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How to make your fundraising event a success
14 Mar 2024by Laura Stanley
We explore how charities put on a successful fundraising event, drastically boost their fundraising efforts, increase the size of their audience, and raise more money for the causes they support
Fundraising events have always been a vital revenue source for charities, even, if not especially, during times of economic uncertainty. They survived the restrictions of the pandemic and came back stronger, with more than half of charities expecting a rise in income from fundraising events in 2023.
The appetite for fundraising events remains high among the public. The challenge for charities is maintaining this momentum, making sure fundraisers have tools, information, and impetus to boost their fundraising efforts.
In this article, we share tips for charities on how to market their fundraising events, from creating partnerships with other organisations to creating outreach packs to help fundraisers reach their targets. We will cover everything from social media and paid advertising to email marketing and stewardship.
Skip to: The benefits of running a fundraising event
Skip to: The fundraising event trends you need to know
Skip to: Preparing to market your fundraising event
Skip to: The four stages of marketing fundraising events
Skip to: The basics of a fundraising pack
Skip to: The channels to market your event
Skip to: The best digital event platforms
Skip to: The final marketing plan
Skip to: The best charity event marketing examples
Let’s start by looking at some benefits of running fundraising events. Fundraising events have long been a vital part of charity fundraising portfolios, with virtual events providing many organisations a lifeline during the economic uncertainty of the pandemic.
But fundraising events are just as beneficial to charities during better times, as well. In fact, appetite for participating in fundraising may increase during times of prosperity, as people dedicate more time to leisure activities and feel better able to ask friends and family to donate to their efforts.
In short, fundraising events can help charities boost their income, come rain or shine. Below, we highlight the benefits for charities in hosting fundraising events in more detail.
Diversifying fundraising income streams
During times of economic uncertainty, such as the cost-of-living crisis, it’s really important that charities think of new ways to generate income and introducing fundraising events is an innovative way of doing just that.
During the pandemic, we saw many charities turn to virtual challenge events to support themselves, with great success, including Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Charity, who raised considerable amounts with its Walk 62 miles in March challenge in 2020.
Community fundraising and engagement
Fundraising events are a great way of building a community. Fundraising events create a sense of community among attendees. People who attend such events often feel like they are part of something larger, and they may continue to support the cause in the long term.
Awareness building
Fundraising events are good opportunities to tell donors more about your cause. You can share details of your impact with fundraisers to help them boost donations, encourage them to share their stories and reasons why they support your charity to people who might not otherwise have come across your cause.
Indeed, word-of-mouth remains a powerful tool in fundraising and your fundraising event participants are some of your greatest advocates. The Donor Insights report from Blackbaud found that 46% of donors are motivated to donate to help a friend of family member fundraise – the second biggest motivation after “to help those in need”.
Relationship building
Fundraising events help charities to connect with existing and potential donors on a personal level. These interactions can lead to deeper relationships and more substantial, ongoing support in the future.
Many of the people participating in your fundraising event may have already established a connection to your charity. Fundraising event participants can often be your most engaged supporters, which is why it’s vital to consolidate that relationship with a good fundraising experience. Provide support, thank them for their contribution, and demonstrate the impact of their support on the cause they care about.
Fun in fundraising
Fundraising can be a challenge but fundraising events allow charities to reward their donors. It could be a sense of achievement, a medal, a challenge, a new community, or all of these things. But simply put, fundraising events can often put the fun back into fundraising.
Those are just five of the biggest benefits of fundraising events. But we know that they have changed dramatically over the last few years, with the emergence of virtual challenge events during COVID-19 and the return to mass physical events since 2022.
So let’s look at some recent fundraising event trends and what they mean for the sector moving forward.
The rise of fundraising events
According to the 2023 Charity Pulse report, from donations, fundraising, and events platform Enthuse, the area charities felt most confident about at the start of this year was fundraising events and activities – 53% of charities expected this to grow and just 12% forecasted a drop in income.
Smaller charities feel slightly less confident about the area with 47% predicting growth, while medium sized charities rank highest with 57% expecting an increase.
What do donors think of fundraising events?
According to the Blackbaud 2023 Donor Insights report, 28% of donors take part in fundraising events. This percentage rises to 34% among 18-34 year olds, compared to 17% of donors aged over 55.
Meanwhile, the 2023 Mass Participation Pulse report, from events agency Massive, found that, in general, participants are wealthier, spend more and are less concerned about the cost of living crisis than the population as a whole. The report also revealed that 46% of people were planning to do more events in 2023 than in 2022.
Event sustainability is becoming a significant concern for people and event reputation is more important than entry price when it comes to consideration.
