What Information Should You Collect Before Your Next Event - And Why?

Constant Contact has developed a simple strategy for asking the right questions, and in a blog post they explain why obtaining the right information is so valuable in planning your next event. The key to collecting the right guest information before your next event is to start with an online registration form. This allows you to easily learn more about your guests as part of the ticket purchase process. Anyone can use a company like Eventbrite, TicketDerby, or Ticketleap to make it easier, and the best will suggest pertinent questions that will help in planning your event. Knowing what to ask and keeping the form streamlined is crucial.

According to Constant Contact's strategy, #1 is demographic information.  "A nonprofit can use demographic data when planning entertainment or auction items for their annual silent auction fundraiser." Here is their list of what to collect:

1. Demographics: Name, age, gender, even zip codes can matter to sponsors and event partners.

2. Number of guests: Plan seating, food, and amenities better with an accurate count.

3. Contact information: Don't forget about asking for email addresses for follow-up surveys or future communications.

4. Event-specific information:  Are there meal or seating choices to make?  Need t-shirt sizes for giveaways? Can you sell raffle tickets or add-ons in advance?

5. Payment method

At DonationMatch, we do our best to collect the right information on behalf of our users, too. To help companies and brands find their target markets (and nonprofits present themselves to the right opportunities), we ask event organizers for attendee demographics, ticket prices, estimated attendance, social media links, and more. And even before events can be listed on DonationMatch to be eligible to receive goods, a nonprofit's IRS status and account contact must be verified. Because we know nonprofits need to be mindful of the products and services they accept, we now use third-party resources like Yelp to check donor companies, too. We know having better information at your fingertips creates a better experience for both the giver and the receiver.

If your intent is to create a more successful event, asking for more of the right information, and understanding how to use it, is essential. Read Constant Contact's full articles for their strategy and explanations.

What information do YOU collect for a better event?

Capitalizing on Social Media to Expand Marketing Reach and Return

In a survey of nonprofits conducted by VerticalResponse, 80% of respondents post updates to their Facebook page multiple times a week, compared to 66% for businesses.  The survey also found that for nonprofits, social media marketing has become a “preferred marketing channel because it offers free content distribution.”  And according to a Brafton blog post, because of the potential to successfully maximize their reach and return using social media, even on a tight budget, businesses will invest more in updating their websites and social media presence. Did you know that DonationMatch is another excellent way for businesses and nonprofits to maximize reach and return?  Through our free service, a business can get products in front of hundreds of potential customers through just one charitable event.  For nonprofits we deliver companies interested in doing well by doing good, increasing the fundraising potential for your events.

According to Edelman's 2012 goodpurpose study, 72% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that are charitable.  For nonprofits and businesses, using both social media and DonationMatch are ways to gain the exposure you both seek in less time.

What tips do you have for maximizing your marketing reach and results?

Using Social Media to Promote Your Event

By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador, DonationMatch Spring fundraising time is among us.  How are you planning to promote your event?  According to Socialable, one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal should be social media.  Because of its wide audience reach, social media can be used to "increase registration, increase buzz, and ultimately increase attendance."  However, in considering your social media platform, it's important to keep in mind who your target audience is and how they interact online.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are likely your best options.

Another boost is the new Pro Event page upgrade on DonationMatch. It has built-in extra help for your event to get found by search engines like Google and Bing and Facebook sharing widgets. What makes it super convenient is automatic donor promotion and the ability to export donation details.

For details on using social media to help promote your event, and for useful tools to help you manage it, read more on Socialable's post here.

How are you using social media to promote your event?

Three Steps to Turning New Guests into Big Bidders

[Sherry's blog post from last year is just as worth sharing now. Here's to your fundraising success! - Renee, Co-founder, DonationMatch] Courtesy of Sherry Truhlar,  Red Apple Auctions

One of my clients held her school gala last month.  A few days prior, she asked how she could ensure that new parents would feel welcome attending the charity auction.

