Everyone wants their fundraising event to be a success, but how do you know for sure? By setting goals and knowing ways of evaluating fundraising events, of course! If you need a little guidance, TFCLinen is here to help you determine whether your event was successful.
Set Yourself Up for Success By Setting Goals
The best ways of evaluating fundraising events require you to compare your results to your objectives. However, before you can do that, you need to set goals for your non-profit fundraising event.
During the preliminary event planning stages, you can set meaningful and actionable fundraising goals by asking the following questions:
- How much money do you want/need to raise?
- How many attendees need to come to your event?
- What other goals do you have besides fundraising? Some examples include raising awareness for your cause, making new partnerships, and reaching new donors.
After the event, you can use this information to determine the success of your fundraising event.
Ways of Evaluating Fundraising Events’ Success
With the goals for your event in mind, you can begin evaluating your fundraiser’s success as soon as the event comes to a close. For the best results, we recommend the following ways of evaluating fundraising events’ success.
Did You Make Enough Money?
Financial metrics play a vital role in the success of fundraising events. After all, the main goal of these gatherings is to raise money for a good cause.
Deciding whether you met your fundraising targets starts by answering two basic questions:
- How much money did you raise from proceeds and donations?
- How much did you spend planning and hosting the event?
You can break these questions down even more to get a clearer picture of the financial success of your event. For example, you can review how much you raised through donations, pledges, and sponsorships versus raffles, silent auctions, and food and beverage sales.
Was There Sufficient Attendance?
One of the best ways of evaluating fundraising events is by examining your event’s attendance. Most of the time, this is easy to do. With events like fundraising dinners and charity golf outings, you can simply review the number of registrations.
You can also gain more insight into event attendance by taking photos and videos at the event. Doing so can also be a great way to gain material for social media and fundraising reports.
Did You Reach New Supporters?
Fundraisers aren’t just about raising money: They’re also about raising awareness. One of the best ways to do that is by reaching new supporters.
How do you know which event attendees are new supporters? A simple yet effective way is to ask people how they heard about the event and whether it’s their first time attending. You can gather this information on the event registration form or as part of a post-event survey.
Will Your Event Attendees Come Back Next Year?
Happy event attendees are more likely to give money to your cause. They’re also more likely to return the next year and do it again. As a result, one of the ways of evaluating fundraising events’ success is by determining the overall perception of the event.
Did people have fun? Did they find the event meaningful? If so, they’ll probably come back next year (and bring friends with them). This is the ideal situation for event retention.
Observing people at the event and circulating surveys afterward can help you determine whether your attendees enjoyed themselves. This insight can also help improve future events to ensure they are a smashing success!
Turn to TCFLinen For Your Next Fundraising Event
Now that you know some ways of evaluating fundraising events’ success, it’s time to think about event decor. TCFLinen offers the event decor essentials and extras that can make your next fundraising event one that your guests can’t stop talking about.
We sell high-quality, stylish decor in bulk with discounted pricing so that you can effortlessly organize memorable events while also sticking to your budget. At TCFLinen, we also offer a Preferred Partner Program that gives members additional benefits:
- Expert Support: When you’re planning your next fundraiser, you can turn to our helpful experts for assistance with everything from decor selection to ordering.
- High Quality, Low Prices: Wholesale pricing means you can stock up on stunning event decor without spending a fortune.
- Speedy Shipping: Gain peace of mind in knowing that our fast and reliable shipping options will get you your order on time.
With this list of ways of evaluating fundraising events and help from TCFLinen, you can seamlessly plan events that wow your guests and exceed your fundraising expectations!
