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Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Favorite Hybrid Fundraising Events Your Nonprofit Can Host

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A guest post by Kelly Velasquez-Hague of OneCause

Hybrid events have become far more popular among nonprofits in the past several months. They offer the convenience and flexibility of virtual events with the face-to-face connection of in-person events — all rolled into one. When a hybrid event is pulled off successfully, it can make a positive first impression with new supporters and deepen connections with existing supporters.

There is one thing every fundraiser should know! Hybrid events have a lot of moving parts. There are many logistics to consider, such as how to keep both remote and in-person audiences engaged, what activities you should plan, the software you should rely on, your registration, fundraising and checkout flows, and so much more.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of favorite hybrid fundraising events to help get you started. Here are our top three hybrid events:

  1. Auction
  2. Drive-In
  3. Webinar

Planning your own hybrid event might seem overwhelming, but shifting your mindset helps. Here’s the key: think of the in-person and virtual options as two ways to experience the event. When you think in terms of what the in-person and remote supporters will experience at key points in your event, it helps ensure you are maximizing engagement and fundraising for both audiences.

Let’s take a closer look at these three event types and see which one is right for your nonprofit!

1. Auction

Auctions are an adaptable and flexible event option for nonprofits of any size. The best part?  They can be adjusted to fit a variety of audiences. If you’ve ever hosted an auction before, you know that they require preparation, and that’s still true with hybrid auctions. To plan your  hybrid auction, use these tips:

  • Preview your auction items in advance. Giving your potential attendees a glimpse into what they could win to incentivize them to bid. This OneCause guide on charity auction item ideas can help you pick the best items.
  • Use mobile bidding software, which makes it easy for bidders attending in-person or virtually to compete for the same items simultaneously. Plus, you can easily keep track of winners, payments, and where to ship the items.
  • Keep the live auction fairly short so that virtual attendees do not become disengaged and log off. Consider pairing your auction with other activities, such as meet-and-greets or educational programs to keep everyone’s attention.

With compelling items, the right software, and an organized format, your hybrid auction can be an engaging event for participants attending in-person or virtually. And it’s a great way to raise money for your nonprofit!

2. Drive-In

Who doesn’t enjoy a night at the movies? Hosting a drive-in or a watch party is a great way to build community among supporters of your nonprofit. And of all of our hybrid event options, a drive-in is likely the easiest to pull off.

Once you secure a venue and set up your live-streaming software, there’s only a few things left to do to bring your drive-in to the next level, including:

  • Allowing attendees to vote on the movie: During the registration process, include a few movie choices and show the one with the most votes. You can even theme the movie around the time of year, like playing a Halloween movie in October.
  • Encouraging watch parties for viewers at home: Just because a participant isn’t attending in-person doesn’t mean they can’t spend time with others. Encourage your attendees to invite friends to watch with them.
  • Creating snack packs: Whether you participants are attending in-person or virtually, provide snack packs with popcorn, candy, and other treats. You can give them directly to in-person attendees and mail them to participants watching from home. This is also a great opportunity to include some branded materials to raise your nonprofit’s visibility.
  • Weave in Mission Moments: Be sure to orchestrate fundraising and donations moments before and after your movies. If you are doing a double-feature, have an intermission and do a Fund-A-Need moment.

To foster connection with your attendees and make it fun, you could plan themed activities for before, during, and after the movie (think Rocky Horror Picture Show or movie trivia). Adding a few creative elements and activities can boost engagement, and create a memorable hybrid event experience for all!

3. Educational Webinar or Event

If your nonprofit is looking to incorporate more educational events into your fundraising strategy, then a webinar, seminar, or other educational gathering might be the right hybrid event choice for you!

Webinars are a great way to raise awareness about your cause and ignite passion in your donors. You can offer in-person tickets to the speaking event to VIP guests while other attendees can stream the gathering from the comfort of their homes.

During your hybrid webinar, provide equal opportunities for engagement for in-person and virtual attendees. Allow both groups to ask questions and interact with speakers and each other. For virtual attendees, create breakout sessions to facilitate smaller discussions about what your speakers have shared.