It's a good question.

The reception you give to new attendees can make a difference in whether they buy, and certainly makes an impression on whether they want to return.

At another auction meeting, one of the co-chairs -- a divorced single Mom -- said that when she drove to the auction the previous year, she sat for several minutes in the parking garage, mustering up the courage to enter.

"I was debating as to whether I really wanted to do this," she told me.  She knew everyone else would be attending with their spouse.  As a single person, she wasn't sure she'd fit in or to whom she'd talk.  "I didn't know anyone," she explained.

Once she made the decision to enter, she was so warmly received that she took a leadership role in the auction the following year.

Do you have guests new to the event coming?  Here are some ways to welcome them.

STEP 1:  Prior to the event, call them.

Point blank tell them you're looking forward to meeting them, perhaps mentioning something specific.

"I'm REALLY looking forward to meeting/visiting you," you'll say, "I'm seating you at my table." Say it with enthusiasm!  These are new people prepared to learn about your cause.  They deserve your energy, and it will help build the anticipation.

If you're not holding a sit-down dinner, offer to make introductions, "Find me at the raffle table because I have someone I'm eager for you to meet."

STEP 2:  At the event, assign people to meet and greet.  

At a recent hospice auction, staff were assigned in pairs to greet guests at the hotel door, right after they'd turned their car over to the valet.  Staff briefly chatted with them before pointing them in the direction of the registration table.

Another client asks three people (two Board members and an outgoing woman who has been involved in the organization for years) to mingle with new guests, being sure to introduce the newbies to others and spending time getting to know them.

You might consider identifying new guests in a specific way, such as a "new parent" ribbon or a subtle star on a name badge.

I've seen this done successfully, though some guests might not appreciate the gesture and instead feel like a target.  Decide what works for your group.

STEP 3: After the event, pick up the phone. Nothing says "Wow!" like a prompt thank you.

If you need a slam-dunk strategy for next year's donations, this is it.

The day after the auction, set aside receipts and written thank you's.  Instead, pick up the phone and start dialing.  Here's the proof.

Fundraising colleague Gail Perry introduced me to Penelope Burk's work.  Penelope, a well-respected fundraising expert, shared some statistics on board member thank you calls back in 2004 at an AFP International Conference.

Donors who received a thank you phone call from a board member within 24 hours of making the gift were 39% more likely than other donors to give the next time they were solicited.

39%!

And after 14 months, they were giving 42% more.

Talk about a super strategy for improving your auction donations for the following year....

Engage your Board members.  Anyone Board member who felt uncomfortable asking for an auction item or sponsorship money should be enlisted in this activity. Provide them a script.  They can start dialing to say, "Thank you so much for your donation last night!  We are so thrilled you attended."

Three simple steps and these new buyers can become lifelong auction supporters.

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Benefit auctioneer Sherry Truhlar publishes "Benefit Auction Ideas," a bi-monthly e-zine for auction chairs seeking to improve the financial results of their charity auctions. Get your own copy -- and a F'REE gift! - at www.RedAppleAuctions.com.

Out of Date Donor Information Can Prove Costly

By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador, DonationMatch As Kim Kupferman of Heller Consulting admits in this Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) blog post, this isn’t the most exciting topic, but maintaining accurate donor data is actually quite important. How frustrating is it when we receive mail with our names spelled incorrectly, or which contains outdated or inaccurate information? What does this say about the company who sent the mailing? Knowing who your donors are, what they donate, and why they donate are vital information. Even though you may use some type of CRM to track this data, inaccuracies can be a major issue.

At DonationMatch, we are constantly striving to achieve the highest level of accuracy with our data. When it comes to donors, we understand that it’s important not only to know WHO to contact, but HOW to contact them. A bonus is that the WHO and WHAT of donor information is updated by companies themselves on DonationMatch, eliminating guesswork and streamlining the donation request process for both parties. As companies are learning to be more efficient, many both on and off our system are no longer accepting mailed requests (this preference can usually be found on their websites). When an organization fails to recognize this, it wastes paper and postage and risks offending potential or current donors.