Physical fundraising events or virtual fundraising events?
According to the Top 25 report from Massive, which looks at the biggest mass participation events in the charity sector, virtual events took a hit last year overall, with income falling on average by more than 50%. In-person events saw income grow as a group.
Indeed, after an understandable hiatus in 2020, it seems that in-person events are back. Research in 2022 from fundraising platform Enthuse discovered that 54% of people are happy to take part in physical events, compared to just 27% who said the same in 2021.
However, there remains a small but significant proportion of participants are still not comfortable in crowds. Many who have stopped doing events since 2019 have no plans to get back to previous levels of participation. Over 65’s are the most likely to have stopped doing events during COVID and potentially will not come back.
Hybrid events, therefore, are increasingly popular, improving the accessibility of our fundraising and allowing more people to take part wherever they are from and whatever their needs.
Now we’ve understood the fundraising event landscape, we should have our idea in place – whether it’s a challenge event, coffee morning, or something else entirely. Now it’s time to start marketing.
Marketing your fundraising events requires stewardship. Ideally, we want to take our participants from A to B as easily as possible, with A being sign up and B being a thank you at the end of the campaign or, hopefully, signing up for the event next year.
Stewardship is an important element of fundraising events, from helping fundraisers to set up their event pages to thanking them for their participation after the event has taken place.
As we’re largely talking about marketing events and encouraging participation, it would be great to think about how we as charities help our fundraisers maximise their donations and make participation as easy as possible for those who have chosen to support us.
Getting started with fundraising
Jade Smith, Senior Events Fundraising Manager at Alzheimer’s Society, says the charity’s aim at the start of fundraising events is give participants what they need to make it easy for them to train and fundraise for their event. It is also an opportunity to share how grateful you are for their support and show what a difference it will make.
Jade ran a really helpful webinar on how to maximise fundraising through mass events, in which she highlighted the importance of getting started with fundraising early.
The time between signing up and event day can seem long to participants - according to Smith, 40% of the marathon and half marathon sign-ups come between 5-7 months before race day.
But research shows that those who start fundraising early are likely to raise up to £700 more on average than those who start fundraising two months before the day of the marathon.
Stewardship of the event
With this in mind, Alzheimer’s Society created a framework for their event participant journey. The framework is split into four key phases:
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Phase One: Onboarding
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Phase Two: Keep in touch
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Phase Three: Countdown
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Phase Four: Post-event
The charity created this framework by mapping out the 24 weeks prior to event day and plotting how a supporter would be feeling about their upcoming challenge at each point. From this, Alzheimer’s Society was able to decide what messaging they wanted to deliver at strategic points and what their supporters would want to know too.
For example, during the onboarding phase, supporters are feeling very motivated, making it a great time for them to create their fundraising page and get started on their fundraising journey. Alzheimer’s Society also provides tools and resources to participants to help them plan their training, in recognition of their supporters’ needs.
Participants’ fundraising pages likewise provide a home for all training and fundraising activity before the event and on the day. They can showcase their training efforts, as well as post updates, images and videos to demonstrate their fundraising activities.
Similarly, the countdown phase is dedicated to pushing the supporter’s fundraising efforts, with the charity tailoring their messaging towards how much has been raised so far. With 40% of funds being raised for Alzheimer’s Society in the month of the event, this stage is crucial.
So with this framework in mind, let’s look at the four stages of marketing the event. Starting with before you’ve launched it.
Phase 1: Pre-event
Pre-event is the biggest, perhaps most important stage of marketing your fundraising event. It’s all about preparation. Below are the six steps that comprise the pre-event stage of planning your marketing.
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The first step is to define your goals and target audience. Who will be attending? From where? What are their preferences for events – do they like sporting events or something more casual? Know who you want to attend, support, or donate to the event, and create a plan that caters to them accordingly. Make sure you set goals for how many attendees you’d like to attract so you can measure your success later.
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Create a marketing plan based on the demographics you’ve identified earlier. Outline your strategies, channels, and budget. Can you use social media advertising, for example? Will your preferred social media channels meet the right audiences?
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Assign roles within your team. An well-executed plan requires setting out clear responsibilities and deadlines from the outset. You can use digital tools such as Asana in order to set this plan out visibly to the rest of your team. We have an example of what this might look like later in the presentation.
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The pre-event stage is also a really good time to create your promotional materials, such as banners, social media graphics, email signatures, and more. You can share these with your fundraisers too so they can share with their networks. The materials should clearly convey the event’s purpose, date, location, and key information. Tools such as Canva can be really helpful here in making graphics quickly and easily.
