Of all the activities that a charity does in a community, it is the annual fundraising special event that gets the most attention.  OK, so the spotlight is on and you are planning and deciding whether to do one of these highly visible events for your charitable organization.    Here are five pieces of advice to consider when planning out your special fundraising event.  They are not in any particular order.  So, feel free to skip to the one’s that are most appropriate for your situation.

1)      Make sure the special event is integral to your annual fundraising plan

2)      Look at the resources that you have at your disposal

3)      Refine the Goals and focus of the event

4)      Broaden media coverage, publicity and visibility for your charity.

5)      To kick off or end a campaign.  Milestones

When deciding on what type of special event you want to do,  make sure that it blends well with the overall mission of your nonprofit group.  More specifically, match it to the annual fundraising plan.  This will keep you from wasting time in the future trying to change the event on the fly in order to match the plan.  Better yet, since the special event is most likely the biggest showcase of your organization to the community, include it in detail in the annual plan.  As an example, For a wildlife conservation group,  choosing a well regarded zoo as the venue for the annual special event makes perfect sense.  On the other hand, running a casino night fundraiser for a gamblers anonymous group would be pretty insensitive, if not outright laughable.

Their are two big resources needed to put on a special event, money and manpower.  Out of those two, the one resource that sometimes gets underestimated in the planning of an annual special event is the manpower available to work up to the event.  Money is a hard asset that people are familiar with budgeting for.  The manpower is another thing altogether.  Unless you have experience with project management, it is easy to make a mistake.  Adding to the level of complication is the fact that much of the manpower involved may be volunteers, an extremely unreliable resource.  In this regard it is much better to be conservative and overestimate the required manpower than to overestimate what they can achieve, only to be stuck when they can’t get the job done.

We talked a little bit about matching the event to the plan.  You really have to drive into this point to be a success.  What will the event be all about?  This is another decition that should be made when crafting the annual plan.  Planners must pick a number one goal and make accomplishing that goal the driving force of the special event.  That way, every decision made regarding the event will be colored by that goal.  Can you see the difference in the choices you would make if your chief goal is driving up membership levels vs. a primary goal of maximizing contributions?   Take that number one goal as defined in the annual plan and us it when drafting the detailed plan for the special event.

Regardless of what the primary special event goal is, maximizing media coverage and publicity for your charity’s special event should be high on the list of things to do. Take advantage of your charity’s name recognition to capture media.   They are searching for events like this and charities like yours to write and talk about.  It is up to your group to open up the door and invite them in.  Major media companies in all cities have all kinds of ways for you to contact them.  Using the phone is OK, but there are other, more effective means nowadays.  Contact them thru Twitter, Facebook, E-mail, issue online press releases.  There are tons of Social Media tools out there to help you pinpoint your publicity so that your group gets the media coverage it deserves.   If you are not sure how to do this, contact someone who does know.  This tip is essential to maximize media coverage and therefore, public exposure.

Lastly, use the event as a kick off to or closure of a campaign.  It will inspire your volunteers and is a great way to thank them for all of their hard work.  Also, Use it to highlight all of the good work that your nonprofit has contributed to the community.  You should also point out any major milestones that have been accomplished during the course of the campaign.   You’ll get the added benefit of having all that good work reported by the media attending the event.  Therefore, having a media packet ready for reporters with the details of the campaign makes sense.  Even if the event is focused on closing a current campaign, take a few moments to mention the upcoming plans for the next campaign to convey a sense of continuity for your nonprofit group.