The Success of a Content Rich Program

SOLVE empowers everyday Oregonians to become stewards of their local environment and keep our state beautiful, clean and natural.

They have so many different ways to get involved and they wanted to be sure that was reflected in the program for their Celebrate SOLVE Annual Breakfast last week.

The big question was how to do the breadth of their work justice and have a dynamic program that kept their audience's attention.

What SOLVE did was create a content rich program that was able to reflect the diverse work of their organization, and they did 3 things exceptionally well:

1. They used volunteer voices through their program.
Their volunteers were able to speak eloquently and passionately about why SOLVE matters, and they also provided specific examples to the audience in a compelling and engaging format.

2. The Powerpoint presentation that accompanied their program helped paint pictures and tell stories.
As speakers shared their experiences in nature, images of these locations appeared on screen, connecting the audience on a deeper and more meaningful level.

3. Their Special Appeal speaker got at "the why" of SOLVE.
A junior high school student who works with one of their youth-programs told her story about encountering SOLVE and then feeling empowered to make the world around her a better place.

SOLVE's program arc built off of their audience's growing awareness of the organization's mission, scope and values. They didn't just tell their audience what they do, but also why they do it. In the end, people left more engaged with the work and empowered to do more.

The 2012 Celebrate SOLVE Annual Breakfast Team
Photo by Cal Pearson

And an engaged and empowered audience is the first step for a successful event next year. Hats off to Lara, Michelle, Melisa and the rest of the team at SOLVE for a job well done!

Creative Sponsor Engagement

The Pride Financial Partners logo is visible on the back
of bid cards, a creative way to maximize sponsor benefits.

In a slowly recovering economy, sponsors—just like everyone else—are having to find alternative ways to meet their bottom lines while still giving back. Instead of this being an obstacle, we're seeing a lot of creative solutions between sponsors and non-profits.

When you have a sponsor that wants to step up in creative ways to engage your audience and brainstorm how to cultivate a long-term relationship with your organization, you should jump up and down with joy.

Pride Financial Partners in Portland, Oregon is one such nimble and incredibly generous sponsor. An independent firm focusing on risk management, wealth management, and financial planning, the managing partners have made a significant commitment to being actively involved in the community they call home.

When they sponsored a local non-profit's gala and were offered the traditional logo placement choices, they thought bigger about their potential impact. They asked if they could put their logo on the bid cards if no one else had claimed the space yet. And they'd pay for the printing.

The team at Pride Financial Partners.

The catch?

For every card brought in to engage them in services they'd donate additional money to the non-profit they were sponsoring.

Can you say win / win?

When your sponsors talk to you about what they'd like out of their sponsorship and how they can activate your audience, listen to them. They may have an idea that's never come up before and might be just the ticket to get them on board in a significant way.

To hear more about creating great partnerships with your sponsors, join us for our Advanced Sponsorship Class on June 23.

People Give to People

Photo by Rosemary Ragusa

We are often asked, “What’s the secret to sponsorship?”

There’s one easy answer: talk to your potential sponsors don’t just send them paperwork.

That’s both the bad and the good news in fundraising.

It’s the bad news because you can’t hide behind a great sponsorship proposal that you send far and wide and just wait around for all the yeses to start rolling in.

It’s good because it means that having actual conversations with potential sponsors that you have a connection to will often get you so much further than paperwork.

One resonant conclusion keeps coming out of research done on giving and philanthropy: people give to people.

Think of the times in your life you’ve really been compelled to support an organization. Likely it’s because you heard a personal story that turned your head. Or you know someone who is devoted to and passionate about a cause and they ask you to join in.

Photo by Andie Petkus

Your sponsors are people. Yes, many of them have official channels to process sponsorships and that’s where a great sponsorship proposal packet is the follow up. But the initial contact is so much more fruitful when it starts as a conversation.

So when you are prospecting sponsors, don’t make an abstract wish list. Make a targeted list that you and people in your organization have a connection to in some way. Spending time on this list and cultivating these supporters will prove so much more effective in both the short and the long term for your cause than pursuing the big fish that you have no ‘in’ with.

You are passionate about the organization you work for, bring that energy and spirit to your conversations with potential sponsors. A form letter will get put in a pile. Person to person contact will not only help you cultivate sponsors and get them excited about your cause, it makes your potential sponsors feel included in what you’re doing which helps secure them long term.

For more resources about cultivating sponsors join us for our upcoming Sponsorship Class on May 23.

4 Tips for Successful Silent Auction

Hats off to Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp for their wildly successful Speakeasy Gala and Auction two weekends ago! It was an evening full of many successes, and at the top of that list was their well curated silent auction.

Besides creating a distinct look and feel for the silent auction, Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp employed some basic strategies to achieve that level of curation. Here are 4 easy steps you can take to have the same effect:

1. Look at last year's sales totals: What sold and what didn't? Make sure to include the same items that sold well and take out/do not solicit the items that did not.
   