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Consider where your event will be promoted and what happens next – Is there a dedicated sign up page via your website? Are the next steps clear for your participants? For example, our upcoming Digital Fundraising Summit has a page on our website, but is delivered by a platform called Hubilo. People who sign up receive an email with details on how to log in and more information. We’ve got more info on ticketing and event platforms later in this presentation.
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Identify potential partnerships - Collaborate with local businesses or organisations to cross-promote the event. Partnerships can expand your reach and credibility.
Phase two: Promotion of the event
Now you’ve got your plan in place, now it is time to promote your event and bring people on board. This phase is most liable to change and tactics may need to be adapted throughout.
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Build and segment your email list to send personalised invitations and reminders to potential attendees. Use emails to send event updates and send information – it can be a great opportunity to raise more awareness of your cause.
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Use teaser content, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and countdowns to maintain excitement leading up to the event. Encourage attendees to share their anticipation on social media.
For running events, for example, some giving platforms allow you to embed running apps to show your training progress, which is a great way of building a community. Likewise, some charities have been known to launch leaderboards as a way of developing a sense of healthy competition among participants.
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As people continue to sign up to your fundraising event, now is the time to share with them your fundraising packs. Encourage them to tell their story and give them tips on how to boost their donations among their friends and family. Make sure your support is on hand throughout the onboarding process.
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You might also want to consider Early Bird promotions to incentivise early registration and create a sense of urgency or exclusivity around the event.
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Invest in online advertising such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or social media promotion to reach a wider audience. Target ads to your defined demographic to ensure that your money is spent wisely and remember, you don’t have to break the bank to use paid ads. Google Ad Grants might be worth looking into since they provide a limited amount of free advertising to eligible charities.
Phase three: During the fundraising event
Marketing doesn’t stop once the event is on. During the event, you will need to continue the marketing momentum, which will help boost morale among attendees and encourage them to return to participate in future.
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Continuously update your social media profiles with live posts, images, and videos from the event. Encourage attendees to share their experiences using a designated event hashtag.
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Keep attendees engaged by organising contests, games, or interactive activities related to the cause. This can make the event more memorable and increase post-event sharing.
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Have a system in place for collecting contact information from attendees before and during the event, which can be used for post-event follow-ups and future communications.
Phase four: Post-event fundraising
The event might be over, but the race is on to keep fundraisers engaged so they might sign up for the next one. It’s also really important at this stage to show fundraisers how much their support has meant.
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Send thank-you emails or letters to attendees, sponsors, and volunteers. Show appreciation for their support and participation.
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Continue to promote the event by sharing highlights, photos, and videos on your website and social media. This can help maintain momentum and encourage those who missed it to participate next time.
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Analyse the data collected during the event and assess the success of your marketing efforts. Use this information to improve future events.
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Gather feedback from attendees and supporters to identify strengths and areas for improvement. This information can guide your marketing strategy for future events.
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At this final stage, it is really important to share the impact of the money raised – where it will go to and who it will help. This is why the fundraising event exists and it is why supporters are motivated to attend your events.
As charities, we’re fundraising experts. It is important that we share that knowledge with those fundraising on our behalf and make it simple for them to share their story.
According to Enthuse, the top 3 things that can help event participants maximise their fundraising are:
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49% - information on how the money will be used
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48% - offering fundraising ideas
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39% - taking part in a big name mass event
With the first two elements in mind, here’s what we think you need to include in your fundraising pack. You should think about the specific needs of your supporters and the goals of your event. It is also really important that the pack is accessible for all participants.
PDFs, for example, often aren’t accessible for people using screen readers, so ensure that the fundraising information is available in multiple formats, such as Word docs or web pages.
What to include in your fundraising event pack
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Introduction – The introduction should set out the purpose of the event, the cause you are raising money for, and how the money raised will help. It is an opportunity to raise awareness of your charity and thank participants for signing up.
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Event details – Make sure event details are clearly visible, including date, time, location, agenda, sponsors etc.
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Fundraising advice - Provide fundraising ideas, tips, and strategies to help participants meet their goals, including guidance on how to set up their personal fundraising pages, use social media, and attract more donors.
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Fundraising materials, such as templates for fundraising emails, social media posts, thank-you messages, and even sample scripts for in-person fundraising pitches. You should also share graphics and images for participants to use on their own fundraising pages or posters.
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Event logistics, including detailed information about registration, check-in procedures, parking, and any event-specific logistics. Here you can add contact information for event support.
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A fundraising schedule or timeline that outlines important dates and deadlines related to the event and fundraising efforts.
