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Tips to Maximize the Impact of Junior Board Events

Brooke Battle
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Brooke Battle

Categories: Junior Board

Do you have a love-hate for your organization’s junior board fundraiser? Junior board fundraising events can be important to the vitality of a nonprofit organization and sometimes they actually raise significant funds.

But junior board events can be a mixed bag and, without proper goals geared towards this group, may not give you the return you're looking for. Here are 4 elements of a successful Junior Board fundraising event.

  1. Create measurable event goals and educate the Junior Board about these goals.  
    1. Donor acquisition. Acquiring new donors through junior board events is a healthy, strategic activity for the nonprofit that is beneficial in the long view. Create explicit goals for the number of new donor names acquired or specifically target groups of people you need as future donors.
    2. Fundraising. Meaningful fundraising is elusive for many Junior Board events. It’s simple -- $25 donations do not add up as fast as $250 but you can raise significant funds if you put the building blocks in place.
      How to Talk to Your Junior Board About Fundraising
    3. Awareness. For many, building awareness for your organization is a priority for the Junior Board event. Awareness is more than a buzzword (or an escape route). Measure your events with awareness and educate the Junior Board about what you hope to achieve. Today’s young volunteers are social media and communication savvy -- when given metrics to create awareness, they can likely succeed. Example goals might include: Growing followers/fans; Reaching 40,000 people in the 28 days leading up to your event; 250 mentions on Twitter or Instagram.  
  2. Reposition the Junior Board with a slightly older demographic. Shifting from volunteers in their mid-20s to those in their mid-30s will make a big difference. Proactively recruit members for your group who are known fundraisers or young donors already.  Too often, acquiring Junior Board members is a passive activity where nonprofits receive applications / recommendations but do not proactively recruit.   
  3. Train your Junior Board members about how to fundraise and spend staff time encouraging, listening and providing tools to help them raise money. (Note: this will eventually weed out those who are not willing to fundraise and may only be interested in throwing a fun party.)
  4. Use software tools that help you gather names and information from event guests and focus on capturing donor information. Gaining donor names and emails provides an invaluable opportunity for a cause to cultivate, educate and convert these individuals into long term supporters (and eventually strategic supporters).  (Donor Acquisition)

If you don't have a junior board, do you need one? Read more here:
3 Things to Consider Before Starting a Junior Board