Top Secret Revealed - Building Fundraising Momentum

Here is another secret of fundraising revealed.  In fact, most successful charities who host highly successful events year after year, don’t even realize how they did it.  The charities nearly bury the secret as their fundraising success grows and grows, personnel changes which hides the “Why” and “How.”  If you chose not to use the secrets revealed here, remember, other charities in your area will.

But here is the secret only revealed to the Charity Fans of my blogs:

Have you seen a huge freight train moving down the tracks pulling what seems to be 100 loaded box cars and wonder how in the world it started moving with all that weight?  The answer is a strong engine and “Momentum.”

A charity must build momentum in their fundraising events.  How this occurs is based a fundraising plan and a time investment.  A successful charity fundraising event does not just happen overnight, it’s built.  Just like the fictional statement “Overnight Success” or “Get Rich Quick”, successful and intelligent fundraisers have to put in the work and time to build their success and build the momentum.

With the secret revealed and while following the fundraising plan we are going to provide to you, as your event grows, charities will see that the quality of the donations they receive, will also grow.

First, go back and review all of our blogs to begin to understand the foundation of a successful event but here is a quick basis for your plan.  Even though your charity may have held fundraising events for years, you can begin to build fundraising success momentum beginning with your very next event:

Event #1 - The Opener (Current or upcoming event)

With the beginning of your plan, charities should focus on ticket sales – introducing as many people to your event as possible. The basis of this first event is the “Attractiveness” of the event itself.  Focus should be on the Venue, the menu and the items available for your guests to bid on.  With these being the focus, this event will begin to set itself apart from other similar charity events in your area (to better understand this, please read “Above the Crowd Noise”). 

NOTE:  Understand that your guests will not be accustomed to attending an event with such fantastic items available to bid on.  Keep in mind what other charities in your area are doing and what types of items they have available.  From your first event, their education begins to happen now (please read “Training and Educating your guests on how you want them to perform” to learn more about this).

Your charities mission should be introduced in a way that is “Palatable”, the best way is through a short mission related video.  Focus on your guest’s total experience.  This event is the time when also want to introduce business owners to it as well as guests who can become major donors.  These individuals will not initially just write big checks to sponsor your charity or your event without being introduced to it.

Event #2 – The Beginning (2^nd year following the plan)

From your previous event, your guests will remember just how fantastic the last one was.  They will remember last year’s event and what was available to bid on.  For this year, tickets sales are important but it will be much easier to sell them.  In fact, your individual guests will and can assist you with selling bulk tickets (full tables).  This is when Sponsorships should be introduced.  Businesses can be asked to sponsor the event itself, the program, the Auction and most importantly, the auction items available.  This is also a great time to introduce membership levels and building support for the charity.  Focus should be on Sponsorship and ticket sales.

Event #3 – Success is contagious (3^rd year following the plan)

From the momentum you have built, ticket sales are still important, however, now charities can demand higher quality donations.  Focus should be on Sponsorship and Donations during this year.  Underwriting is vital to this year’s success.  The definition of “Underwriting”:  Someone other then the charity pays the expenses of the auction items, the menu, the cost of the program etc. for marketing reasons for their business.  With marketing being the primary focus for donors, sponsors or underwriters, your charity should focus on the ways to offer marketing…which will make the donation much more attractive.  Having a massive amount of people attending at this point, will make this offer very easy to possible donors. 

Conclusion:

If you are willing to invest the time while following the above plan, you will see an incredible “Shift” in your charities fundraising success.  If you would like to learn more about how to accomplish the above plan, BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising would love to meet with you to show you how.

BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising is a Charity Fundraising Leader in North America offering everything a charity could possible need or want in a “One Stop Shop” setting.  BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising offers a wide array of “No Risk Auction Items” including Autographed items, Jewelry, Charity Travel Packages and a range of beautiful Decorative items.  BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising is proud to only have 100% Authentic Autographed items, 100% of the time.  To learn more about BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising, contact us today at www.BWUnlimited.com.  Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, we look forward to hearing from you.