My Nonprofit Event Planning Process

 

Your mission—and continued support of your community, sponsors, and donors—is key, so why not create an amazing event? An event that celebrates the "why" in your nonprofit, while also bringing in your supporters to celebrate and be celebrated.

Fundraising events are a great way to get your stakeholders involved and up-to-date on how you continue to give back to your community while raising much-needed dollars to support.

I’ve been working with nonprofits my entire career, bringing mission-driven events to life.

Let’s make your next nonprofit event shine.

Phase 1: Define the project with a clarity call

Define the scope of the project, including:

  • Event type (fundraiser, recognition or awards luncheon, athletic event)

  • Desired services, activities & deliverables

  • Project timeline, goals and objectives

Phase 2: Information Gathering

Meet with you and your team to discover more about:

  • Your organization’s members, funders, and key stakeholders

  • Current community engagement & fundraising strategies and tactics

  • Your overall and event-specific goals

Phase 3: Vendor Research & Management

Research, present, confirm and manage vendors to ensure the best fit for your event, including:

  • Live venue and catering menu selection

  • Emcee, AV, production

  • Digital platforms, including virtual silent auction platforms

Phase 5: Sponsor, volunteer & Speaker management

Ensure that your sponsors, volunteers and speakers stay informed and engaged throughout the process, while maximizing experience and ROI, through

  • Streamlined onboarding & communication processes

  • Dedicated trainings for silent auction software

  • Pre-event meetings with speakers & emcees

Phase 4: Event Marketing Strategy

We’ll make sure the right stakeholders know about your event, and how to get the most from their experience, through:

  • 1:1 Communication with each stakeholder

  • Know Before You Go communications

  • Experiential strategy for each stakeholder group

Phase 6: Event Execution

Create, distribute and execute final schedule, and ensure that it is adhered to on the day of your event, while supporting:

  • Vendor load-in and venue setup

  • Registration and VIP experience

  • Hospitality-driven onsite event management style

Phase 7: Post-Event reporting

For us, the event doesn’t end when your guests leave and donations are collected. We’ll create post-event surveys, client reports and stakeholder correspondence to measure your event against the original goals.

Nonprofit Event Planning FAQ

  • How do you organize and plan a nonprofit event?

    First, it’s always best to start with your event goals and objectives, as well as a review of all of the key stakeholders of your event: your sponsors, speakers, committee members, board members and volunteers. What is most important to them? How can we ensure we deliver on expectations for each group? Next, we create a project timeline, complete with milestones and individual assignments to keep everyone on task. It’s best to schedule a cadence of meetings with the internal team and vendors, to keep everyone on track. We’re with you every step of the way, through post-event reporting.

  • What are the steps to be taken before organizing a nonprofit event?

    As my CMP study group manager used to say, “you’re going to get sick of hearing this, but" your goals and objectives are the first step to organizing a successful nonprofit event. Make sure to incorporate not only internal goals, but tiers of goals for each stakeholder group and ensure that the event is able to meet those objectives. Next, decide on an audience for your event. Should you invite your entire community to join, or perhaps just your grant recipients or volunteer managers Finally, it’s important to confirm fundraising goals and methods—including the tech. Typically, tech effects the cost of the event, so we’ll want to consider that when creating a nonprofit event budget.

  • What type of venue should our nonprofit event consider?

  • That all depends on your event goals! It’s best to find a mission-aligned venue, or at least a partner who understands the nuances of fundraising events for nonprofits. Are you looking to engage your high-level donors, or create community-wide buzz around a new campaign? Are you simply looking to gather in community, or is there a fundraising goal in mind? What is the desired budget for venue rental? These decisions lead to the information you need to know to select the ideal venue for your fundraiser.

  • How do I connect the nonprofit event to our mission?

  • It’s critical to always come back to the why. In this case, the “why” refers not only to the reasons for throwing the event, but the reasons that your organization exists in the first place, and who you exist to serve. By considering your mission every step of the way, everything from speaker selection to entertainment lineup becomes easier. Curious as to how to begin planning a fundraising or member event for your nonprofit? Reach out!

 

Ready to Plan Your Next Nonprofit Event With Beth Lawrence Meetings & Events?