2. Know your audience: For example, the attendees of the Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp gala bid very competitively on home and garden packages, wine lots and restaurant gift certificates. Solicit donations of what you know people will bid on, and package them together in fun and engaging ways.
3. Set clear criteria for the types of items you are soliciting: restaurant gift certificates, unique experiences, travel, celebrity meet and greets, etc., and make sure your procurement committee sticks to it.
4. Be creative: Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp has a loyal following of Kiwanis clubs that purchase tables every year. They also have a competition in which each club puts together a basket for the silent auction, and the club that created the top selling basket gets a visit from the Camp's Executive Director at their next meeting. These baskets are consistently among the silent auction's best selling items.

By following these clear guidelines, Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp saw their silent auction revenue increase significantly over last year.

As with all other elements of events, the more you tailor your silent auction to your audience, the more fun they'll have, the more engaged they'll be, and ultimately, the more money you will raise.

The Traditional Event Arc

Cocktail Hour

Your guests will arrive at your event in varying states of engagement. Your job is to reel them in. A cocktail hour can allow them to acclimate to your event and leave their daily baggage behind.

This time is also perfect to start getting them to engage with your organization through a silent auction, raffle or wine wall. These activities give guests something to do and start raising your organization money.

Dinner & Start of Program

After this social time, transition guests into the seated dinner and program. A great way to focus them here is to show a “Who We Are and What We Do” video after they are seated. Using a video will help center and focus your room and allow you to educate your audience about your organization.

Live Auction

Dinner is a time when your audience will be relatively quiet and is a great time for the live auction. Order your live auction items by perceived value, each building on the next as a way to build momentum to head into your special appeal. Hire a professional benefit auctioneer, you will make more money as they sell your organization not just the item.

Special Appeal

Your special appeal is your single biggest opportunity to raise money at your event. That is why it needs to be timed at the peak and height of your event’s momentum and your guests’ attention. Your appeal also needs to follow a basic formula about one person on a hero’s journey:

The special appeal has three distinct parts:

· The Story: Your appeal story needs to come from a place of why your organization does the work that it does and not this is who we are and what we do. Simplify.

· The Ask: To engage your audience with a call to action, you must concisely, directly and actively ASK people to give money.

· The Collection: Those who plan for an easy and strategic collection maximize their earning potential. This may be done with bid cards, envelopes, cell phones—but keep it easy and strategic.

Candy

Once your live auction and special appeal are completed, move into the “candy” of your event. This is the perfect time for honorees, awards, or headliner entertainment. Guests will stay around and pay attention, but at a lower level of engagement than they had during your live auction and appeal.

Register for our Elements of Your Event class on April 26 to learn even more about how to structure your event program to raise more money.

Building a Program that Raises You More Money

Group dynamics help dictate a natural flow for an event. Because your audience's engagement is limited, it is critical to build your event to match and maximize this natural flow of engagement.

A successful fundraising event capitalizes on momentum and audience engagement instead of fighting against them. Keeping your program tight so it moves along quickly helps guests stay engaged, and knowing that your momentum and guest attention has a peak will help you time your program.

Place your business first--this is a fundraising event with a goal of raising money. Sequencing the special appeal to happen at the height of event momentum and guest attention will yield the highest fundraising results.

The most successful events are designed to fit your audience, so each event will be different. Yet, each event still has an arc that you can map out to find the best timing for all of your program elements, most importantly your special appeal.

Focus on fundraising, and structure your program so that everything that's making you money comes first on the build to the height of the arc. If it's really important for your event but it's not directly raising you money, place it after your fundraising.

To learn more, register for our upcoming Elements of Your Event class on April 26.

A Theme in Action

In a town with over a hundred galas a year, themes are a great and easy way to set your event apart from the rest. They provide you with many ways to shape your event to fit the expectations of your audience, and also allow you to get creative with many of your event elements.

From decorations to beverages to even auction packages, all aspects of last Saturday's Gambol was tied together by a creative and engaging theme: Keep Portland Weird. The planning committee did a fantastic job of building a unique and fun evening to support Catlin Gabel's financial aid programs.

Here are some of the theme elements that made their event so great (and added to its quirky, Portland vibe):

• A Ninkasi beer tent and local wineries provided beverages throughout the evening. Guests also enjoyed VooDoo donuts for dessert.
  
  
• Guests could have their photo taken with various iconic Portland images in the background.
  
  
• Raffle tickets were actually fake birds that guests pinned to their lapel.
  
  
• The highest selling auction package was one that included a walk-on role on the next season of Portlandia.
  
  

By having the theme present in all facets of the event, Gambol guests had an experience like no other, and a really great time as well! Guests that enjoy your event are not only more likely to come back next year, but also to give you their support.

A theme can be as creative as you want it to be. When picking a theme for your event, however, be sure that it fits with the expectations of your audience. Keep Portland Weird was popular among Gambol guests because it was tailored specifically to that audience.

Themes are an easy way to take all of the different elements of your event and tie them together. They help make your evening fun, unique and engaging, and a well-executed theme can transform your good event into a great one.