Many nonprofits have had to cancel their upcoming fundraising events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and some leaders are trying to figure out how to host virtual events for the first time. In this episode of the Nonprofit Jenni Show, you’ll hear a real life coaching call between me and Williamson County CASA’s leaders as they figure out what action steps they’ll need to take to host a successful live streaming event.
10 Tips for Live Stream Fundraising Events
This episode was different from our typical episodes. Normally I’ll interview a couple nonprofit leaders to learn how they have faced a common challenge at their organizations. This time, though, I decided to turn one of my recorded coaching calls into a podcast episode so you can hear what it’s like to work with me as a nonprofit coach.
I highly recommend listening to the full podcast episode this week because my colleagues Emily Layton and Sydni Dicke from Williamson County CASA ask great questions and share valuable insight into virtual event planning!
10 tips I pulled out of our conversation about Online Fundraising Events
1. Make sure your virtual event is interactive and includes audience participation! Otherwise, the event will turn into any other streaming production, like a Netflix show you’re only half-watching.
2. Create a Facebook event page to help promote your event--even if you don’t plan to host it on Facebook Live. When people mark themselves as “Interested” or “Going” on the page, Facebook’s algorithm is more likely to recommend the event to others. This will help your SEO.
3. If you use Facebook Live to host your event, I would recommend choosing a different platform to host your peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising campaign. You can still collect donations live through Facebook during the actual event, but Facebook’s P2P fundraising capabilities are far behind more sophisticated, user-friendly systems.
4. When you ask people to become peer-to-peer fundraisers for your campaign, keep the instructions simple and specific. Offer to hold their hands and personally walk them through each step, if needed. The work on the front-end will be well worth the investment!
5. Develop a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Toolkit for all your fundraisers which includes helpful instructions and tips, social media graphics, sample messages, and other tools they will need to host a successful campaign. Again, the time you invest in this toolkit is totally worth it because you should be able to adapt the toolkit for every future P2P initiative you host.
6. Check and see if your peer-to-peer fundraising platform allows you to go into the backend and manually add donations. This is helpful if you have any donors who are more comfortable mailing in checks than donating online.
7. Incorporate some sort of RSVP feature so you can estimate how many people will “attend” your streaming event. Send at least three reminders ahead of time to those who have signed up, and ask your P2P fundraisers to personally text each person who contributed to their campaign to remind them on the day of the event.
8. Assume people with a wide range of giving abilities are watching your event, and emphasize the positive impact of several different giving amounts. This way, even donors who can only contribute $25 feel confident that they are making a real difference.
9. Offer at least two different opportunities for people to contribute through your event. These could include selling tickets ahead of time, a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, a direct appeal during the event, and a supplemental online auction.
10. Get creative when you think about how corporate sponsors can be recognized during a live streaming event. For example, you could have them sponsor different portions of the program, keep the top sponsor’s logo in the bottom corner of the screen throughout the event, and turn part of their sponsorship package into a matching gift to encourage more individual donations during the event.
How Coaching Calls Work
1. First, you schedule a free half-hour call with me so we can get to know each other. You can tell me about the challenges you’re wrestling with, I can give you some initial advice, and together we’ll decide if regular coaching makes sense for your situation.
2. If you like my style and I feel like I can help you, we’ll schedule a minimum of four biweekly coaching calls at a regular time every other week (e.g., every other Friday at 10 am). Each call costs $75.00 for 501c3 organizations or $90.00 for profit-driven social enterprises, plus a small payment processing fee.
Note: You can add on any number of calls after our first four! I only set an initial minimum of four calls because it’s difficult to recognize major improvements with less time.
3. Each coaching call lasts for 50 minutes. Following the call, I’ll email you:
A detailed summary of what we discussed
A checklist of action items for you/your organization to complete before our next call
Any additional relevant resources I may recommend for your situation
Topics/challenges we plan to cover in upcoming calls (These may obviously change depending on whether unexpected issues pop up between calls!)
Also, I want to thank Adams Keegan for sponsoring this episode! Adams Keegan offers affordable employer solutions, and they have a special division which is solely dedicated to serving nonprofit organizations. Schedule a consultation call with them to get customized, free advice for your nonprofit’s HR policies and management.