Events are Like Crack.

But Since Breaking This Addiction is Tough, Here’s How To Get the Best High.

One of my favorite fundraising bloggers, Pamela Grow, caught my attention with a recent article where she said, “Everyone seems to buy into that old Andy Hardy mantra of “let’s put on a show!” and many people view events as the be-all, end-all of fundraising.”  Coming from an event and entertainment background, I had always bought into this thinking as well – and I definitely wasn’t the only one.  Mention the word fundraising to anyone outside of the field, and their first suggestion will always be some type of event – be it a gala, golf tournament, walk, run, concert – you name it.  And in this community, you are hard-pressed to find a week or weekend when there isn’t some type of charity event taking place.

But never fear, those of you who bask in horror at the idea of cancelling a 25 year (or even a 5 year) running event that isn’t quite receiving the turnout that it did previously; there is another way.  This way, however, may be an even scarier proposition for some nonprofit professionals.  You must –  are you ready for this – take a risk.  Yes, a risk.  Stick your neck out and CHANGE UP your event.  If you’ve maxed out your target audience for your event, putting all your effort into doing the same thing is not going to generate more income for you – it will only cause you further aggravation when the numbers don’t measure up.  You must find a way to attract new “friends” to your event, and therefore create new revenue streams for your event – and ultimately, new donors for your organization.

Sound impossible and like way more work than you can handle?  It’s not.  It’s a matter of re-allocating your time and effort.  Yesterday, the Ad Council hosted it’s first-ever A Games, previously known as the Annual Pro-Ad Golf Tournament.  The tournament was reaching it’s 17^th year, and golf participation had decreased from selling out two golf courses to just 168 golfers between two courses last year.  Sponsorship for golf tournaments is increasingly difficult to secure in the current economy (no shock to my fundraising colleagues), and goals in this arena needed to be made more realistic for our organization.  Silent auctions and contests can only raise so much, especially when participation is dwindling.  So how were we going to fill the revenue gap to meet this budgetary goal?  If we put any more staff time and effort into the event, it would further decrease our net gain, so that wasn’t an option.  So instead we took a risk and repositioned our efforts on – of all things – people who don’t like to (or even despise to) golf.

A-Games 3rd Place Tie Breaker Competition in Ladder Golf

Yes, that’s right – a golf tournament that not only caters to golfers, but also non-golfers.  After the golfers set off at 10 am as usual, we got to work setting up a tournament of backyard games to begin at 2pm (KanJam, Bean Bag Toss, Ladder Ball, Darts, Bocce, and Wii Golf) for our new audience.  We priced these foursomes at half the price of golfer foursomes, and added beer and wine tasting to this portion of the event.  We hoped the A Games debut would draw 10 foursomes; we ended up with 16!  And everyone had a blast.  The event went smoothly, Mother Nature was on our side (that was part of my responsibility, of course), and the best part—watching the networking reception that followed.  Visors and golf shirts mixed with jeans and tank tops, all eating, drinking, and laughing together.  And we may not have increased our revenue from previous years, but we DID maintain our current level – with minimal extra effort.

How did we do it?  We moved to just one golf course (maximum 144 golfers) and promoted this to those who have been our loyal participants.  Then, we put all of our extra effort into creating this fun, new, and different games event by focusing on the non-golfer and companies who may be more willing to give their employees a ½ day out of the office instead of a full one (and pay almost ½ the price to send a foursome).  We leveraged the team-building that results from sending a foursome of staff or staff-and-client teams to compete together in a tournament.  And we all stuck our necks out and took the responsibility for the change – success or failure.

I will say that I’m the last person on earth to promote a NEW event as a means of fundraising for nonprofits.  In the words of Peter Drucker, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”  But if you really can’t bear the withdrawal of a currently running event, and, most importantly, your event still has a decent amount of ROI, there are ways to breathe new life into your fundraiser to increase to and/or maintain the levels of success you previously enjoyed.  To maintain the best high, sometimes you have to modify your addiction.

-Shannon Struzik

Director of EA (Eventaholics Anonymous)

Disclaimer: This article in no way encourages drug use at your events – even if it would make your silent auction more successful.

PS Special thanks to everyone who made the first Ad Council A Games a smashing success!!

PPS What have you done to shake up your long-standing events?  Please share!