Finding your top event prospects

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend EventRaise - a fantastic day dedicated to event fundraising - an area I am really excited about.

So often we hear that event participants aren't worth cultivating.  That they aren't really connected to our cause, but that they are interested in the challenge.  One of the things that really struck me at EventRaise is that while that might be true for many event participants, there are event donors who are well worth the time and energy to cultivate.  We just need to identify who that group is.

Martin Paul of More Strategic shared some incredibly valuable information from some research he has been doing into 5 mutli-charity fundraising events - events where participants can select from a number of charities or even choose their own to fundraise for. 

These 5 multi-charity fundraising events had a total of 170,423 donors.  That is a huge number of people to try and cultivate.  And if you think most of them won't give again, your right.  There is tons of evidence to support that.  So where should we focus our efforts?

There are two key times when participants self identify as being really great prospects.  The first is during the fundraising period for the event.  Donors who increase their fundraising target are self selecting themselves as people who are in it to raise money and who are the most engaged in what you are doing.  This is the group of individuals, and it will only be a small percentage of participants, who are worth focusing your attention and resources on.

While everyone who participates in your event is lovely, and we are grateful for each and every one, you and your organisation cannot afford to nurture every participant.  So start with this group, see what additional tools you can give them to help them raise more money, and develop and grow your relationship with them.

Post event, you will also want to identify the relationships that you should be focusing your time, energy and attention on.  When doing your post event analysis, it is likely that you will find that most of the income came from a small number of participants (many of whom are likely to have been the ones you already know - who pushed themselves by raising their fundraising targets during the campaign).  Martin's findings from the 5 multi-charity fundraising events was that 30% of the income came from just 5% of participants. So can't follow up with everyone?  Start here.  These are the people who are most likely to continue to support your work long after the event, and to sign up again next year.

What have you tried to engage your event participants?  And where do you start?



I love events. My team when we hit the half way mark at Oxfam Trailwalker in 2014.

Event Donors - Finding the right language

I should probably be open by saying I love events.  Despite the fact that I know they are hard work, that they carry a lot of hidden costs, particularly in staff time, and they don't traditionally generate long term donors - I love them.  I think there is so much potential and opportunity within the peer-2-peer fundraising and event space, and I'm really excited about what is happening here.

One of the biggest criticisms I hear about events is that participants, and even more so, donors to those participants, don't go on to give again.  They don't necessarily have any connection to your cause, and they aren't really supporting you... They are participating because of their own desire to complete the challenge, or they are donating to their friend who asked them too - the cause is irrelevant.

I believe there is opportunity here - we just haven't cracked it.  And this blog post doesn't contain the answers to this problem, but it is something I'll be exploring - and I'd LOVE to hear what challenges, and what successes you've found.

This weekend was the two year anniversary since I undertook one of the greatest challenges of my life, as an event participant.  I walked 100km in support of Oxfam as part of Oxfam Trailwalker.  It was the hardest, and most amazing thing I have ever done, and I have so much respect for anyone who has, or who will, participate.  It is an event I am unlikely to do again (although you never say never), so I know Oxfam has the challenge of trying to keep me engaged and ultimately to convert me from participant to donor. 

Last year, I had a colleague who was crazy enough to sign up.  And so I donated to her.  It would have been the last donation I made to Oxfam - which means I now sit on their database as an event donor... that group of people that no one knows what to do with.

Well, and with full credit to them, this year I received an email from them reminding me of the contribution I made to my friend last year, and asking if I would encourage and support another team with a donation.  I thought it was a great effort.  I have no idea if it generated a response, but I really thought it was a clever, relatable way to communicate with this group.

I would have loved to have seen them take that one step further though - and to email me as an event participant.  Two years have passed, and I remember the pain, the exhaustion and the tears like it was yesterday.  I'll never forget how hard it was to keep going, and I'll never forget how much the encouragement from our friends and family helped and how responsible I felt to the dozens of amazing people who had donated to our team.  I had to keep going... for myself, for my team, and for our donors. 

An email reminding me of how it felt to be out on the trail... reminding me of the physical and mental exhaustion... reminding me of the importance of the group of people supporting me and encouraging me along the way... and asking me to be that encouragement and support for another team who needs the strength to keep going - that absolutely would have motivated me to give.

I think as we look at how to best cultivate this extraordinary group of people... both participants and donors... we really consider what will best motivate and inspire them.  They are different to the traditional donor that makes up most of our databases, but if we can speak to them in the right language I think they can be come just valuable to our organisations.