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Instructions on how to collect and submit donations, including details on online fundraising platforms, cash, checks, or other payment methods.
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Information on recognition or rewards for top fundraisers or participants who meet certain fundraising milestones.
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Real-life stories, testimonials, or case studies that illustrate the positive impact of the fundraising efforts.
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Legal and Compliance Information such as legal regulations, tax-related considerations, and guidelines for transparent fundraising practices. Include any disclaimers or disclosures required by law.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Anticipate common questions participants may have and provide clear answers. You can use this an opportunity to summarise previously shared information.
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Appendices. Include any additional materials, forms, or documents that may be relevant to the event, such as event maps, volunteer information, or waivers.
You can also use Artificial Intelligence (or AI) to help fundraisers create compelling social media posts or updates on their giving page – some fundraising platforms, such as GivenGain, are beginning to build this functionality into their offering already.
But a word of warning – generative AI is still quite a recent phenomenon and is liable to provide inaccurate information. We have a great webinar on the ethics and implications of AI, and how charities can use it, which we’ll link to in the resources following this session.
When it comes to choosing the right channels for your event marketing, charities must think about their audiences and how they generally prefer to be contacted. Younger demographics, for example, may be more reachable on social media platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram.
You don’t have to choose every channel to promote your event. It is best to choose one or two of the most effective channels for reaching the specific audience you want to target, as opposed to spreading your time and resources too thinly across multiple platforms.
Here, we explore some of the key considerations charities should take into account when choosing the right marketing channels for them.
Prioritise supporter needs at your fundraising event
The easier it is for people to sign up and donate, the more funds your event will raise.
Of course, every event attendee is different and will have different needs. Charities should map out all the different demographics they expect to attend their event and how they can reach them.
Charities can do this by creating user personas which help develop supporter journeys that are tailored to your different demographics and supporter profiles. There are lots of persona templates online, including these from Miro and Hootsuite.
Email marketing for your fundraising event
Email remains a great channel for fundraising and results in one-third of online fundraising revenue. It results in high engagement and is a great of communicating event updates, the purpose behind the event, and encouraging more sign ups to boot.
Organisations are six times more likely to get a click-through from an email than they are from Twitter. But, as always, avoid spamming your recipients – this is where your user journeys and personas come in so you can tailor communications as and when they want to hear from you (for example, immediately after they’ve signed up). More than three quarters of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months, according to HubSpot, while subscriber segmentation is seen as the most effective email marketing campaign strategy.
It is also worth creating an email calendar to track when emails are going out about your event. Mark them as Acquisition, Engagement, and Retention and ensure your team has visibility.
Social media for fundraising
Social media marketing can have mixed results at times, but it remains a vital tool for getting the word out there about your events. It is an imprecise science, and every charity will have different channels to reach various audiences, but there are basics charities can consolidate when using social media.
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TikTok is an excellent channel for engaging younger donors (the vast majority of users are aged between 16 and 25)
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Twitter is one of the few text-based platforms remaining and holds value for charities in sharing information online
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More than 50 million people in the UK are active on Facebook making it an excellent place to build a community
Facebook’s fundraising capabilities in particular are worth looking at, when running an event. Facebook Challenges are simple because everything happens on the platform – from signing up to ads to creating fundraising pages and an automatic group for participants to build an event community. So if you want to build a virtual event within a single social media platform, Facebook could be for you.
Digital event platforms means charities can automate many of the processes involved in running an fundraising or awareness event at little or no cost, ensuring that every penny possible goes to the cause.
The most effective platforms can help with ticketing, marketing, tracking bookings, managing payments and donations, giving out essential information about the day and more. We’ve picked some of the best online event platforms for charities here, but it’s important to do your own research and choose the right platform for your charity.
Probably the most well known of the five, Eventbrite’s platform is great for charities wanting to capture the mass market. Aimed at those generally browsing for things to do, the platform advertises events in a calendar and map format allowing guests to search by event type, city, or date.
Charity marketing teams can also put up listing pages specifically for the event. Photos, built-in payment widgets, visitor analytics, and ticketing can be managed directly from the site and organiser app.
For charities without event organising experience, the platform can also offer equipment rentals, staffing, and dedicated relationship managers for the event. Eventbrite is free for organisers if you’re not charging for tickets, otherwise it offers a three-tier pricing package.
For charities on a budget, the essentials suite charges £0.49 per ticket in addition to 3.5% of the ticket price, for one ticket type only. This includes the ability to sell tickets directly through Facebook.
Idloom helps charities create customised an event website and registration page. The platform allows charities to personalise the data collection process allowing organisers to gather all the necessary information.
