Let’s say you need $1,000
Let’s say you need $1,000 by next week. How do you do it?
This is a common situation for a lot of start-up organizations. The easiest thing would be to sit down with someone who can give you $1,000 and ask them for money, but a lot of people don’t know anyone like that. So what do you do?
I often teach people how to do a quick event that raises $1,000. Just throw a one-hour event together, invite a lot of people, and tell them it’s fundraising but there’s no price to attend — they can choose what they want to give. In the past 12 days, I have been coaching someone on how to do it, and I remembered some things that I don’t usually mention, and I learned some new things, too. So here they are:
* I’ve been insisting that anyone can do a small, quick fundraising event in ten days, on a week night or weekend. That was put to the test here. The people in question pulled off the event in twelve days — proving it can be done quickly.
* I prefer to do small events at someone’s home. It gives the event a quality of being special, because not everyone can see someone’s home, where they can go to a restaurant anytime. However, since a home wasn’t available for this, the organization did it in a restaurant with a bar. I insisted that they go to the local downtown strip of bars and restaurants, walk into each one, and ask for the following deal: that if they hold their event there, the bar would offer half-price drinks and free hors d’oeurves. The organization really struggled with this: when they started, it was a Monday and a lot of places were closed. They found a spa that would host something for $200, but they would have to bring their own alcohol. I kept insisting that they could find a bar that would provide food and half-price drinks and be happy for the business. After more searching and inquiries, they found several and chose one. Although it was a lot of work, it saved them $200. As to the bar, they sold a lot of drinks to the crowd of 20 people, and several stayed to eat at the restaurant after the event. The bar drew 20 new patrons on a slow, rainy night. The organization now has a list of other places that will do an event like this, too, so they can do it again somewhere else or repeat it at this place. The bar got a lot of attention from people who are prospective future guests.
* For invitations, they used www.evite.com and followed up with phone calls. They’re not sure if people came because of the calls, which were a lot of work. I told them to analyze it, and perhaps try it one more time, before they write it off. A personal invitation can mean a lot to some people. They ended up inviting 135 people and 20 came. I told them to expect about a ratio of 20% of invitees coming, which means you have to invite five times as many as the space will hold.
* Surprisingly, about 30 people said they’d come but only about 20 people did. I think it was because it was drizzling outside, and being southern California, a little rain turns off a lot of people. That’s new for me and something to consider in the future.
* My sister Alice suggested something I usually don’t do: to publicize an event like this in the local newspaper. I wouldn’t do that with an event in a private home, and there wasn’t time with this event, but I think it’s a good idea for the future.
* As usual, not requiring an admission price worked very well. People were able to choose their own amounts to give. One check came in at $200, and a number were at $100 or $25. Each person gave what they could afford to give. Had they set the price at $25, they would have missed bigger gifts, and had they set it at $50 or more, they would have missed the smaller donations, which add up.
* I think the event organizers are exhausted from doing this. I urged them to keep doing it, because they gathered a number of new donors and this is endlessly repeatable with new people and new places. They could easily add a couple of hundred new donors in the next year just by doing these parties.
* So, the final numbers were $1,770, but that includes $1,000 from a board member who was going to give anyway. This just encouraged her to do it now, rather than waiting until the end of the year. They were able to leverage her gift by making it a match to anything that would be given that evening, effectively doubling donors’ gifts and encouraging others to give. It is a recession, but I think one of the lessons is to invite many more people, to fill the place and get more donations. It’s just as much work doing it for 20 people as 40 people, but the could have gotten more by inviting more people.
* It will be important for these organizers to keep statistics on each party: how many people were invited, how much was raised, what percentage of people came, was their phone calling effective, and more. By keeping statistics, they’ll be able to learn from each event and make changes to make them more effective and efficient.
* The important thing about holding this event was just to get through this event for the first time. Because it’s not a one-time only fundraiser, they need to keep holding them. After all, most organizations need a lot more than $1,000. For these people, they need to use each event to draft more hosts for future events, hosts who can invite their friends and do the work so the organizers don’t have to keep putting together these parties. If they can get a group of people together who will host a party once every three or four months, they can keep having these parties automatically. They’ll reach hundreds more people and raise thousands more dollars, and they don’t have to rely on corporations or foundations to do it.
* There’s still time for one more event this year if the organizers want to do it. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but the nice thing is that it’s quick and repeatable. They can do it whenever they need money. They have more than 500 interested people on their contact list — time for more parties.
* I’ve written a short paper on how to do this, but I think I will use these lessons to expand on what I teach, because it’s clear to me that people need more coaching to get through this. That’s a good lesson for me: it’s easy for me to do these because I’ve done them, but a new person will have more questions.
If you’re interested in more ways to fundraise and in training your board and volunteers to fundraise, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.