A weekly newsletter for Chronicle subscribers that features expert advice, tools, case studies, and trends to help nonprofit professionals raise money, communicate, and lead. Delivered every Monday. (Subscribers only.)
Subject: How to Plan a Virtual Event That Donors Will Want to Attend
Two months into the pandemic, we’ve adjusted to a virtual world. But that doesn’t mean we enjoy staring at screens for hours on end or logging into a string of videoconferences. It just isn’t the same as being together.
But we have to work with what we’ve got, right?
In our Ask An Expert column, we tackled the challenge of throwing a virtual event that donors want to attend. It’s no easy task, to be sure.
“I keep warning people: Don’t have these huge virtual events that take a lot of people’s time, where they have to be in front of their computer figuring out how to participate in your event,” says Yolanda Johnson, president of YFJ Consulting, a firm that specializes in fundraising events.
Girls Inc. of New York City, for example, shortened its gala to just 45 minutes when it moved online. You can find more advice on hosting engaging virtual events in our on-demand webinar Reboot Your Fundraising Event.
The big question everyone wants answered: When can we resume in-person events. For help deciding whether to hold an in-person gathering in the coming months, read Fundraising Events in the Covid Era: Here’s What to Consider. In it, Johnson recommends forming a focus group of supporters to help make such calls.
Elsewhere, my colleagues and I have been exploring what the future of in-person fundraising might look like. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights charity, suspended its street canvassing due to social distancing, and to try to make up for some of the lost income, it came up with a face-mask campaign. For a $29 contribution, it sends the donor a branded cloth face mask and gives two others to a needy organization. The effort brought in money and attracted new donors, as street canvassing had. Learn more in “When Supporters Can’t Gather, Nonprofit Finds Success With Mask Donation Campaign.”
Other charities are tapping street canvassers to recruit new monthly donors by phone. Read about these efforts in Street Canvassers Switch to Telemarketing and Donor Stewardship During Pandemic.
Be well,
Emily Haynes
Staff Writer
P.S. We’ll be taking a break for the Memorial Day holiday, so look for Nonprofit Adviser to be back in your inbox on June 1.
-
Tools and ResourcesAs we look ahead to a time when in-person events can resume, here are some lessons to apply from the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. -
Ask an ExpertA nonprofit CEO, an events director, and a fundraising consultant specializing in events answer reader questions.
-
AdviceTwo experts talk about how to communicate the help you need, protect equity efforts when making tough choices, engage trustees in fundraising, and more.
-
Ask an ExpertA fundraiser and two consultants answer readers’ pandemic-related fundraising questions.
Tip of the Week
When seeking general operating support, clarify your goals and needs. Develop a clear set of institutional objectives, including both short- and long-term markers of progress, experts say. If you’ve never received overhead support, talk to potential donors about why you need the money — to hire more staff, for example. Make clear what your charity could accomplish and how an unrestricted gift would touch all areas of your mission. Learn more in How to Make the Case for General Operating Support, and consult our online library of more than 1,100 how-to articles and tools for nonprofit professionals.
New Grant Opportunities
New Foundation Requests for Proposals for Covid-19 Relief
Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities. Among the latest listings:
- Coronavirus response. The Adira Foundation is offering fast-track Covid-19 response grants to nonprofits whose focus is people with neurodegenerative diseases. Organizations serving people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers are eligible to apply. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
- Taxes. The Department of the Treasury’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic program supports groups that work to provide representation, education, or advocacy for low-income taxpayers and those whose native language is not English. The application deadline is June 16.