Connecting with donors and offering them a compelling experience for their contribution is essential to all nonprofit organizations. That’s why EVENTS have dominated fundraising for 85% of nonprofits. But fundraising events are more than just the donations. They’re about building relationships for your nonprofit and its cause. More important than the amount of money you raise in a single day are the long-term donations, awareness, and loyalty you develop for your nonprofit.
So how do you continue to build these relationships during a crisis when all events are cancelled? I’m sure you see where I’m going here. Yes, you need to adapt and have virtual events and meetings. The good news is that people in quarantine or restricted in their movement are now more willing than ever to meet online and make connections beyond their own homes. Even better, virtual meetings and events are more intimate than physical ones. Generally, one person speaks at a time, and others are muted and listening. This gives everyone an opportunity to speak and be listened to rather than focus on the appetizers or just on the people they already know.
Eris Sharon is the owner of Chatter Studios, an online marketing company that specializes in providing online marketing solutions for profit and nonprofit businesses that are dedicated to positive social change.
UCB Virtual Gala Program
Keeping your virtual fundraising event light and fun will increase attendance and keep people coming back. United Capital Boston (UCB), founded by Eric Leslie, has been doing a virtual gala for three years. UCB transforms social capital into opportunity by rewarding community engagement. Watch a highlights reel of last year’s virtual gala to see how they share their nonprofit’s impact, recognize donors, and have fun with personalized cocktails and rubber chicken dinners. They also include on their flier some entertaining ticket prices, like $25 for finger food appetizers and $100 for personalized cocktails.
Now, you might think this isn’t the time to be asking for money - during a community health crisis. But people are looking for ways to reach out and donate to important causes, including yours. If there is a way to connect what you do to the current pandemic, that’s even better. UCB recently launched a fundraiser to put cash directly into the hands of their low-income clients suffering financially from the crisis. They’ve raised more than $150k in just a few weeks - a perfect example of keeping the mission relevant to the current situation and helping people who are struggling the most right now.
So, the time is right and the medium works well. When you host your event this month, follow these tips.
1. Keep sessions short
It is far more difficult to hold audience attention in a virtual event as opposed to an in-person conference. So consider how long the event would last if it were in-person, and try to condense that into a little more than half the time. For example, a 60-minute breakout face-to-face should be 30-45 minutes when delivered online.
2. Sharpen your titles and descriptions
Many online events rely on emails and social media posts to interest attendees in what will be presented. The focus in each medium is headlines followed by short descriptions. That means participants in your virtual event have less information to help them decide what sessions to tune in for and which to skip. So make them count! Make your titles and headlines descriptive and compelling - and possibly fun and humorous.
3. Use a host or emcee
Having a consistent face and voice that “stitches together” the virtual sessions for participants adds much-needed familiarity and helps alleviate the isolated feeling that online events can sometimes produce. It’s really not that different from how you handle in-person events, so the format should be fairly familiar.
I recommend you have the event host open the conference online – just as you would for a face-to-face event. Later, have that same host moderate questions for speakers and then pop back online between sessions to chat with attendees. Make sure you give some “networking” space between sessions to allow attendees to connect to your nonprofit representatives and to each other.
4. Use attendee chat early and often
Every presenter at your virtual event should be taking questions from the audience using the Chat/Q&A tool. Make sure the host tells everyone at the beginning of the conference where the chat is located, and ask attendees to use it for questions and interaction.
To get even more engagement, one of the built-in advantages of online conferences is the ability to use the polling function. This way you can ask the audience questions and get instant, analytical results. Don’t forget to train your presenters on how to use this polling feature to make sessions more interesting and interactive.
5. Require presenter run-throughs
Speaking of training presenters, you really should make it mandatory that all of them participate in a run-through of their material a week or so before your virtual event. Of course it is likely that your presenters have attended some sort of online event and might have even delivered a program virtually at some point. But EVERY online event software platform is different, and presenters need to understand those nuances. You’ll be surprised how many issues arise during the run-through that you’ll be grateful didn’t happen at the actual event!
6. Use cameras
To make the virtual conference feel more like a face-to-face experience, you should require presenters to use their Web cam while presenting. This allows the audience to see the speaker during the presentation, which adds another layer of information through non-verbal cues. Nothing loses your audience faster than just a bunch of slides and someone droning on in the background. Having a person to connect to creates an environment of community and interaction. Remember, the point of these events is to cultivate RELATIONSHIPS. So always keep that in mind as you plan how you’ll deliver the information and organize your virtual event.
7. Ensure quality sound
To anyone not familiar with production, it might come as a shock that SOUND is the most important factor to a successful virtual event. That includes YouTube videos, vlogs, social media videos, and even movies. If the speakers at your online conference don’t have fantastic lighting or great cameras, the event can still work as long as the content is outstanding. But if the presenter audio isn’t solid, your audience will log off IMMEDIATELY. Sound quality for a virtual event is non-negotiable.
Virtual events are not without their difficulties, particularly technical ones. But there is no reason for you to lose an opportunity to connect to donors during a time that so many people are looking to help others. And your event can also provide them an outlet to interact and engage with you, your organization, and each other. Many more people have adopted new communication tools in the era of physical distancing, so you are in a great position to reach a huge number of attendees and speakers. A virtual event is also a great opportunity to connect to people in different countries and share experiences (just don’t forget to work out the time zones). And don’t forget the simple need for human interaction and socialization during this time of self- quarantine and social distancing.
If you need any help setting up your virtual event or curating material, or if you just want some feedback on your idea, feel free to reach out to me, Eris Sharon eris@chatterstudios.com. And have fun connecting at your next virtual event!
