Community Design Collaborative’s Post

Calculating the Real Costs of Fundraising Events How many times have you heard an organization claim it raised a record amount at a single event. Of course it's not entirely true but it's what happens when we're determine to set records. Let's say the touted amount was a little over $1 million. Let's calculate the real costs. Staging costs. $200,000 or one-fifth of the total is a conservative estimate for splashy event. Some will say, "Oh, we deducted those from the announced total." Alright, how about: Staff costs. The total number of staff hours expended is almost never considered but constitutes one of the most significant expenses. Even if an outside organization is hired to plan and stage an event, an enormous commitment of staff time is required for internal communication and coordination, recruiting and coordinating volunteers, producing invitation lists, curating attendance, troubleshooting, creating and observing protocols, preparing speakers and key participants and on and on. Morale costs. Do the staff involved come away feeling that the huge outlay of their time, including the frenetic hours leading up to the event, was worthwhile or do they feel too much time was expended because of shifting direction from the top, managing overzealous and unrealistic volunteers, ginning up attendance, or placating egos? Lost opportunity costs. What if the same outlay of cost and staff time had been directed toward activities that were substantive and less splashy, more about mission advancement and community building? What would have been the immediate and long-term benefits of those activities vs. the ephemeral impact of so many events? Community building costs. Did the event build community or just entertain those on the periphery? Did it raise the confidence of the most important stakeholders? Did it generate organizational momentum and a greater commitment to cause measured by an upsweep in ongoing giving of time, talent and treasure? Strategic costs. Did the event allow the organization to strengthen the organization's real and perceived relevance to the great issues of the day or the needs of the community? Did it pave new pathways to the future or open new doors of opportunity? And, finally: How much raised was new money or just redirected money (e.g. money pledged at the event that would have been given by year's end)? How many corporate sponsorships resulted in ongoing corporate partnerships? How many new constituents and new donors were created? How many new advocates were mobilized? Yes, some events are truly successful but the least important measure is the amount supposedly raised. The real measure of success is not what happens one day or one evening but how one day or one evening made a lasting difference. All events should be reevaluated every year. The real costs and consequences should be calculated to ensure the best use of the entire organization's time, talent and treasure.

A very sharp analysis. To read and then…reread.

When planning a virtual fundraising event, you may need to work with corporate sponsors in order to make the event successful. Successful virtual events embrace the strengths of an online experience, and this ties into the sponsor experience you provide. Here are a few tips that can help you identify how to best work with sponsors for your next virtual event and support a creative event design. #DonationMatch #Events #FundraisingEvents #CorporateSponsorships

Fall Call for Port Sponsorships Community nonprofit events, programs invited to apply Nonprofit organizations are invited to apply for the Port of Long Beach’s Community Sponsorship Program, which funds community events and activities that help inform residents about the Port. The events center on the arts, environment, education, social justice and historic preservation.   Community groups may submit sponsorship applications online starting Sunday, Sept. 1, through 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30. Due to the application review process, applicants are advised to plan well in advance for their events. Events in this sponsorship call must take place at least 60 days after the end of the call; this allows time for the review, consideration and recommendation process prior to the decision by the Board of Harbor Commissioners.   Applications are judged on how effectively the proposed events and activities can help the Port inform the community of its critical role as an environmental steward, economic engine and job creator. Events chosen should include promotional, marketing and community outreach opportunities for the Port. The sponsored events and programs help spread awareness about the Port’s operations, initiatives and community investment.   For more information on the Port’s Community Sponsorship Program and how to apply, go to www.polb.com/sponsorships.   The Port accepts sponsorship applications three times a year, in January, May and September. For the previous call in May, Harbor Commissioners awarded 268 community sponsorships totaling $926,150. The Harbor Commission approved a significant increase in funds for the sponsorship program to accommodate increased demand from community organizations. The Port of Long Beach is a global leader in green port initiatives and top-notch customer service, moving cargo with reliability, speed and efficiency. As the premier U.S. gateway for trans-Pacific trade, the Port handles trade valued at $200 billion annually and supports 2.6 million jobs across the United States, including 575,000 in Southern California. In 2024, industry leaders named it “The Best West Coast Seaport in North America” for the sixth consecutive year. During the next 10 years, the Port is planning $2.3 billion in capital improvements aimed at enhancing capacity, competitiveness and sustainability. Media Contact: Lee Peterson, Port of Long Beach Media Relations Manager, lee.peterson@polb.com.