Are you getting ready to mass-mail in-kind donation request letters for your fundraising event? Hop on over to DonationMatch first. Post your events and find out which products you can get in just clicks, then only send letters to donors who are not on our system. (You can even invite them to DonationMatch if you have their emails and think they may want to go paperless).

It shows respect and care to your donors when you are able to identify and acknowledge who they are, what they have recently done for you, and their preferences. This communicates the right message that can lead to better relationships and success.

What have you done lately to ensure data accuracy?

Why The Founder Institute?

By Darryl Rettig and Renee Zau, Co-founders, DonationMatch Pretty much everyone is familiar with the movie The Karate Kid. The short story is that the protagonist, Daniel, was new to an area and was bullied by a bunch a local kids while trying to win the heart of a girl. Into his life steps a handyman, Mr. Miyagi. He instructs Daniel to wash and wax his car, then paint various items around his house. Daniel doesn't see how these tasks relate to effectively fighting back, but does them reluctantly. At a critical point in the movie, Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that the tasks he performed were actually practice in disguise, not a waste of time. He was being taught the necessary tools of success.

Going through Founder Institute often reminded us of The Karate Kid. Our mentors and our facilitator Jeanine Jacobson played the role of Mr. Miyagi; and we (Darryl and Renee, co-founders of DonationMatch) were Daniel. Every week we had presentations to watch, pitches to give, and about 30 hours of homework. While reviewing the homework assignments we'd say to each other: "Don’t we already know this?" "How does all this busy work help us?" And sometimes, "This doesn’t apply to our situation." But while completing each assignment, we inevitably would discover some critical bit of information that could increase our chances of success. Every task had a valid takeaway, and we learned that some of our assumptions were completely wrong. Whether it was from interviewing our customers, completing a financial model, or meeting one-on-one with mentors, we made improvements that likely would never have happened, or would have come too late for our long term success.

In the end, with the tools taught at FI, DonationMatch will be a better product for our customers, a stronger organization financially, and ultimately a more successful company. As we apply these principles going forward, we certainly won’t have all the answers, but we at least we’ll have a better idea of the questions to ask. This is not only a win for us, it's a win for our customers.

Cause Marketing & March's Cause Conference

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatchThe American Marketing Association's Cause Marketing Conference returns on March 20th. I'll be there bright and early to get a front seat for this year's keynote speaker, the "mother of cause marketing" herself, Carol Cone, whom PR Week called “arguably the most powerful and visible figure in the world of cause branding.”

Besides the speakers who always leave you with notebooks full of must-do's, another great feature of the conference is the Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship, awarded to a San Diego County college student. It's not too late to apply (deadline is Friday, February 22nd)!

If you're not fortunate enough to visit us in San Diego next month, here are some experts I follow year-round:

Joe Waters of Selfish Giving: After watching the cause-related Super Bowl ads he posted on his blog, you really should check out his Pinterest boards. They're one of the largest collections of cause marketing campaigns and ideas I've seen.

Susan Hyatt, author of Strategy for Good: Susan looks at working with nonprofits from the angle of Corporate Social Responsbility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy. Incidentally, she is putting on her own Strategy for Good Summit from February 25 - March 1, 2013 that is available as a phone or web cast. No travel necessary!

David Hessekiel of Cause Marketing Forum: The Knowledge Center of the Cause Marketing Forum website is THE place to start finding stats and develop a thorough basic knowledge of cause marketing. And his Annual CMF Conference, held in Chicago May 29-30, is on my bucket list (no joke!).

Which cause marketing thought leaders do you follow?

Don't Burn Out Your Volunteers

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch The inevitable happened. I suspected it was a possibility, but it still took me by surprise. "I just don't think I have it in me." Just like that, my son's elementary school's annual fundraiser was cancelled.

