NPO Virtual Fundraiser - Long Post

Here we are. Several weeks into quarantine now. I just heard about another (strong) company who was forced to let go of two employees. These are terrible times. Our economy is slipping deeper into a “Have” vs “Have Not” situation. Where some still have jobs, and others don’t. An NPO organization that I used to work for has downsized. A small business I worked for is completely closed for the foreseeable future. My city is a ghost town. 

So what? 

What can we do about this? 

Throw a party!

That’s what we can do. In the last post, I built out a model for a Shop Local Fundraising Event. As I’m writing this, four groups from around the country have informed me that they’re going to use that model. 

BAM!  

Those communities are banding together to help. You can too. In this post, I’m going to lay out an extensive plan for building out virtual fundraiser specifically for NPOs.

Enough chatter, let’s get to work. 

Step Zero - Have a why. 

Determine your goals. It’s not enough to build a fun event if you don’t have a Northstar goal to shoot for. Review you SMART goals format and figure that out first. 

Here are a few areas you might focus on: 

1) Raise a certain amount of money - for example, $10,000 

2) Receive gifts from a target number of donors - 100 Donors Engaged

3) Inspire new gifts from new donors - 20 New Donors

4) Gain Social Media Followers - 100 New Facebook Followers

5) Have a target number of viewers - 1000 Live Views on Facebook 

Some well shaken cocktail of these examples should resonate with nearly every NonProfit fundraising goal. You shouldn’t try to hit everything, but you do need to set your goals.  

Step One - Messaging. Don’t assume people will just hear about your event. 

1) Use all of your marketing channels to reach your audience - email, facebook, instagram, phone calls, deliver pizza, whatever you need to do to get them to know. 

2) Send out reminders … several of them. People are losing jobs, businesses are shutting down, there is your urgency. 

3) Engage with your top social media partners and influencers to get the word out. 

4) Build a landing page with ALL of the details. More on this later. 

5) Reinforce your mission and its purpose throughout. Your organization has a reason for existing. Don’t let the short-term crisis cloud that. 

Step Two - Tech. Now is not the time to be intimated. Be bold. Ask for help. 

1) Choose a platform such as Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc.  

2) Build that event page, include the Who, What, Where, Why, How, When, When, When details on it. 

3) Quick Tip: If you use YouTube Live, you can create the shareable links before the event. Facebook live doesn’t create these links until the moment you go live. 

Step Three 

The Event Plan: Basics

1) Have a host. Let me repeat that, have a host. This person will be the Emcee for the evening. It doesn’t need to be the CEO. Find the right voice, personality, charm, wit, and organizational ability to keep things fun and moving forward. 

2) Make bold asks throughout. People pop in and out of virtual events on their own time. You must make your asks several times over the course of the event or some people won’t hear it. 

3) Acknowledge your sponsors, donors, and volunteers. Fill the event with feel-good-moments. 

4) Show progress. Like I said above, people come in and out of these events. Update often so people hear how things are going. 

5) Share your goals. Your donors like to know the targets they can help you hit. Celebrate at certain benchmarks. 

The Event Plan: Outline

1) Welcome. Get things started. 

2) Introduce your mission and the campaign - Why are you throwing this party? Why now? 

3) Share your fundraising goals. You did write down your goals … right? 

4) Introduce and demonstrate giving methods. People can be intimidated by giving online. Defuse that fear. 

5) Preview what’s coming up during the program: Speakers, Entertainers, Q&A Sessions, etc. 

6) Introduce and Hand Off to other presenters - You’ve invited a few donors to speak, some entertainment, volunteers telling mission success stories, etc. 

7) Ask your viewers to share the live feed on their social media. They can help you build a bigger audience. 

Step Four - Content is King

Your supporters love you and love hearing about your mission, but how can you deliver an engaging, entertaining, and educational program so can captivate everyone in your livestream? Work hard to provide a variety of content including speakers, Q&A sessions, entertainment, and more. 

1) Guest Speakers - Invite local celebrities, community leaders, and others to be part of the program. 

2) Entertainment - music, magic, poetry, and many more options are very possible on an online format.

3) Interviews with industry professionals. Field questions from the audience in real-time. Listen to your audience. Don’t just vomit your information at them. Listen and engage.

4) Interactive content to take polls, surveys, playful trivia throughout the event. Gather data in real-time. You can learn a lot.

5) Continue to update on progress. Welcome your audience into this bigger story that you’re writing for your organization in real-time. 

Don’t get hung up on production value. We’re all under quarantine. Lean into the personal touch rather than the Hollywood style. 

Step Five - The Ask

People will not simply give. They won’t. Unless you ask and empower them. Let’s take a close look at some of the key points of a good ask. There is a lot of room for creativity in an ask, but you must boldly state the need, the impact, and the future.

1) Introduce your primary beneficiaries. Give very specific examples of your mission in action and how it impacted the lives of recipients. 

2) Help your audience understand their struggles and challenges. 

3) Detail how the audience can determine the outcome of the story by simply giving. 

4) Forecast what your mission will continue to do in the future. 

5) Pray about it. Really, this is core to everything and should be listed throughout. 

Step Six - Rehearse

DO NOT just flip on your camera and wing it. I mean. You could do that … and fail. Somewhere out there is a law of nature which dictates that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” You must control all of the variables possible. 

Set up a closed door rehearsal a day or two before so that you and your team can hammer out those pesky bugs. When you do go live, understand that things will probably still not go perfectly. That’s ok. Roll with it. 

1) Cue to Cue rehearsal - A dry run which focuses more on the technical aspects than content.
Do it.
Do this.
Mark out every transition. 

2) Set up and practice with the real technology that you’ll be using. Be familiar with how to troubleshoot in real-time. In fact, break it on purpose and practice recovering. 

3) Check your lighting. Do all of your people look good on camera. A lot can be fixed with lighting. 

4) Test your pre-recorded content and slide-decks. Set them in stone. Do not change anything at the last minute. We’ve all seen presenters who have system crashes live on stage. Don’t be that guy. 

5) Make several test donations through various devices. Does it work on a mobile device, PC, Mac, over the phone, everything?

God’s Blessings on your efforts. Like I said, pray about it. Work hard and being playful.
If your organization is ready to try a virtual event like this, but is uncertain of a few areas, I’d be happy to help. Shoot me an email at Jaspersen.Marketing@gmail.com