3 Tips for Creating Fundraising Events

These include for-profit businesses and non-profit businesses. For-profit enterprises work to make earnings, and the primary goal results in profits rather than losses in gains for the companies. Not-for-profit corporations also make revenue but do not focus on creating a profit from the services or products they provide. In addition, for-profit businesses make a product or offer a service to earn money, but non-profit companies seek revenue from donated funds. Moreover, some non-profits might receive funding from selling memberships in their business endeavors or through grants. Therefore, a significant area of raising revenue for non-profit enterprises centers on fundraising efforts. Many people who work at and support non-profit businesses find three tips helpful when they create fundraising events for their companies.

1. Consider Expenses for Hosting a Fundraiser

When considering the event type you want to host as a means of fundraising for your not-for-profit company, accounting for the event's expenses will significantly impact your final selection. Moreover, you will need an organizing team to keep the project moving forward. Depending on how your company works, volunteers or paid staff might hold these leadership positions. If you work with paid staff, you will need a payroll service to handle this vital business aspect. Furthermore, a payroll service can also provide systems to help you keep track of employee and volunteer hours worked and produce records of their attendance. This information can help you create schedules, so you know who will work on projects and when and then see a record of the result of the scheduling. Organization efforts such as these will help you meet project deadlines and keep your fundraising event on track toward completion.

2. Select an Event That Fits With Your Organization's Mission and Interests

The type of event you select to host as part of your non-profit's overall fundraising efforts can best serve your company if it flows in the same direction as your company mission statement and the interests of your likely sponsors and donors. For example, you might choose what to do based on previous experiences hosting fundraisers, sticking with those that produced the most outstanding revenue amounts. However, you might also want to try a new style of event to keep things lively and to open up new donor and sponsor streams by reaching new market segments who might find the event attractive.

Non-profits have benefitted from traditional fundraising events like holding auctions and raffles. However, events like these require work in securing donors who will provide the auction and raffle items, and the products and services they donate can make or break the event. Securing donations becomes much easier if your non-profit provides donors with a tax-deductible receipt, which can offset their contribution cost, making the gift a more attractive option. Your tax preparer can provide more information on this aspect specific to the state in which your company resides and your business situation. The preparer can also inform you of limitations in this area.

Other fundraising ideas might include holding walk-a-thons, bowl-a-thons and running events. The benefit here resides in participants setting up teams with crowdfunding pages, which creates an environment where more donors get reached through a broader range of participants networking with those they know seeking donations and pledges. This event leverage makes these fundraisers extremely popular as a way to raise significantly more revenue than if the in-house fundraising team tried to obtain all the contributions themselves. Also, consider the wide range of online donations and crowdfunding fundraising opportunities. Online fundraising might function alongside a more substantial in-person fundraising event or become the primary event structure, depending on your company's needs.

3. Find Appropriate Venues for the Fundraising Event

After you have selected the fundraising event you wish to host, you will need to find a suitable venue. The venue could reside on your company grounds, but if you hold an outdoor athletic event, you may need to secure a sports field, stadium or another appropriate site. In addition, if you hold an outdoor event, you may want to consider making arrangements for a second possible indoor venue if the weather worsens on the big day, causing a potential reduction in participation and, therefore, donations.

After taking care of these three crucial areas of planning for a fundraising event, you will have the basis from which to work on the myriad of details that will bring your event to full fruition. Although putting together a fundraiser means a lot of work, the benefits can equal and exceed that effort to aid your non-profit company's recipients of the proceeds.