Value of Events in view of Publicity, Fundraising and to build Credibility



Recently, a children's shelter home decided to host a rock concert. One of their trustees was able to get a rock band to perform pro-bono to help raise funds for this shelter home. The shelter was just required to organise the event and cover related costs, which they were quite confident to get through

sponsorships. A week before the scheduled date of the event, they had got no sponsors and the costs were eating into their reserves. The shelter home was confident that they will at least recover the costs incurred through ticket sales. Two days before the event, they had sold just 500 of the total 3,000 tickets. They got into a catch-22 situation. They could not spend more money on marketing and yet that was their only hope to sell tickets and recover costs. At the end, the NGO ended up losing

Rs 3 lakh on the event. They pledged never ever to host an event as a fundraiser.

What do you think went wrong?

Everything!

Event-based fundraising can become one of the most effective, sure-shot ways to raise invaluable funds for your organisation or it can become a nightmarish experience. Events are a double-edged sword and most NGOs fail to understand that we don't have the core competence to host a successful

event. We are good at our work but not necessarily good at organising an event, which is a different monster all together!

Over the last 11 years of having conducted some very successful and some not so successful events, especially for small NGOs, I have developed my seven Nuggets! of wisdom on event based fundraising and am happy to share my mistakes with you.

Nugget 1: Are you an event-ready organisation?

I believe not all NGOs are capable of hosting or conducting events. The shelter home mentioned above is a classic example. Access to a celebrity or a rock band is never enough reason to jump onto the event bandwagon, especially if you plan to conduct, organise and own the event yourself. An event-ready organisation is one that has the staff (the right kind of staff), the capital to make the investment, the network to get sponsors, marketing muscle and the capacity to sell the event to audiences small/ big.

Nugget 2: Recognise and play to your strengths

A clear strength that the shelter home had was a Trustee who was well networked and had the access and influence to bring on board a popular rock band. The strength they lacked was in getting sponsorships, marketing the event and reaching out to a large enough audience to sell tickets. It is important to first recognise your strengths and then put together an event that plays to our strength. For example, if you have access to High net worth individuals then you can put together an event for a

select audience who will pay big money but would like an intimate gathering with the celebrity or performer. If your strength is access to many companies or thousands of volunteers, then a mass event like a rock concert might be easy to sell. An NGO requires multiple strengths to pull off an event. These strengths can also be built over a period of time.

Nugget 3: Collaborate

The best way to make up for strengths you might not have is to collaborate. If organising an event, getting sponsors or selling tickets is not your strength then get an event-management company involved. It does reduce the net proceeds but it ensures that the event is successful and you learn tricks of event management along the way. Collaborations could also be tying up with another NGO with complementary strengths or getting one of your large corporate partners to buy the entire event and doing it exclusively for their staff. The important thing is to recognize what you are not good at and finding a partner to fill that gap.

Nugget 4: Look for opportunities in your environment

There are event opportunities all around us. The most successful places where I have found event opportunities are in the newspaper and the radio. The opening of a new restaurant, a new mall, a new

product launch, a new company, a new store, an existing restaurant running a theme, festival time, a celebrity coming to town, etc. These are all opportunities and can be converted into potential events. For example, in the case of a new restaurant coming up in your area, a possible tie-up could be that all proceeds from their 1st day or 1st week can be contributed to your NGO. If you have access to a celebrity, you could tie-up with the restaurant to get that celebrity to dine at the restaurant on the

opening night and donate all proceeds to your NGO, etc.

Nugget 5: Exploit existing opportunities

I am a great believer that NGOs should never organise their own events, especially smaller NGOs, unless they are building an idea that can be run for 3-5 years. For example, for years CRY has been hosting the Corporate Quiz but it took them many years to build a brand around that event. However, for smaller, one-time events or for smaller NGOs, I always believe it's best to jump onto existing platforms and exploit opportunities there. The most successful existing platforms being international marathons, event management companies hosting concerts, plays and musicals. For example, instead of doing your own rock concert, if you know a band who is doing a rock concert, it's easier to tie-up with the event management company and see if we can get 20-30 per cent of the proceeds from the ticket sales. This way you may raise smaller amounts but the success rate will be higher and your expenditure will be less.

Nugget 6: Create win-win propositions

Events are not so much about supporting a cause as much as about creating a “wow!” experience for everyone involved. When you organise a rock concert, people do not come there just because the funds are going to charity. They are coming there to have a good time. The rock band is also keen that 3,000 people enjoy their music. So it is important that they have their fun. Hence, it is important to create a win-win event. A new restaurant wants people to patronise it and if they tie-up with your NGO for the launch, it is to build loyalty and goodwill in the market as a 'restaurant with a heart', while you raise funds.

Nugget 7: Know when to phase out

Most events have a limited life and a definite life-cycle. It is important to know when an event is peaking and that is the time to phase out the event. If you are organising an event that can be repeated say, annually (maybe a theatre production), it will run successfully for a few years, after which your target audience will want a change. This could mean to either phase out the play or at

least revamp it. If an event is phased out when at its peak, the audience will have good memories of it and will always cherish it. The important thing is to remember that even your target audience can each a fatigue and then it will all be downhill – loss of revenue and goodwill.

Happy fundraising!

This article is written by Vishal Talreja for Raisers’Ask