This isn't the first time I've seen a leading volunteer burn out, nor will it be the last. Imagine how much work it is to organize the equivalent of a wedding every year, then DOUBLE it. That's how many hours the average charitable fundraising event takes to plan (about 600 hours!) This will drain even the most experienced volunteers year after year, and we found some advice on alleviating pain:

Get Help. "Auctions are best enjoyed – and planned – with others.... Believe it or not, a good number of your best volunteers may not even have personal ties to the nonprofit, but instead have ties to the auction chair!" - Sherry Truhlar, Red Apple Auctions, from "Five Steps to a Great Fundraising Auction"

Stop the (PTO) Drama. Tim Sullivan of PTO Today addressed this in a blog post where he acknowledged the difficulties of authority or leadership in volunteer situations. He tackled this head-on with several suggestions.

Show Appreciation. While your committees are already securing prizes for auctions and raffles, why not add an ask for volunteer gifts, too? I love that the San Diego Zoo does a raffle at each of their Food & Wine Celebration planning meetings. Another idea? The same companies providing goodies for event swag bags will also often be happy to include extras for volunteers. After all, they are potential customers, too, and a little goodwill goes a long way.

Value Their Time. This has more to do with the tools you provide. It could be an app, software, or updated equipment that can save MANY hours of work or headaches. New products to help with event fundraising are being introduced constantly, including Planana for event sharing and DonationMatch for in-kind donation procurement. The best ones will reduce repetitive tasks, increase sales, and/or stay organized (i.e. prevent busy people from being overwhelmed.)

What helps you stay motivated? What have you done to successfully retain volunteers? We'd love to know in the comments below!

What's Happening: DonationMatch Behind the Scenes

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch [Updated 2/24/14: We are in the process of creating a new poster, as we have now surpassed getting $2.69 Million in goods to 1,000+ schools and nonprofit events. Learn more about receiving these benefits for the organization your support at DonationMatch.com}

If you didn't know, we at DonationMatch are known as a bootstrapped startup. This means we are self-funded, a fairly new company, and believe SO MUCH in the need for our tools and solutions that we currently work for no pay. Our mission classifies us a social enterprise. We've also been called disruptive (not good if you're a student, but great in business) because we're making non-cash marketing easily available to any size business and bringing non-cash donation procurement for nonprofit events online.

We've been a 1.5-person show for almost two years. Starting on Monday, October 15th, it will be two (both) of us working on DonationMatch full-time, and we're as excited as can be!

How's it going so far? We measure our success by the value we bring to our DonationMatch members and our total impact. Take a look and tell us what you think:

"It's a no-brainer."

"This is an amazing tool to get your business out there."

"We have had so many donation matches already. Every single one achieved so quickly and at the mere click of a button."

"Our name, our brand and our products have been introduced to 1000’s of potential customers that may have never known we existed. And... we barely lifted a finger!”

What are our next steps? In a nutshell: getting down to business and learning. Figuring out what features make the most difference to you. What problems can we solve? What can we improve? How do you make your decisions? What companies (small, big, and in-between) do you want to refer to DonationMatch? We'd also love to expand beyond the San Diego market. Members, look for your phones to ring!

So, if you notice it getting quiet for a while on this blog, it's because we're focused on improving your experience and results. But please call or email us if you want to talk - we're here to listen and learn from you. And  be sure to look for new members the next time you're on DonationMatch--we love seeing new win-win exchanges happening!

TWO Chances to Meet DonationMatch in Person this Weekend!

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch We've been fortunate enough to be invited to share DonationMatch at two exciting events this weekend in San Diego - Women 2.0's Founder Friday and TEDxAmericasFinestCity!

Here's the scoop, and it's not too late to RSVP. We'd love to meet you!

