What creates virtual event success?

Virtual events are the latest big thing in fundraising, with two virtuals already having broken into the last 12 months’ Top 25 Mass Participation Events by funds raised. Unlike physical events, virtuals don’t have the barrier of being held on a specific place at a specific time, making them highly appealing to a broader audience.

As a relatively new approach to fundraising, however, there was little information available into the value of virtual events versus traditional methods. Now, a new report by peer-to-peer fundraising platform Everydayhero (a Blackbaud company) and fundraising consultancy More Strategic has revealed valuable insights into virtual events:

• Average audiences are younger for virtual events than physical event fundraisers
• Messaging to fundraisers needs to be more about the challenge than the cause
• 23-32% of virtual event participants went on to fundraise

The report is based on in-depth interviews and analysis of quantitative data across both virtual and physical events run by a range of charities through Everydayhero.

Three core pillars

The findings illustrate that virtual events are a powerful emerging tool to engage new audiences. It suggests three core pillars to focus on when launching a successful virtual event: supporter understanding, fundraising drivers, and tribal mobilisation. It also goes into detail on combining virtual events with other channels to increase retention of supporters and build longer-term donations.

The report, entitled ‘What Creates Virtual Event Success?’ is freely available as an eBook on Blackbaud’s site, and can be accessed via the link below.  

Click here to read ’What Creates Virtual Event Success?’