5 Tips for Race Fundraising Success

5 Tips for Race Fundraising Success Richard Dietz , Nonprofit R+D www.twitter.com/nonprofit_rd

Join the discussion / ask questions on Twitter #RaceFR

Agenda
1) Plan Your Event
2) Promote Your Event
3) Recruit and Coach Participants and Sponsors
4) Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up
5) Assess What Worked (and What Didn’t)
Q and A

Assumptions
For the purpose of today's webinar I am making a few assumptions:
You are planning or launching an event with a fundraising focus
You don’t have a lot of time or resources
You have either watched or are willing to watch the past webcasts

Event Fundraising
Definition of Event Fundraising
An experience that brings people together and raises awareness for your cause and offers an opportunity to solicit support. (Fundraising for Dummies, 2 nd Ed., J. Mutz and K. Murray)
Not just an event, not just a solicitation… best of both.
Why Event Fundraising?
People love to participate in charity events, especially races
Donor engagement (past webinar)
People like to support friends and family (past webinar)
(peer-to-peer fundraising / “Friend”-raising)
PR, marketing, and community outreach

1) Plan Your Event

Plan Your Event
Start with your goals and metrics:
Raise awareness / money / supporters
Measure more than just dollars from the event
The Funnel
Set a budget
Tied to registration/fundraising – pay or fundraising commitment
Sponsors can help a great deal

Plan Your Event
Create an Event Timeline
Start with the date of event and work backwards
Deposits, permits, printing, etc.
Include marketing/communications and assessment in timeline
Staff / Volunteers
What jobs/roles will be needed to run the event?
Start getting volunteers right away
Technology
Online registration and donations are key for ROI
Online participants raise almost 6 times more than offline participants
Secure, simple, peer-to-peer fundraising

Ideas - Planning Your Event
Charge fee or minimum fundraising goals
Help cover costs and weed out non-performers
Allow for a “fundraising only” level
Make it easy
Simple registration and donation process
Don’t ask for info you don’t really need
Launch registration and fundraising early
Keep fundraising open after the event
Thank you email can remind folks they can still fundraise

2) Promote Your Event

Promote Your Event
Back to the Event Timeline
Build multiple communications and mediums into the plan
Need to cast a wider net in today’s fragmented info space
Offline Promotion
Newsletters, direct mail, invitations
Other events
Pre-event get together

Promote Your Event
Online Promotion
E-newsletter
Website – prominent position, banners/badges,
Email series – targeted for the event
Social media / Tell-a-Friend
Updates throughout the timeline
Allow Supporters to “spread the word”
Sponsors – widgets and forms on their site too

Ideas – Promoting Your Event
Tie your email series into the type of event
Race events:
Links to training resources and tips
Links to Sponsors – sale on running shoes
Food events
Links to recipes, restaurants (Sponsors)

3) Recruit and Coach Participants and Sponsors

Recruit and Coach Participants
Can be THE difference between a successful event and just another time consuming activity.
Past participants
Re-engage by thanking them for their past participation and inviting them to join again this year
Ask if they know others who might be interested
New participants
Market and recruit everywhere
Newsletter, email, website, events… with enthusiasm!
Multiple Touch Points – same as fundraising appeals

Teach Fundraising 101
Don’t assume they know how to fundraise
Offer tips on how to ask, how often to ask, etc.
Vivid examples of how donations will be used
Deadline driven – create sense of urgency
Provide sample appeals / thank you notes
Email, Twitter, Facebook – multiple versions
Compelling stories
Make it easy for them to send
Encourage (prod) them to fundraise
You need to ask them to ask

Offer tools and resources
Fundraising tools
Personal fundraising pages
Progress meters
Assets for them to promote on their personal blogs
Sage Fundraising Online – forms, progress meters
Website banners and badges
Sample blog posts
Communicate throughout the event
Email series – tips, encouragement, updates
Simple steps they can do today – Call to Action

Recruit Sponsors
Start with previous years sponsors AND participants
Thank them for past support and invite again
Last year’s participant may become a sponsor
This is why it’s so important to be following up throughout the year
Other sources for sponsors
Donors / volunteers – mine your database
Your board
Don’t forget online – FB, Twitter, LinkedIn
Companies new to town

Recruit Sponsors
Create multiple sponsorship levels
Allows for many types of organizations to get involved
This year’s Bronze could be next year’s Gold sponsor
What’s in it for the sponsor?
Offer benefits that are meaningful to them
Promotion at event and on website (Social media too)
VIP / Sponsor Tent
Discount for employees to register
Ask them…
How can you keep them involved throughout the year?

Ideas- Recruiting and Coaching
Give incentives for fundraising
Raise $500 get a sweatshirt, $1,000 get a hoodie
Raffle for everyone who raises $1,000 (Sponsor donated prizes)
Identify your top fundraisers
Provide them with extra assistance and benefits

4) Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up… (Did I mention, Follow Up?)

Follow Up
Thank Everyone
Donors, participants, sponsors, volunteers
Plan on ways to engage throughout the year
The Funnel / “7 touches”
Develop donor engagement
Welcome email or series
Multiple thanks throughout the year

Ideas – Follow Up
Try a 3 or 6 month post-event update
Thank them again
Let them know how funds have been utilized and the impact they have made
Start getting them excited about this year’s event
Special Recognition
Newsletter for top fundraisers / supporters
VIP event for top fundraisers
Recognition of website

5) Assess What Worked (And What Didn’t)

Assess What Worked
Review budget and expenses
Don’t forget staff time!
Analytics
Participants, sponsors, donors
Donations – participants, non-participants, fundraising only,
Promotion methods – online versus offline
Survey participants, donors, sponsors, volunteers
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Start the plan for next year now.

Ideas- Assessing What Worked
Measure and Test Throughout the Year
Are these supporters more engaged?
Do they donate more frequently? End of year?
Return on Investment (ROI)
See Peer-to-Peer Fundraising webinar
Soft ROI
awareness, education
Hard ROI
Money raised
# of supporters
Email acquisition

Sage Race Pack
For just $495, Sage will give you everything you need to launch your next race fundraiser in house.
Learn more at an upcoming webcast: Stay in Control from Start to Finish with Sage Race Pack
http://ow.ly/3WNr7

Where to go from here
Get the White Paper: 5 Tips for Race Fundraising Success
http://ow.ly/3WMtE
Download the slides from today’s presentation:
www.slideshare.net/sagenonprofit
View webcasts referenced in this session:
http://ow.ly/3WN06
Learn more about Sage Fundraising Online
www.sagefundraisingonline.com

Question and Answer Contact Richard Dietz: [email_address] www.twitter.com/nonprofit_rd 512-850-6501 Contact Sage: www.sagenonprofit.com 800-811-0961 www.twitter.com/sagenonprofit www.facebook.com/sagenonprofit

5 Tips for Race Fundraising Success

by Sage Nonprofit Solutions on Feb 15, 2011

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5 Tips for Race Fundraising Success — Presentation Transcript