Leveraging The Best Technology To Improve Nonprofit Event Planning

What if your next nonprofit event didn’t just help you raise funds but created deeper connections with donors, empowered your volunteers, and amplified your mission’s impact? With the right strategies and resources, you can unlock new ways to maximize your organization’s event revenue and drive meaningful change.

The question is: how do you ensure that your event achieves its full potential? Let’s explore key strategies to improve your nonprofit’s event planning and make every moment count.

Learn from Your Past Events

Each event your organization plans and executes provides you with a learning opportunity to improve for the next one. Gather your existing data and leverage your organization’s insights from previous fundraisers to boost your future results.

Start by examining key metrics, such as:

• Attendance: Compare the number of event registrations with the number of guests who attended the event.
• Attendee demographics: Categorize attendees by gender, race, and other relevant or prominent groups.
• Total donations: Track the amount raised through your online donation form, onsite, or other avenues, like a live auction or raffle.
• Average donation: Calculate the average online donation amount, including any auctions or raffles. 
• Ticket sales: Determine how many tickets were sold to individuals, groups, or discounted for sponsors to attribute revenue accordingly.
• Sponsorship revenue: Identify the amount sponsors contributed relative to ticket sales to understand the value of sponsorships.  
• Marketing engagement: Consider how well your nonprofit built event awareness ahead of time, what live coverage looked like during your event, and the types of updates sent out following your event.

Additionally, dive deeper into the success of your past events and collect specific feedback from your supporters:

• Attendees: Ask how easy it was to register and check in, and ask them to evaluate their overall event experience to streamline your future efforts.
• Donors: Assess your existing donation form to ensure it meets donors’ expectations of easy, seamless giving.
• Volunteers: Ensure your fundraising platform provides user-friendly tools that create a positive volunteer experience and boost retention.  
• Sponsors: Understand how your organization can collaborate with sponsors to best satisfy their needs, whether through more promotional opportunities or incorporating sponsorship perks.

This information will help your nonprofit better understand its strengths and areas for improvement as you strategize how to define success for your next event.

Set SMART Goals 

Confidently make key decisions about your nonprofit’s event by setting clear, achievable goals. Craft your goals through the SMART framework to easily visualize and understand them:

• Specific: Choose concrete fundraising objectives that aren’t too general.
• Measurable: Set key performance indicators that you’ll use to track your progress.
• Achievable: Ensure your goal makes sense based on your nonprofit’s past performance.
• Relevant: Pick a goal that will promote your fundraising success. 
• Timely: Create a timeline for completing the tasks associated with your goal.

By working all these parts together, you can create a reasonable goal that you can realistically reach with your current resources. For example, if you’re planning a school’s annual fall fair, your framework may look like the following:

• Specific: Raise $10,000 to support new classroom technology supplies. 
• Measurable: Track funds raised through the event’s online fundraising platform. 
• Achievable: Reflect on previous fundraisers to create a realistic target.
• Relevant: Determine how this goal will support your organization’s mission. Funds will directly benefit students and support their education. 
• Timely: Set an event date close to when students return to school for the fall semester.

When you put all these elements together, your school’s SMART goal would be: Host an annual fall fair to raise $10,000 in the first week of school to support new classroom technology through community engagement and sponsorships.

Aside from making the planning process easier, a well-conceived goal also empowers your organization to measure your success after the event. It provides you with benchmarks to see where you made the most impact and which parts of your event were less successful, helping you improve operations for future events.

Create a Post-Event Plan 

Even after the curtains close on your event, your work doesn’t stop. To truly maximize your results, it’s essential to have a solid plan for tackling post-event tasks efficiently.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you wrap up your event and set the stage for future success:

• Event cleanup: Assign a team to tear down tables and gather any collateral, such as banners and signage, to store for your next event.
• Shows of gratitude: Write personal thank-you notes to donors and express appreciation to volunteers, donors, and sponsors to emphasize their valuable contributions. 
• Post-event surveys: Collect feedback from event attendees to help plan your future fundraising efforts. Ask questions about their registration and giving experience to identify areas for improvement.
• Long-term stewardship: Build lasting relationships with volunteers, donors, sponsors, and other supporters by following up via an email, letter, or phone call. 

With the right strategies immediately following your event, you can leave all attendees and participants feeling good about their contributions and inspire greater engagement in your mission. 

Leverage the Best Software Solutions

Make it easier for your team to execute a well-thought-out event with robust fundraising software solutions designed to keep your event planning on track. Here are a few types of software solutions nonprofits should consider using to help with event planning:

• Event management software: Simplifies the planning process by handling registrations, ticketing, table management, and more.
• Fundraising software: Streamlines donation processes, tracks donation pledges, and engages donors to make it attainable to reach your SMART goals. 
• Marketing tools: Enhance your event’s reach by automating email campaigns, text-2-give communication, and other supporter outreach to target your audience effectively.
• Volunteer management software: Organize volunteer sign-ups and communicate important event details, including any relevant training ahead of time. 

You may also consider solutions specific to your event to boost your revenue. For example, working with the best-in-class auction software will maximize your silent auction revenue with interactive tools like suggested sort or recommended items features that encourage higher bidding.

Enhance Your Nonprofit Event Planning Process 

Implement these key strategies for a better-informed event planning process, equipping your organization with the tools you need to host an impactful event. Don’t be afraid of tapping into the power of all-in-one fundraising platforms to meet your event needs at any time of the year, ensuring greater efficiency and results in all your future initiatives.

About the Author

Sarah Sebastian
Director of Corporate Communications, OneCause

Sarah Sebastian is the Director of Corporate Communications at OneCause. She’s a marketer and brand geek at heart with eight years of experience in the nonprofit tech space. Outside of work, Sarah can be found reading, hiking, kayaking, volunteering for Florida Access Network, or getting lost in the woods while photographing birds.

About OneCause

Over 15 years ago, OneCause set out to revolutionize charitable fundraising. Our founders themselves were gala attendees who thought there had to be an easier way to give. From there an idea and company was created to serve one need: help nonprofits raise more and reach more through technology.

We’re driven to continue improving the giving experience. Donors are looking for a connection; and our technology empowers organizations to put their mission at the forefront.