Linking Special Events To A Mission

Many nonprofit leaders like to hold special events because they can raise money without talking about raising money.  But according to Jeff Shuck, president and CEO of Event 360, that's exactly the wrong approach to take.

At a recent DMA Nonprofit Federation New York Nonprofit Conference, Shuck said nonprofits should use events as an opportunity to spark fundraising conversations, not to avoid them.  He went on to say that these conversations can get the best results when nonprofits understand how to evaluate each part of an event with the correct metrics.  These include the following:

• Event: Number of events, participant satisfaction, repeat attendance.
• Participants: Number of participants, registration time, team participation.
• Donors: Number of donors, donors per participant, percentage of participants with zero donors, percentage of self-donations and goal, number of emails sent per participant.
• Gifts: Number of gifts, amount per gift.
• Revenue: Return on investment (ROI), compound annual growth rate, growth against the national benchmark.