Another option is to pre-record the speaker’s lecture and host a live Q&A session. This provides in-person attendees an opportunity to connect with each other as they watch the video, while everyone at home can keep up with the recording. With this option, be sure you have a moderator to run the online questions so that everything stays organized.

One last tip: When planning your hybrid event, start preparing early. Remember, there’s a lot of logistics involved, so it’s best to give yourself plenty of time to get everything up and running. Good luck!

 

Kelly Velasquez-Haguge head shotKelly Velasquez-Hague brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit management, and sales/marketing experience to her role as the Director of Content Marketing for OneCause.

As a member of the OneCause sales and marketing team, Kelly manages all of the company’s content strategy and execution. She is passionate about empowering great missions and loves that her current role allows her to continue to help nonprofits reach new donors raise more funds for their cause.

Fundraising Tuesday: 10 tips for writing an email that raises money

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When you ask donors to be generous, when should you make that ask by email?

One good time is when you’ve already sent them the ideal appeal letter by mail. When they’re thinking about making a donation but they’ve been putting off their gift until later, then email can remind, follow up, and jog them into action.

Another time email works is when your organization doesn’t have a street address, but you do have an email address.

Let’s be clear: that’s not the best situation for you. Most donors are still more likely to respond to direct mail than to email. When they give, a letter also increases the amount they are likely to give. Even if they end up taking out their credit card and giving online, chances are great that it was getting a letter in the mail that motivated them to donate. So, you will want to ask them for their mailing address (and permission to use it) as soon as you can.

But if email is what you have, and it’s time to reach out for donations, how do you ask in a way that makes donors most likely to respond?

10 tips for writing an email that raises money

  1. Email appeals aren’t like fundraising letters. Getting a letter in the mail still has a certain cachet, especially if the envelope is special. Getting an email, on the other hand? It feels like just more clutter in the inbox. You have to make sure yours stands out.
  2. Send it “From” a real person. A name the donor will recognize, like a celebrity or someone famous in your community, is great,  but the name of your ED, Board Chair, Development Director, or someone the donation will benefit also works. Not just from “Any Old Organization”!
  3. Get the donor’s name right in the “To:” line. If that doesn’t happen, the donor will hit the Delete button–and nothing else you wrote will matter.
  4. Write a “Subject:” line that makes them have to read more. According to Hubspot, “33% of email recipients are choosing whether to open your email just based on the subject line alone.  Here are some examples of  great subject lines. Spend as much time as you need to write one that readers can’t resist.
  5. Use an image. People who don’t read your email will let their eyes rest on a photo or graphic–so make sure yours says, “Here’s what you’re giving for.”
  6. Tell a story. Don’t try to argue people into believing their donation is needed. Talk about a real person who needs help.
  7. Ask. You may think it’s obvious why you’re writing to the person receiving your email today, but they may not know, or pay attention. You have to say, “Please give today.”
  8. Ask again. Once toward the beginning of your email (because that may be as far as they read). Once at the end, and possibly once in the middle, too.
  9. Just ask. The appeal letter is not the time to be looking for volunteers, or requesting people to phone their legislators. It must have a single call to action, and that action is to donate.
  10. Make it easy to give. Link to the Donate page on your website, and make sure that once they arrive there, the donor will be sure it’s the same organization, asking for the same thing. Do include your mailing address for the people who still want to send you a check, but they will be the minority.

One bonus tip: Keep it short.

When you’re sending an appeal letter by mail, two sides of a page are enough to convey a powerful message to donors who already know, like, and trust you. For new prospects, four sides may work better. They convey credibility, as much as they share information.

With email, it doesn’t work that way. Shorter is better.

I have seen recommendations that say you should limit your email to three short paragraphs of two or three sentences each. I don’t agree with that (unless the email is a follow-up to postal mail, or one in a series of emails), but it gives you a sense of how much an average email recipient can be expected to read.

