Ever since a virus struck the entire world, many aspects of people’s lives have changed. The usual gatherings and in-person meetings are currently discouraged since they can pose a significant risk to people’s health. Because of the pandemic’s negative impact, more and more individuals suffer from financial and health problems. It’s now more challenging to live a normal life, especially when there’s limited resources and assistance available.
Holding fundraising projects significantly helps alleviate the conditions of many people in need. It can help provide food and other necessities to those who don’t have enough means to support themselves. However, holding an event like a fundraising campaign isn’t as easy as before the pandemic started. However, with the right attitude and guidance, there are ways you can still execute a successful charity event.
- Plan Your Fundraiser
It goes without saying that any event requires a certain amount of planning to be successful. Holding a fundraiser is no different from organizing a party or a special occasion. Before you execute a charity event, you should first lay down all the things you need to prepare for the occasion. However, due to the current health restrictions, there are more things you need to consider when holding a fundraiser.
Typical public gatherings are still limited in many areas since there’s an ongoing health crisis. This means that you can’t hold regular fundraising events, like marathons, parties, or auctions, where many people gather. Planning for a successful charity event will be more challenging since you’ll have limited opportunities to meet your donors.
But, you still got other options for your fundraiser, such as virtual events or controlled crowd gatherings. If you really want to push through with face-to-face meetings, you should include safety protocols when planning for the event. This way, everyone who’ll attend won’t be at any health risks. Also, establishing contingency plans and additional sanitation protocols in your event’s venue will help ensure that the event won’t be a cause of harm to your attendees.
- Use Various Promotional Tools
Since you need to find ways to inform people about your charity event despite the health restrictions, you need to utilize online tools to make your fundraiser a success. An ideal way to conduct a fundraiser is to hold virtual events where donors can participate without the need to get out of their homes.
For instance, you can hold a virtual webinar to promote your event and inform people about your charity. Using social media platforms can also help increase your visibility and entice more people to donate to your cause. Using online platforms will save you a significant amount of money than holding a conventional charity event.
You can use various tools to ensure that you can still hold a successful fundraiser and gather the funds you need for your chosen foundation. One of the most challenging parts of organizing a virtual event is how you’ll collect money from your donors. Although you can always provide bank details where people can donate money, it can be challenging to convince them to contribute to your goal if they don’t know a lot about your fundraiser’s purpose.
You can use communication tools, such as emails or phone calls, to reach many donors. By contacting them directly, you’ll be able to brief them about the purpose of your fundraiser and increase your chances of gathering the money you need. Websites like https://www.hour-a-thon.com, for example, can help you reach hundreds of potential donors through phone calls.
Effective communication is most essential tool to help you succeed in holding a virtual charity event. This is why you need to ensure that you’re using efficient communication channels to reach your donors.
- Maximize The Use Of Effective Imagery
If you’re promoting your fundraiser, make sure to use imagery to engage your donors. Don’t settle with just text captions, especially when advertising on social media platforms. Not only will it make you look unprepared, but it will also make you seem untrustworthy. Lack of imagery, especially when you’re vowing to help out charities for the less fortunate, will make people assume that your fundraiser isn’t genuine.
Planning months prior to your target date will allow you to communicate with your chosen foundation and ask for photos or videos you can use to promote the fundraiser. Remember that an image or short video clip can instantly entice donors to help your cause, so ensure that you use good quality visual materials.
More engagements mean a higher chance of gathering more donations, so don’t shy away from utilizing the photos and videos you have to promote your fundraising event. Since you can’t engage your donors through fun events and activities, you’ll have to come up with other ways to encourage them to donate.
Use social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to widen your audience. Many people spend a significant time browsing online, so try to take advantage of that and make your event known to the public. Maximizing the benefits of using social media and picking good quality imageries will boost your visibility and persuade more people to help your cause.
- Connect With Your Donors
Once you decide on a virtual event for your fundraising project, you should ensure that you’ll keep constant communication with your donors. It’ll be more challenging to stay in touch since there’s a limitation to how you can meet other people. You can’t hold usual meetings, so you need to resort to other tools, such as web meetings or email updates.
Don’t forget to keep your donors, especially those who regularly support your events and donate a significant amount of money, updated on your progress. It’ll help put their minds at ease that the donation they gave will be put to good use.
Since it’s challenging to recruit new donors during the pandemic, you should focus on your existing ones instead. You can update them about the details of your event through emails or calls.
If you plan on holding an online fundraiser where all of your donors will be present, be sure to send an invitation days before the event date. They may have other schedules to attend to on the same day, so it’s best to inform them ahead of time about your event. You can also send a reminder a few days before the day of your fundraiser, so they don’t forget about it. It’s best to inform your donors about your virtual event as early as possible so they’ll have time to fix their schedules.
- Be Creative
Just because you have limited options for your fundraiser’s theme doesn’t mean that you can’t make it fun. Although you’ll most likely be limited to online gatherings, there are ways to engage your donors similarly to how you interact with them during face-to-face events.
Your fundraiser’s success lies in how well you can plan your event and how many people will attend. This means you need to ensure that you’ll present something interesting during the online meeting. You can’t just show up without any activities in mind to entertain and encourage your donors to fund your charity.
For instance, you can include games or short videos during your online meeting to keep all the attendees entertained. There are various online tools you can take advantage of to conduct traditional games or group activities online. This will encourage participation from your donors and make their time worthwhile.
You can also hold a webinar that discusses a similar topic to the goal of your chosen foundation. It’ll be easier to create a program for your fundraising event if you invite speakers to conduct a talk during the online session, or build partnerships with organizations and feature them during your online event.
If you want to push through with an offline event that still practices health guidelines and social distancing, think of ways on how you can safely gather people in a spacious venue. Face-to-face gatherings should observe basic protocols, such as sanitizing hands and wearing face masks. Hold your event in an open space rather than an indoor venue so it’ll be safer for your attendees.
Once you finish the event, be sure to send your gratitude to everyone who helped you out. You can give out gifts to your donors and partners for the fundraiser to show your appreciation. It’ll also help you retain them if you ever need to ask for their assistance again.
- Conduct Surveys
Conducting qualitative and quantitative surveys will help you plan and execute your fundraiser better. Before holding one, you can ask for activities your donors want to participate in. This way, you can tweak your theme to suit the preferences of your donors.
You can also hold post-event surveys to determine which aspects of your fundraiser worked well and which ones you should improve on. You may need to organize other events in the future, so figuring out how you can effectively execute a modified fundraiser will ensure that you’ll succeed in the future.
Final Thoughts
The current health restrictions shouldn’t stop you from holding events that aim to help out the less fortunate. Although conventional fundraising events aren’t ideal due to the current global situation, there are ways for you to still reach out to your donors and execute a successful fundraiser. Using various online platforms and planning your charity event will help you succeed in gathering the funds you need to help out your chosen foundation or charity.