Host committees = Strong Event Fundraising

You have planned many benefit events – but, they are never as successful as you had hoped. You do the lion share of the fundraising – every single year – and it is getting tiresome, and less and less effective every year.

Well, you are not alone. We’ve heard it, literally, dozens of times before. We’ve got some knowledge and advice to share with you, but be forewarned, execution on this advice is critical. Your event fundraising will not improve unless you are able to implement these changes to your strategy.

1. Event fundraising and coordination should be done through volunteer committee structures. The merits of having an “army” of fundraisers behind your benefit event are hard to dismiss. Benefit events should bring mass attention to your mission, clients, and vision – so having your best supporters and fans behind spreading that message AND garnering support for the work is the best, nay (dare I say it), ONLY strategic way to fundraise through events.
2. As you recruit committee members, you MUST make it 100% clear that they are responsible for giving personally to the event, getting personal contacts to give, and/or arranging professional connections to give. This is where organizations often fall short. While recruiting committee members, they often undersell the fundraising commitment just to get folks to say “yes” to serving; and then, inevitably, are disappointed when there is little fundraising accomplished.
3. Once your committee is formed, do fundraising strategy work right away. Have committee members develop their prospect lists with actual names and asks so that they can determine a realistic, but ambitious fundraising goal for themselves, and have them include their personal gift. You and the organization itself should go through the same process. Once prospecting and projected asks are completed, combine all fundraising goals and determine a group/overall event fundraising goal. If the amount falls short from your vision, or expectations, you know early on that you need more committee members (more soldiers) to help you reach your goal.
4. Then you have to execute. Meet weekly by phone or in-person to review fundraising progress, prospect lists, strategies and asks, and make sure people are doing the work needed. Use the time of the regular meeting to brainstorm, trouble shoot, and move, collectively, as a team towards your fundraising goal for the event.

There you have it! A time-tested event fundraising approach that has worked within diverse organizations, of all sizes, missions, and make-ups. You can do it!

If you need more help, or advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to the TakeTwo team. Best of luck.