Fundraising and Brand Awareness: Pre and Post Event challenges!

With the Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, the season for event fundraising is too at the doorsteps! Various initiatives can be counted in as an event to raise money for causes and non-profits. 

The list can include 5k runs, walk-a-thons, or endurance bike rides. We cannot deny the fact that in recent years, non-profits have expanded the list of activities to include polar plunges, mud runs, head-shaving and even laundry detergent fundraising program!

But just like everything else, planning a fundraising event has a lot of benefits and shortcomings. Fundraising program can bring in revenue for your organization, but in the meanwhile massively strain your resources. The logistics and operations pre and post the event can test your patience and organization’s limits, but the possessed risk certainly outweighs the reward.

One of the best benefits of organizing a fundraising event is the impact on brand awareness. The awareness has a two-fold approach which benefits the organization and the cause in the long-run.

The first benefit is the online reach. The participants who fundraise and attend your event will be sharing their narrative and experience and your brand far and wide. Fundraisers will then continue with sending out emails with your logo. The process may continue with a messaging spree to thousands of friends, families and colleagues. 

For instance, let’s take an account that every individual attending your event has 100 contacts in their phone book and about 300 friends on Social Media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Now, if you have 100 fundraisers attending the event and each sends out one email and one Facebook update, this takes your event reach to more than 35,000 people. Your non-profit brand and your cause are exposed to such a high reach through one fundraising event.

The second type of brand awareness is more prevalent on the local level. Organizing an event gives deeper roots to your organization and goals in your community. Local volunteers and participants interact with your staff and board in a way that none another event can replicate while planning a strategy from the office or at any other standard, planned event. 

Operating an event can give you dynamic experiences. The open nature of the logistics forces individuals to collaborate and work together in different ways.

Challenges faced while organizing Fundraisers:

You need to know the kind of challenges you’ll be facing! One of the main challenges of organizing a fundraising event is the amount of effort and coordination that goes into planning and execution. Non-profits must consider planning an event and start with the forming committee. This team should comprise of internal personnel and some volunteers from the local community. The process needs careful planning to achieve critical objectives. You can assign small groups to manage marketing, logistics, operations, and other relevant aspects of the event.

Apart from personnel, the budget is an essential factor to be considered for the event. Make sure you set goals and objectives as per your investment. Good research based on numbers and background work can help a lot! Corporate sponsorships are a critical part of any event as they provide capital resources.

You must never underestimate the challenges that fundraising events can present to an organization. 

However, the correct can get you a victory over money, brand awareness and a lot of enjoyment through the fundraising event.