want more strategies, behind the scenes inspiration, or event ideas? View the rest of the Joni B’s Blog here!