Check
out this sampling of articles from recent
issues of Special Events Galore! Newsletter...
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Tips to Juggle Multiple
Events
Events
are the lifeblood of nonprofits, but the
details can swamp even the best of us.
Sharing
thoughts on managing multiple events is Jan
Goldstein, director of marketing and communications
for Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (Boston,
MA), which hosts more than 20 fundraising
and outreach events among nine clubs annually:
With so many events to oversee, how do you
keep everything organized?
“To make sure we’re not holding
different events the same night, each of
our local clubs keeps an event calendar,
all of which are included in our calendar
at the main office. We also try to coordinate
with other major nonprofits in Boston to
make sure we’re not stepping on each
others’ toes.
“E-mail outreach and marketing campaigns are another element we plan very
carefully. We want to make sure a donor isn’t getting two e-mails from
us in the same week, even if they’re for different events. We put a lot
of effort into making sure our communications make sense from the donor’s
point of view.”
How do you communicate information?
“Because club staff spend far more
time serving kids than sitting in the office,
internal communications are always a challenge.
To address this, we use a staff intranet,
e-mail, conference calls, and when it makes
sense, face-to-face meetings. We also have
one staff member at the main office who serves
as a liaison to local clubs.”
How should organizations balance planning
events versus letting them evolve?
“We plan our biggest events well in
advance but try to be flexible about everything
else. Because our events are often constrained
by availability of key individuals outside
the organization, dates and times can change
very quickly. We try to be as responsive
to this as we can because it allows us to
do more than if we were rigid about planning.”
How can organizations best cope with numerous
events?
“Find and utilize efficiencies. If
your CEO is making remarks at multiple events,
have core message points to use at all of
them. Have templates for event agendas, invitation
materials, event listings. Create a standing
media list to use in multiple situations.”
Source:
Jan Goldstein, Director of Marketing
and Communications,
Boys & Girls Clubs
of Boston, Boston, MA.
--------------------Cutting-edge
Technology--------------------
Use Social Networking
to Maximize Special Event Success
Looking
to use social networking to promote your
event? Plan your steps for doing so to
best use precious planning time and best utilize
these growing communication venues.
Both Mandi
Mueller, public relations coordinator of
Special Olympics Missouri (Jefferson City,
MO), and Jennifer Bohac, director of the Texas
A&M Association
of Former Students’ Traveling Aggies program (College City, TX), agree:
The biggest downside to social networking sites is the time they can eat up.
The key to using social networking
in promoting special events or other aspects
of your organization, they say, is focusing on what clearly works for your
organization.
For Mueller, maintaining that
focus in the face of a Twitter account (www.twitter.com)
and five separate Facebook pages (www.facebook.com) can be a challenge. But
most of her work goes toward one popular effort — a page (linked to the
Twitter account) hosted by Shiver Bear, the polar bear mascot of Special Olympics
Missouri’s
largest fundraising event, the Polar Bear Plunge.
“Shiver sends out status
updates, posts photos from events and invites
people to activities,” she says. “He’s the face of events.
Things mean more coming from him than they would from me or other staff members.”
The
updates Mueller sends on behalf of Shiver every day could include details
about upcoming events, articles featuring Special Olympics or volunteer
needs, but she stresses that they nearly
always include a clickable link. “I
don’t
want people to just read something,” she says. “The point is
for them to do something, to take action.”
Mueller also emphasizes
that regular, daily communication is crucial to building a fan base that
is actively involved.
Though Special Olympics Missouri
maintains a cause page that can raise money
directly, Mueller
currently prefers to channel new contacts
toward
traditional
fundraisers. To do this, she has found placing ads on Facebook effective.
With the personal information available on Facebook, she says, “You
can drill down by people’s age, gender, hobbies, alma mater, current
location — almost
anything you can imagine. I don’t know anywhere else advertising
can be that focused.”
In 2008, Mueller says, she
spent $277 on an ad that was viewed almost
1.15 million times. Out of that, 424 people
clicked through for more
information
on the fundraiser
it promoted. “It’s only a click-through rate of about .037
percent, but if even half those 424 people pay $50 to register, it
can really add up,” she
says.
The Traveling Aggies are much
newer to the social networking scene but
are already seeing benefits, says Bohac.
Foremost among these is
the
ability to give real-time
updates in multiple formats. On campus she may only send updates
once a week,
but while accompanying a tour overseas she can send live text messages,
photos and even video clips straight from her Blackberry.
“This includes participants
in the action as it’s happening,” Bohac
says. “Not having to wait until the trip is done, they feel
personally involved. It creates buzz and gets people thinking about
maybe taking a trip
of their own.”
Bohac appreciates having a
way to communicate fast-changing details
without a long stream of e-mails, but highlights
a more bottom-line
benefit to
social networking
as well. “It’s cheap! As schools and other organizations
feel the budget pinch, we just can’t do as much with mailings.
This is one more way to keep in contact with the people we serve.”
Sources:
Jennifer Bohac, Director of Travel Program,
Association
of Former Students,
Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX.
Mandi Mueller, Public Relations Coordinator,
Special Olympics Missouri Jefferson City,
MO.
--------------------Expert
Advice--------------------
Make Your Fundraising
Fashion Show a Runway Success
Hosting a successful fashion
show fundraiser has its challenges. Offering
its 5th annual Young Women’s Alliance
Foundation Fashion Show (Austin, TX), the
organization drew 300 guests, raised $10,000
and overcame any road bumps with style.
Angela
Pedowitz, vice president of marketing for
the organization that enriches, empowers
and educates young Central Texas women,
answers questions about creating
this memorable event filled with fashion, fundraising and friendraising opportunities:
What was the theme of the
Young Women’s
Alliance Foundation Fashion Show?
“The Best of Austin: Music, Fashion
and Flavor.”
What are your best suggestions for finding
a venue for a fashion show fundraiser?
“Our biggest obstacle was finding
a space that could accommodate a runway and
300 people and still fit in our budget. To
maximize our fundraising effort, we wanted
a venue willing to host our event at little
to no cost. Location was also a consideration — our
target demographic spends a lot of time in
the downtown area, so we knew that’s
where we wanted to host the fashion show.
We found the right combination at the Parish — a
local nightclub.”
How do you go about coordinating
the fashion — do
local designers contribute, and if so, how
do you approach/connect with them?
“A fashion show committee member called
local boutiques and scheduled appointments
to speak with the owners. She presented them
with a packet outlining event details (date,
location, expected attendance, etc.) and
the number of looks we hoped to have on the
runway. Most saw it as a great way to promote
themselves to their target demographic – young,
stylish Austin women. We found several boutiques
that were receptive to donating clothing
for the night, and they even helped us promote
the event in their stores.”
What are your top tips for a successful
fashion show fundraiser?
