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The Ultimate Guide to Hosting a Fundraiser with Event Espresso

    Pranoti Panchwagh
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Fundraisers are an excellent way of inspiring people to donate to laudable causes and do some good in the society. The key to hosting a great fundraiser is to ensure that your invitees enjoy an amazing experience and are genuinely inclined to donate funds to your objective. However, the organization of a successful fundraiser can quickly become a nightmare if you do not have a strong management system to handle all aspects efficiently.

This is where Event Espresso comes in handy.

Event Espresso is one of the best event management applications out there, available for WordPress. The robust framework, extensive functionality, and numerous add-ons make event creation and management easier than ever.

Combine the two, and you have all the ingredients for A-Z organization of your fundraiser. Event Espresso incorporates several core features to make managing events a cakewalk, such as:

  • Multiple attendee registrations
  • Event registration forms
  • Unlimited ticket and pricing options
  • Customizable email templates
  • Mobile attendance and tracking
  • Flexible event design

Apart from these, there is a plethora of other, peripheral features and add-ons that add to the core functionalities.

Let us see how can we create, organize, and manage an event using the dynamic features of Event Espresso and its array of add-ons.

A Brief Outline of the Fundraiser

First things first. Let us hammer out a few details of the fundraiser you intend to have. Consider that you are hosting the fundraiser to promote better health practices, organizing the event on a non-profit organization’s website.

You have your patrons’ list ready, a venue for the event, and a plan in place for the entire day, including all activities which your attendees can participate in. Now comes the task of sending out the invitations and managing the entire registration process, with Event Espresso.

The process includes:

Setting up the registration funnel for multiple events

If multiple activities in a single day are what you are planning for your fundraiser, having individual mini-events for which people can register beforehand can be useful. This can give you a fair idea of the number of people attending and the arrangements to be made accordingly. An additional perk is that it piques the curiosity of your attendees and reduces the chances of no-shows.

The EE4 Multiple Event Registration add-on can be useful here, which allows people to register for multiple events without having to pay for each individually.

Display all events

event-calendar

Having a universal event display can go a long way in engaging your audience as they have a clear picture of all the activities, their time and duration for ready reference.

With Event Espresso you have a Calendar display as well as a grid display to showcase all the events of your fundraiser.

Add volunteers to the event

working-in-a-group

No man is an island. You cannot afford to be one either! Proper execution of the entire fundraiser is going to require a lot of support from various channels. For this, you will need to connect to people and create a strong chain of command within your volunteers.

The EE4 People add-on is of great help here, as it lets you build a complete interface for your managers, organizers, and every other role from your management levels, right down to their individual user profiles.

Design custom printed tickets for advertising sponsors

Fundraisers have an underlying principle of equal exchange. When people are sponsoring your event or contributing to your cause, it is imperative that you highlight their efforts and share the limelight. Printable tickets are a great way to do this and have the added advantage of being customizable, designed to suit your particular event.

Event Espresso’s Printable Tickets Add-on allows you to print custom tickets which your attendees can keep as souvenirs, starting off the fundraiser experience on a high note!

Incorporate a ticket scanner

With printable tickets comes the responsibility of having a ticket scanner, used to scan the tickets at the entrance. You can use a ticket-scanning app like the EE4 Ticket-scanning add-on for this, enabling your volunteers to scan tickets quickly and easily.

Integrate mobile ticketing

Avoid the fiasco manual attendance tracking creates on the day of the fundraiser by using a mobile ticketing app to check off attendees on the go. The Mobile Attendance and Ticketing app is handy in checking all the details of the invitee and guiding them to the appropriate activity locations accordingly.

Promote the event via social media

Social Media Icons

Social media is an integral part of event promotions today. Granted that you will be sending out personal invitations to your curated list of benefactors individually, however, creating the right buzz about the fundraiser and increasing curiosity among a relevant audience can give you a wider reach.

Event Espresso has a nifty little add-on called EE4 Events Social Sharing which helps you leverage the complete power of social media to promote your fundraiser in the relevant social circles.

Add discounts and promotions

Although the primary aim of your fundraiser it to, well, raise funds, giving your attendees some discounts or promotional codes as gifts can be immensely helpful in closing the gap between interest and conversion. Besides, gift coupons that can be redeemed later, at any of your future events, are an excellent way of creating a regular attendee base and building a community of people who are genuinely interested in bringing about a change in society.

This can be done easily using the EE4 Promotions and Discounts Codes add-on, which lets you add coupon codes to all the different events you have created.

Set up reporting and analytics for the Event

analytics-and-reports

So far, so good. You have your attendee-registration system in place, you have promoted the fundraiser on social media and even offered a discount to make it more palatable. The registrations are starting to trickle in and now you need to track the revenue earned.

Event Espresso has a detailed reports and analytics system in place for tracking this data, but it is slightly cumbersome to use. To reduce the hassle of extracting data from a swarm of statistics, you can use an add-on like Easy Reports and Analytics to get all the major figures at a glance.

Build an email list for post-event communication

Post-event communication is an important part of the fundraising process. Sending out thank-you emails to all the attendees for their participation can go a long way towards cementing your relations with them. You can also send personal, handwritten notes to your most generous donors to appreciate their gesture.

Event Espresso has a robust email newsletter system, as well as integrations with leading email management systems like MailChimp, which can be used to contact and keep in touch with your attendees.

Bidding Adieu

Hosting a fundraiser is a great initiative, contributing towards bringing about a significant change in society. With an event management software like Event Espresso, you can easily create and manage an event website for your non-profit organization.

Besides, if it gets a little tech-heavy, you can always opt for professional services to get a working layout of the event website, leaving you free to simply create and add events without a hitch. Eliminate all the organizational hassles and concentrate on making the day a truly memorable experience for your patrons!

What other features have you required while organizing a fundraiser? Drop a comment to let us know!

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Pranoti Panchwagh

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