Women 2.0 Founder Friday San Diego Friday, July 13th from 6-9pm Sponsored by Procopio Details and RSVP to attend: http://founderfridaysd071312.eventbrite.com/

Founder Friday is a Women 2.0 monthly networking event organized in partnership with like-minded organizations and individuals. Open to aspiring and current entrepreneurs, technologists and investors, it is free to those who attend (this is an open event for females and males) to network and connect. Please note that you must be 21 or older to attend this Founder Friday. They'll be checking IDs at the door, so come prepared!

TEDxAmericasFinestCity Saturday, July 14th from 11am-9pm Details and Tickets: http://tedxamericasfinestcity.com/tickets

TEDxAFC brings the spirit of the TED-like conference to the people of San Diego, California. The intellectual stimulation of a TED talk combined with the experiential engagement of a interactive-carnival. TEDxAFC will be your opportunity to see what is really going on around us as we explore (RE)united ideas from speakers around our community. With so many inspirational things happening in San Diego it is hard to see it all at once… until now.

The Demo Lounge where DonationMatch is exhibiting will be open from 10:30am-1pm and 3-4pm.

We hope you can come say hi to us here in San Diego, and thanks for all your participation and support. We are very excited about where DonationMatch is headed, how much more we can do for our members, and seeing you grow with us!

- Renee & Darryl, Co-founders

Coming Soon: A Fresh Look and Features for DonationMatch

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch You've told us how easy DonationMatch makes getting more customers and event donors, how much time we've saved you, and how great it feels to both give and receive.  We've taken your feedback and are excited to announce that added features and a new look are COMING SOON! Why are we letting you know BEFORE we do the upgrade?  Our site will be unavailable during this transition, and we want you to be able to plan any important DonationMatch account activity around it.  The exact date/time isn't set yet, but it could happen as early as this Friday evening, May 11th, and we'll announce it as soon as we know with an email, on Facebook, on Twitter, AND here on our blog.

Thanks for all your support, and we look forward to seeing you online at DonationMatch!

Are You Ready for an Event?

6 steps to determine if a fundraising event is what your organization really needs

Guest Post by Krista Berry, Owner & Principal Consultant at KB Consulting

I recently had the pleasure of working with a small, energetic non-profit organization that originally contacted me to plan their first fundraising event. Like any event management professional, my first step before diving into the planning elements was to conduct a needs assessment so I could better understand the job.

After my first conversation with the board of directors it was very clear to me that the organization wasn’t ready for a big fundraising event (yet). I discovered that, like many organizations, the event was their solution to raise funds to sustain programs and operations, but they had some critical planning that needed to be addressed first, so they were uncertain how to proceed. As a non-profit consultant, I quickly adjusted my role and recommended they take the time to organize a board planning session to prioritize what they should do and what they should NOT do this year.

While an event can be a great way for non-profits to fundraise, it’s imperative that younger organizations take the time to complete a needs assessment before they start planning a big event to avoid getting in over their head.

Now it’s your turn! Answer these 6 questions to determine if a fundraising event is feasible for your organization this year:

• Why? The purpose of the event – this will be the foundation for any future planning.

• What? The desired outcome of the event.

• Who? The scope of audience and demographic info on attendees.

• When?  The desired season, date, day and hour that event will take place.

• Where? The desired physical location of event including destination/geographical area.

• How?  The plan to accomplish all of the event elements above.

After I completed these steps with my client they realized that what the organization really needed was a few “friend-raiser” events to recruit more people to serve on their board of directors and to support the organization’s programming. This was a more realistic next step and is also more in line with their 2012 goals. The needs assessment combined with a board planning session helped them create clear objectives for the organization to achieve before they start planning their first fundraising event. And the ROI (return on investment) will be a successful, sustainable event that will continue to grow every year as the organization grows!

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Krista Berry, MS is the Owner & Principal Consultant at KB Consulting specializing in innovative events, workshops and capacity building solutions for non-profits and communities. She has over 10 years of non-profit experience in both San Diego and New York City.