With the rise of social media, crowdfunding, and digital newsletter delivery, it's easier for nonprofits to raise awareness and money. But there are still plenty of traditional ways an organization can use events to achieve its goals. Events like galas, fundraising dinners, or auctions are great ways to get people together in one place so they can talk about your cause and maybe even donate directly on-site. However, it’s important to think about the type of event you want to run, how much money you want to raise, and what kind of benefits it will have for your organization. In this post, we'll look at how you can create a successful event with the help of a few helpful tips.
Events should align with your nonprofit’s mission and brand
One of the first things to consider when planning an event is how it will align with your organization's mission and brand. It’s essential to choose events that are relevant to what you do so that people can see how you can help them or their community. Similarly, it’s important for all the key players involved in the event, including you, the nonprofit organization and its staff, to think about what kind of events will be most effective for your mission. This will help you determine when and where to host an event, who should run it, and how much time, money, and resources are needed to make it successful.
The first step is deciding whether an event aligns with your organization's mission and brand. For example, if your nonprofit is focused on helping people learn a new language but holds a fundraising event where they dance salsa all night long—it would be hard to explain why someone should donate money during this event
The second step is to know whether or not an event is aligned with the audience that you are trying to reach. For example, if you have volunteers who love public speaking but not graphic design, consider hosting a presentation night instead of an art auction. The former will allow more members of the organization to participate while also showcasing their talents at something they enjoy doing (while raising awareness about the cause).
Last but not least, make sure that any events being planned will meet some basic needs such as catering or transportation services (for example, maybe there's no place nearby where people can park their cars).
Event types to consider
Fundraisers: A fundraiser is a type of event that raises money for your nonprofit. You can choose to host a silent auction, raffle or other events where attendees donate money in exchange for prizes or items that support your cause. These types of events are often organized around an occasion like the holidays or spring break when people may be more likely to want to contribute their time and energy than at other times throughout the year.
Awareness events: An awareness event is one where people learn about your mission and get involved with it through volunteering or donating their time and money. This could include hosting workshops on topics like supporting those who have experienced trauma or providing educational resources like books about mental health issues for children in schools, among many others things!
Educational events: Educational events are explicitly designed to teach people about something relevant to your organization's mission. For example, if you're helping refugees resettle in Canada by teaching English classes, then this might be an appropriate educational workshop topic!
Networking events: Some nonprofits prefer networking over fundraising to organizing large-scale fundraising efforts because it enables them to meet new contacts who might not otherwise know they exist while raising awareness about their cause within these networks.
Other things nonprofits can do around events
Here are some other ways nonprofits can use events to raise money or awareness:
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Use social media to promote the event. Social media is a powerful tool for nonprofits because it allows you to reach audiences that would otherwise be impossible to reach. You can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more to get people interested in your event.
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Get sponsors to help with costs. If you're planning an event where there will be food, drinks or entertainment, you'll need money for those things somehow — usually from sponsorships. When companies sponsor an event by providing something like food or drinks, they get visibility as part of the deal; this helps them connect with new customers who might not have thought about working with them before!
Strategies to make your event a success
When you’re planning your event, it’s important to keep in mind that there are several different strategies you can employ to make it successful. First, you should consider using an overarching theme that ties together all of the elements of your event. This could be anything from a specific cause or organization, like the American Cancer Society (ACS), to something more general like “learning how breast cancer affects women around the world and what we can do about it”.
Once you have a theme for your event, decide on a hashtag for participants to use when posting about their experiences on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This will help engage with other users who may not be attending but still want to contribute by donating money or sharing information with friends who might attend one day!
Next up: getting in touch with influencers from around town beforehand so they know what's happening at yours; contacting radio stations is an excellent idea because radio DJs love their local community events – especially ones where everyone gets involved! This will create a better opportunity for your organization at the local level. And at last, the critical part is to ask these individuals if they'd like to help promote yours by talking about them or posting something on Twitter or Facebook.
Takeaways
Even if your nonprofit isn’t ready to plan an event right now, we hope this guide has given you some good ideas and ways to think about how events can be used to raise money or awareness for your organization. There are many ways that events can be used to raise money or awareness for a nonprofit. From running marathons to hosting fundraising parties, there are multiple ways of getting people involved in your cause. It’s vital for nonprofits to understand their goals when planning an event, so they know exactly how much money they need and how many people will attend before making any commitments on time or resources needed. After brainstorming ideas, decide what type of event would be best suited to your organization's strengths. Are there any particular events that are already happening in your community that might help support your cause? If not, think about how unique or special an event could be created just by using the skills and talents of those around us in everyday life.