My recommendation? Write a first draft of your email, using the ten tips listed above. Let it sit. Then…

Go back and edit out anything that’s there just because your Executive Director likes it, or your Board likes it.

Cut anything that’s there because one program will get jealous if another one is mentioned and they are not.

Get rid of anything that matters to people inside the organization, but not to donors.

You should be communicating with donors all year round: informing them, thanking them, showing them the impact of their previous donation. In this, your fundraising email, you should be doing only one thing, and that’s asking donors to give. That’s how you keep it short!

TY Thursday: 3 Ways to Make Sure You Get the Name Right

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Nothing matters more to your donors than getting their name right.

Don’t just take my word for it. Ask other experts in nonprofit communications, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Or ask the donors. You’ll get an earful about how annoyed they get when a nonprofit is happy to take their money but can’t be bothered to remember their name!

It can be simple to call the donor by the name they prefer. If you have a good CRM, it will offer you fields where you can enter the full name of the donor plus the name they’d like you to use in the salutation of your appeal letter (or the To: line of your email).

But first, you have to find out the right name.

How do you do that? Ask.

Ask about Names When You Ask for Donations

When BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, asked for money, they included this language on their donation card.

Did we spell your name or address incorrectly?

We’re so sorry. We try to maintain an accurate database of our supporters, but we need your help on this one.

Correct Name Spelling: _____________________________

Correct Mailing Address: ____________________________

Correct E-Mail Address: _____________________________

BAGLY is quietly allowing people to say “My name is Albert, but you can call me Al” or “I used to go by Sarah, but now my name is Carter” without making any fuss about it.

Ask about Names When You Say “Thank You”

Keshet, the organization for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, found another good way to ask which names to use. When they thanked us for our donation, they checked how my wife and I would like to be listed in their annual report.

As I said when I congratulated them in a post in 2020: “Keshet asked what we wanted to be called. They saw the way the names were listed on the check we’d sent them, but they didn’t assume that was exactly how we wanted our names to appear.”

Because everyone knows what happens when you assume!

Ask about Names and Give the Donor Control

It’s probably no accident that the first two examples came from organizations that serve the LGBTQ+ community. Names given and names chosen matter enormously to queer people, especially people who have made a gender transition. These organizations know that and tacitly act on their knowledge. But all nonprofits should follow their lead.

Just recently, I saw a different approach from an organization that is not specifically LGBTQ+, one that impressed me. Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) emailed me to let me know that the control over my name was in my own hands.

Here’s why they made the effort:

We know how harmful misnaming is and we want to do everything in our power to not do it. We want to thank those of you who have come forward and spoken up about the harm being misnamed causes in our community, especially for our trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary members.

Here’s what they did:

“The heart of JFREJ’s new policy is our self-reporting portal which gives you control over your personal data,” they told me.

When you click on the link, you will be asked to submit the email address we have on file for you (i.e., the email address that this email was sent to). You will then be emailed a new link, which will show you the private information we have on record for you and will give you the opportunity to change any or all of it, including your name, phone number, address, email, and recurring donation. 

You can make those changes any time. Your data, your choice. 

And if the portal doesn’t work for you, and you prefer to update your information by connecting directly with a human, you can email our Development and Database Associate at [email protected]. He’ll kindly take care of it for you, anytime. 

And here’s why you should consider doing the same!

As we’ve seen over and over, names are personal. Getting a person’s name wrong sends the message that you don’t care who they are, as long as they give your organization money. That’s a slap in the face to anyone who’s fought for their identity, and it’s insulting to anyone, period.

Names are not just an LGBTQ+ issue, any more than curb cuts in the sidewalk are just a wheelchair user issue. The curb cuts make it easier for everyone to get around: workers carrying loads, parents pushing strollers, grandmas using canes or walkers, people whose legs are tired that day!

If you give everyone control over how their names appear in your database, it’s like installing curb cuts. Pretty soon, everyone will use them, and the only thing that people will notice is the backward thinking groups who have stopped them short, by continuing to call them the wrong name. Don’t be that group!

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