Last week, the Event 360 team traveled to Philadelphia for the highly anticipated Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum Conference. Check out some of our takeaways! Visit the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/gE9_aRbV My biggest takeaway is that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for planning and executing a successful peer-to-peer fundraising event. Keeping your organization’s missions and values at the forefront of what you do and why you do it is critical to participant buy-in, and it’s what will keep people coming back and fundraising for you year after year. Additionally, leaning into the “why” behind the details will often reveal unique and meaningful moments, creating experiences that truly touch people. As your community evolves, your programming will need to evolve with it. Create genuine connections with your participants and show them how the work they do impacts your mission: people who care more, raise more. ― Jaime Cribbs Mottinger, Account Manager As we’ve learned from the surprises and developments that have affected our world and events in the past few years, developing, training for, and using a great event crisis plan is essential to the safety and success of any event. As this session highlighted, it is important nowadays to not just update the crisis plan and store it away in your event files, but to dig into it and ensure that you’ve got all your bases covered and make certain it reflects the most up-to-date issues and potentialities. Spending the time and money to train on these plans with event staff beforehand is invaluable. Having pre-drafted emergency email drafts that can readily be updated and used in a moment’s notice is vitally important. ― Rene Tamayo, Event Tour Manager I was reminded of the RICE Prioritization Framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) during a great session that’s useful for making strategy decisions when there are multiple variables. In the P2P fundraising event industry, it’s easy to stretch yourself and your team too thin. By leveraging this framework, you can pinpoint key areas of focus and craft a tailored strategy with confidence. ― Patrick Riley, SVP of Accounts 

Keep the Magic Alive: Turning Event Success into Ongoing Impact Dear Friends and Collegues, Special events are a powerful tool in nonprofit fundraising. Whether it's an intimate gathering or a grand gala, the true impact of these events lies in how they fit into your overall fund development strategy. While some organizations may rely on other fundraising methods, for many, especially those without a solid donor base, events can be a crucial way to connect with and engage your audience. Events can generate excitement and momentum when planned carefully, much like a captivating work of art. However, without careful follow-up and planning, this energy can quickly dissipate. To ensure your events leave a lasting impact, here are six strategies to prevent them from fading. √ Integrate Events into a Larger Fundraising Ecosystem Events should never exist in isolation. They must be seamlessly woven into your broader fundraising strategy, with clear goals that align with your organization's mission. √ Capitalize on Post-Event Engagement The conclusion of an event is not the end—it's the beginning of a new phase of engagement. Use the energy and enthusiasm generated to deepen relationships with attendees. This could be through personalized follow-ups, sharing success stories, or inviting them to become more involved in your mission. √ Leverage the Event as a Storytelling Platform Your event should be more than just a fundraiser—it should be a storytelling opportunity. Use it to share the impact of your work, showcase success stories, and highlight the change your organization is driving. This emotional connection helps attendees understand the significance of their support and motivates them to stay engaged. √ Create Tangible Takeaways Ensure that your event leaves a lasting impression by providing tangible takeaways. This could be in the form of impactful visuals, a compelling video that can be shared, or even a small memento that reminds attendees of the cause. √ Analyze and Adapt After the event, take time to analyze its success. Review what worked well and where there is room for improvement. Use this data to refine future events and make them even more effective. √ Build Long-Term Relationships Events should be a stepping stone in building long-term relationships with your supporters. Develop a stewardship plan that keeps donors engaged year-round, not just during event season. Whether through regular updates or exclusive insights, maintaining a connection ensures that the goodwill generated doesn’t evaporate but instead grows stronger over time.

Keep the Magic Alive: Turning Event Success into Ongoing Impact Dear Friends and Collegues, Special events are a powerful tool in nonprofit fundraising. Whether it's an intimate gathering or a grand gala, the true impact of these events lies in how they fit into your overall fund development strategy. While some organizations may rely on other fundraising methods, for many, especially those without a solid donor base, events can be a crucial way to connect with and engage your audience. Events can generate excitement and momentum when planned carefully, much like a captivating work of art. However, without careful follow-up and planning, this energy can quickly dissipate. To ensure your events leave a lasting impact, here are six strategies to prevent them from fading. √ Integrate Events into a Larger Fundraising Ecosystem Events should never exist in isolation. They must be seamlessly woven into your broader fundraising strategy, with clear goals that align with your organization's mission. √ Capitalize on Post-Event Engagement The conclusion of an event is not the end—it's the beginning of a new phase of engagement. Use the energy and enthusiasm generated to deepen relationships with attendees. This could be through personalized follow-ups, sharing success stories, or inviting them to become more involved in your mission. √ Leverage the Event as a Storytelling Platform Your event should be more than just a fundraiser—it should be a storytelling opportunity. Use it to share the impact of your work, showcase success stories, and highlight the change your organization is driving. This emotional connection helps attendees understand the significance of their support and motivates them to stay engaged. √ Create Tangible Takeaways Ensure that your event leaves a lasting impression by providing tangible takeaways. This could be in the form of impactful visuals, a compelling video that can be shared, or even a small memento that reminds attendees of the cause. √ Analyze and Adapt After the event, take time to analyze its success. Review what worked well and where there is room for improvement. Use this data to refine future events and make them even more effective. √ Build Long-Term Relationships Events should be a stepping stone in building long-term relationships with your supporters. Develop a stewardship plan that keeps donors engaged year-round, not just during event season. Whether through regular updates or exclusive insights, maintaining a connection ensures that the goodwill generated doesn’t evaporate but instead grows stronger over time.

