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Are Fundraising Events a Losing Proposition For Nonprofit Organizations?

By: popoty fatlossfo

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There's nothing therefore useless as doing efficiently that that should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker

Say the word "fundraising" to anyone who isn't in the sphere and what is the first issue to come to mind? You guessed it - events. Everybody seems to buy into that old Andy Hardy mantra of "let's put on a show!" and many folks view events because the be-all, end- all of fundraising.

Well I am here to tell you a little story. Bear with me and I am going to tell you how my expertise relates to events...

It happened several years ago. I used to be operating with a little organization as their part-time development director once I came up with the thought to sell donated merchandise on eBay to lift money. Their board agreed to provide it a attempt, we publicized it in the newsletter and I started hauling donated things home in my car each week to photograph and list.

Selling on eBay is much a lot of time-consuming than you might imagine - from researching the things, writing up the listing, coming up with the HTML for our page, taking countless photographs of the goods and, lastly, packaging, addressing and shipping - particularly when you are doing it all yourself. At the end of 3 months we have a tendency to had raised slightly over $8,000 for the organization - when PayPal fees - and also the organization was happy.
I, however, was not. After I factored in the amount of time that I had lost - time that will are higher spent writing grant proposals, researching foundations or calling donors - I spotted that selling on eBay was a losing proposition.

Why am I telling you this?
My story illustrates 2 points:
I was blessed with a wonderful board, a board that supported my plan wholeheartedly. Additional boards ought to provide their development employees the liberty to try to to their jobs - even at the danger of typically failing.

My eBay selling experience was terribly similar to many smaller nonprofit organizations' experiences with events. My friend, Jen, who works for a moderately massive nonprofit in New Jersey that shall stay nameless, refers to events as "crack." For several tiny organizations they are addictive, despite the often relatively low come back on investment.

Oh certain, events can and do raise money. However it's rare that event ROI analysis strategies issue in the large - and I do mean huge - quantity of your time devoted by staff to the planning of events.

You recognize exactly what I am talking about.
For instance, I once worked as a grant author for a corporation where I used to be repeatedly known as off task to tie goodie baggage, choose up donated product for events, hostess at golf outings - you name it. Do I need to inform you that my grant- writing efforts brought in seventy% additional money than the events?

You almost certainly have your own event horror stories. Unless your organization already features a outstanding signature event, or a committed bunch of proficient volunteers willing to try to to the grunt work for you, events are usually a losing proposition.

Norm Olshansky, in his article "Fundraising Come on Investment" goes so so much as to say: "This could seem like blasphemy to some, however events ought to primarily be used to draw in new donors, cultivate existing donors and volunteers, say thank you to your donors, volunteers and staff, or to provide community education."

I concur.
It's been my expertise that the smaller nonprofit is much higher off focusing on "Benevon" style events. Benevon is the organization formerly referred to as Raising More Money. Their program focuses solely on growing a company's individual giving and a serious component of it is small, informal cocktail parties or gatherings at board members homes designed for the only purpose of introducing friends and neighbors to your mission in an off-the-cuff, partaking manner. These events require minimal employees involvement and lead to greater long-term gain.

You have got restricted time, money and resources. And I am all concerning Simple Development Systems, which means building your donor base - and, eventually major gifts - during a systematized way. As Tony Robbins perpetually says, "do not specialize in activity - specialise in results!"

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Popoty has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Fundraising You can also check out his latest website about : Art TeesWhich reviews and lists the best make your own t shirt

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