The company says it can help charities ‘effortlessly automate most processes’: this includes the creation of a multi-page event website, attendee management, payment processing, badge printing, invoice generation and on-site quick check-in.
For charities, the Light subscription plan includes unlimited free events, unlimited users and guests, e-ticketing and a variety of pricing options for paying customers. On Charity Digital Exchange, eligible charities can also access the Light subscription plan for 12 months, for just £40, which is a substantial saving.
For charities with a hands-on approach, Yapsody’s event ticking system can support major occasions. The ticket store’s look and feel can be customised to the charity’s identity.
With an emphasis on being able to sell tickets fast, the platform comes with lots of features for marketing and promoting tickets effectively, including SEO help so you get found online. Charities can also run events with different ticket pricing structures and discount codes.
One of the most cost-effective platforms available, Yapsody does not charge any fees on the first 50 tickets. Non-profits can benefit from a flat 50% rebate on monthly invoices for any event. No fees apply for free, non-ticketed events hosted by non-profits.
TicketTailor also puts the focus on managing ticketing - charities can manage multiple events, and tickets can be tiered accordingly. TicketTailor can also be integrated into Facebook, so audiences can be found on social media; organisers can also integrate the ticketing system onto their existing WordPress website and content manager.
Pricing can be flexible on TicketTailor. Charities can get a 20% discount and monthly plans start at £19 per month for 50 tickets sales, with the largest package costing £149 for 500 tickets.
Charities have their fundraising event idea, their target audience, and they’ve mapped out the different stages of marketing. Now it’s time to bring it all together with a centralised plan, with a checklist of everything they need to make their event run smoothly.
Crucially, even at this stage, it is important to note that you cannot plan for everything when it comes to events – but the more you can plan, the easier it is to adapt to those unforeseen circumstances when they arise.
Below, we cover everything charities need to ensure their marketing plan runs smoothly, including the best digital planning tools.
Planning tools
Social media scheduling – Social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite can help save you time and plan your posts in advance to promote and share updates for your event.
Project management – Asana comes with lots of templates for building a marketing strategy that can help during the pre-event planning stages.
Event retention – Tools such as AddEvent allow people who sign up to events to add the event to their calendars easily, whatever calendar service they use. You can include a button on a sign up page or links within a thank you email, but what this does is increase retention of your attendees.
Remember, particularly if your event is free, the number of sign ups does not necessarily match up to the number of attendees on the day. Reminders of the event, staying in touch, and keeping attendees engaged is really important throughout the marketing process – every little helps.
Checklist for the event
The final thing to think about is creating a checklist to ensure everything has the highest potential of going to plan. We understand that events often require adaptability and agility, but having a checklist ensures that we, as charities, get the fundamentals correct.
1. Set out your goals. Set specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timed (SMART) goals for your event, such as the number of attendees, lead generation, or revenue targets. This helps you identify whether your strategies are working so you can adapt when they’re not.
2. Choose the right tools. Work out what resources you need to be able to deliver your event, such as channels, platforms, content.
3. Start early Start marketing your event as early as possible to build anticipation. Use a mix of channels, including email marketing, social media, and partnerships, to reach your target audience.
5. Support your users. Make the registration process as simple as possible with an easy-to-navigate registration page and clear instructions. Collect essential attendee information while keeping it concise. Provide technical support where necessary.
6. Stay in touch with attendees Keep supporters engaged with milestones and content that reminds them of why they are participating in your event. Use this as opportunity to raise awareness of your cause and demonstrate fundraising impact.
7. Post-event engagement. Continue engagement after the event by sharing recordings, presentation materials, and follow-up content to provide additional value to attendees.
8. Analyse results and gather feedback. Collect feedback from attendees through surveys or post-event evaluations. Use this input, and measure your success against your goals from the start, in order to improve future virtual events.
Charities succeed when they share their expertise with others. Many charities of all sizes have held successful fundraising events and we can all learn from their experience, moving the sector forward together.
Below, we share six great resources for charities on how to boost their fundraising events and maximise funds, with insight from charity professionals who’ve done just that.
Charity fundraising event marketing resources
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Cancer charity Walk the Walk has a really great checklist that charities and fundraisers alike can make use of when formulating their marketing plan. We’ll link to it in our resources shared post-session.
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Alzheimer’s Society webinar - How charities can maximise their fundraising through mass events
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Oxfam – Tips for promoting your event
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Charity Excellence – Event advice
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Charity Digital webinar – How to organise an event
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Eventbrite – Seven ways to promote your charity event
Laura Stanley
Laura Stanley
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