How to Choose the Event Fundraising Model that Works for You

Are you looking to implement a new event in order to meet this year’s fundraising goals? Things to think about as you embark on a new event are: your access to volunteers, your staff capacity, how engaged your board will be in the event and your event budget. We put together a list of popular event ideas and broke them down based on nonprofit characteristics to help you get started!

For the Volunteer-Heavy organization: Fun Runs and/or Walks
Walks are easy, fairly low-cost and can bring a lot of people together fairly quickly, especially if your city already has a well known marathon and/or track clubs that would support it. They can also be a lot of fun and creative. You can do a themed race around a particular holiday, obstacle course, or throw in some color, etc. The possibilities are endless!

While walks can get pricey if you include race bags, medals, event timing and other high-tech logistics, you CAN keep the cost down by opting out of these extras. Event participants will understand that they are at an event to raise money and will generally enjoy the day getting exercise and giving back. However, to make sure the event runs smoothly you’ll want to ensure you have plenty of volunteers involved.

You’ll need volunteers at the registration table, taking care of the route (putting up signage and taking water to each water station), working water stations, cheering along the way, and at the finish line to pass out snacks/medals/water. The best walks have a small army of volunteers to make sure every component goes off without a hitch.

For the Well-Staffed organization: Golf Tournaments
Golf Tournaments are a great way to get the community involved with your event- particularly the business community. While they don’t require as many volunteers as a walk (unless you want cheering stations at every hole!) they do require more coordination from staff in terms of teams registration, day of event management and sponsorship coordination.

You have a lot of creativity here as well with how many extras you can publicize to raise money: extra sleeves of balls, donations for mulligans, etc. Keeping track of all of these components will require a lot from your staff to keep everyone in line throughout the course.

Again, just like a walk you can add on as much or as little as you’d like to your golf tournament, but unlike a walk, guests will expect a bit more simply because of the venue.

For the Board-Involved organization: Luncheons/Galas
Hosting a luncheon or a gala is still one of the most popular ways to raise money for a nonprofit organization, but it’s really most successful if you have a dedicated board of directors who help you sell the table sponsorships and fill up the room with guests.

When board members ask their peers to purchase tables at an event, you’re more likely to fill your tables, as opposed to a development director making a cold call. Ask your board to give you a list of 10 people at different companies they would be willing to call, and offer to write out a script for them so they know exactly what to say. Make their job as easy as possible and you’ll come away with a full room of guests.

At Swell, we believe you can also utilize the guests in the room a bit more than in a traditional luncheon by getting your table captains to raise money from those who couldn’t attend, as well! We also recommend ditching the silent auctions and having a live big screen fundraising event tally. Why? Big screens in the event foster competition among donors – silent auctions don’t. If you have a committee that simply must have a silent auction- our guidance is that less is more. Larger items, geared toward your attendee’s interests have the potential to bring in larger contributions.

Here are some case studies on successful events that have used Swell. For more information on budgeting for nonprofit events, visit the National Council of Nonprofits.