team360 is an incredible group of people who live and breathe peer-to-peer fundraising #events right alongside us. Without this team, we couldn’t produce the 100+ events on our roster each year. Our latest spotlight highlights team360 newbie, Catherine Dillon! Q: How did you find out about team360? A: I found out about team360 on the Event 360 website! I was drawn to the company due to their work within the nonprofit sector and saw that there was an opportunity to work on some of the amazing events they put together! Q: What sparked your interest in signing up? A: As an event professional I am always interested in seeing how different types of events operate and come together. I had never done large scale outdoor events in my career and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more and engage more hands on with these events. Q: What are your favorite things about working on team360? A: The team at Event 360 makes you feel so welcome and are there to guide you every single step of the way. I have never felt like I couldn’t ask someone a question or ask for support, which is incredibly helpful. Q: What would you say to someone who is interested in learning more about joining but hesitant? A: I would say to just try one event. It is incredibly important and rewarding to be a part of these large-scale fundraisers and you will learn so much in the process. Q: Three words to describe team360? A: Collaborative, Energetic, and Passionate Q: Have you learned any new skills? A: Absolutely! It is the smallest things in being onsite at events that you pick up on—the best ways to do inventory or pack a box truck, the importance of layers and extra socks, and soft skills in interacting with vendors, nonprofit leadership, and attendees. Q: Favorite team360 Memory? A: Cheering participants on as they crossed the finish line. Ringing the cowbells and seeing how excited people were was truly amazing.

Exclusive Insights: Maximizing Event Impact Through Strategic Partnerships Join Jessica Blunt, COO of Sync Technologies, Inc., as she unveils the power of collaboration in event planning. In her latest article, Jessica explores: 1. The transformative impact of strategic partnerships on events 2. Identifying and approaching potential partners 3. Building successful partnership strategies 4. Leveraging technology for seamless collaboration 5. Overcoming common challenges in partnership management Whether you're organizing a corporate conference, non-profit fundraiser, or community festival, understanding strategic partnerships can elevate your event to new heights. Read the full article now and transform your approach to event planning! https://lnkd.in/gA7jhsKu Have questions after reading? Drop them in the comments, and our team will be happy to assist. #StrategicEventPartnerships #CollaborativeEventPlanning #SyncEvent #EventTechTips

We're looking forward to an exciting product launch at Confex 2024 🛍 🎉 Imagine spending all that time and money planning an event, only to turn a quarter of the people away. You wouldn’t do that, would you? Well, that’s exactly what happens if you don’t consider accessibility needs. There are 16 million disabled people in the UK, almost one in four people of working age. That means that if you don’t make your event accessible, you’re excluding a significant portion of your potential audience. Making events accessible At Attendable, we’ve been banging the drum about the need to make events more inclusive and accessible since we were established in 2020. We saw the rush online at the start of the first COVID pandemic and knew that people with disabilities were being excluded by poor tech and inaccessible online event platforms. We knew we could do something about it. It has now turned into a mission. As well as designing and delivering events for our clients, we are passionate advocates for accessibility and inclusion in the events industry. Whether it’s solving the challenges of creating accessible events, creating a welcoming environment for all attendees, or thinking about clear and concise communication: inclusivity needs to encompass every element of an event. Using tech to help accessibility Using the right tech, which is accessible, is often part of the answer. And when we realise there isn’t an existing solution, we develop our own. A couple of years’ ago we were looking at swag bag options for an event we were running. These are a staple of the event and conference world, often filled with merchandise and promotional products. And more recently branded cotton tote bags and recycled pens to try and up reusability. We wanted a solution that worked for the online events we were running, was accessible, sustainable and environmentally friendly, but also made swag bags more effective for the modern day. We couldn’t find anything that did the job – so we developed our own! Our exciting launch at Confex 2024... With that in mind, we are looking forward to launching a new product at Confex 2024. A digital swag bag that every event organiser can use to help reward delegates and deliver engagement for sponsors and to make everyone’s event more memorable, valuable and effective. We’re excited to see you at Excel at stand ETL2 – we’ll be speaking too! Come by and say hello. And if you can’t wait until then, get in touch for a preview or visit our website for more information. #SeeYouAtConfex #Confex2024