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Goodness Sake — Maximize Giving at Your Charity Event

While charity events take place year-round, they peak around holiday time. Inspired by the season of giving, attendees are more likely to feel generous when asked to support causes they believe in. If you want to ensure that your guests give to the max, try implementing strategies professional fundraisers use:

1. Make donating easy. Create a website and Facebook page prior to the event with simple instructions on how to donate online for those who cannot attend.

2. Be clear about your mission. Make sure your guests understand your charity’s mission. Stress not only who they are helping, but how their donation will be spent.

3. Personalize your story. Facts and figures are impressive but giving is more emotional than logical. Relating personal stories illustrated with photos and videos of those the charity has helped will make the deepest impression.

4. Get corporate donors. Appeal not to just individuals, but to corporate donors as well. Enquire about matching gifts. For example, would a corporation match dollar for dollar every donation up to $10,000?

5. Offer table sponsors opportunities. Offer bulk ticket packages for those who would be willing to purchase multiple tickets for a group. Make sure table sponsors are acknowledged and given quality seating locations.

6. Make donating on-going. A one-time gift of $200 is good. A monthly donation of $25 every month for a year may prove easier for the donor, and more valuable for your non-profit.

7. Acknowledge your top donors. Spotlighting generous donors is not only inspiring for other attendees, it will strongly influence them to give even more.

8. Include a live auction. Ticket sales and donations will generate revenue, but a live-auction, with competitive bidding, will help you raise the most money.

9. Hold a silent auction. A silent auction with well-defined close times will also net you more funds.

10. Enlist your attendees to fundraise for you. Ask your guests to reach out to their own network via social media to increase giving and expand the reach of your fundraising efforts

Kris McNeely, Content Editor | meetingpages | kris.meetingpages@gmail.com

As a freelance editor and writer for more than twenty years, Kris McNeely has had the opportunity to write and edit everything from non-fiction books to blog posts, web content to white papers, ads to articles. She was named an Erma Bombeck Humor Writer of the Month, has been featured in multiple anthologies, and was selected by Amtrak Railway Service as one of five travel writers from among a pool of 1500 applicants nationwide. In her free time, she likes to jog, garden, travel, and spend time with her two kids and three grandchildren.