Picture this: You’re in a nonprofit board meeting discussing how you can meet your annual fundraising goal without going over budget. You’ve got a few fundraising events planned and aren’t sure your nonprofit has the financial or staff capacity to host much more. So how can you raise funds without overextending your resources?
Try running concurrent fundraising events! Concurrent fundraising events are hosted simultaneously to usher in a bigger funding impact. By multitasking, you’ll save your nonprofit time and money all while maximizing funding. These events also give donors multiple opportunities to engage and can drastically expand your organization’s reach.
In this guide, we’ll review the top complementary fundraising projects that will wow your supporters and appease your budget, including:
- crowdfunding and matching gifts;
- text-to-give and live events;
- shoe drive fundraisers and sports events; and,
- auctions and raffles.
As you solidify your fundraising picks, be sure to consider your donor data. According to NPOInfo’s donor data management guide, you should be on the lookout for which interactions yield the highest returns. For instance, if your donors seem to be more responsive to virtual events, you might run a complementary online campaign in addition to a pre-planned event. Let’s get started!
Crowdfunding and Matching Gifts
Crowdfunding and matching gifts make for a dynamite pair as matched donations can add fuel to an already engaging crowdfunding campaign. Because donors know their gift will carry twice the impact, they’ll be much more inclined to give and help you reach your goal.
Here’s how you can set your crowdfunding platform up to showcase matching gift functionality:
- Integrate with a matching gift database. You’ll need to select a crowdfunding website with matching gift capabilities that enables donors to check if their employer is eligible.
- Create a dedicated matching gift section on your donation page. Inform your supporters of your matching gift feature by explaining quick steps on how to get started.
- Use a progress bar to indicate how many gifts have been matched. Help donors visualize just how far their matching gift can go by providing a real-time progress bar that indicates your progress.
- Mention your matching gift opportunities in your promotional materials. As you promote your crowdfunding campaign on your social media and website as well as in-person, mention your matching gift opportunities to drive greater awareness around your campaign.
To boost engagement for your concurrent campaign, consider reaching out to corporate partners ahead of time, especially if you know that many of their employees support your cause. Resources like Fundly’s top companies to request donations from can provide insight into which employers have a well-known matching gift program.
Text-to-Give and Live Events
Matching text-to-give and live events together can help you take full advantage of the energy your event day provides. Text-to-give’s fast pace capitalizes on urgency, anticipation, and collective giving spirit. Not to mention, gamification elements like competitive giving and incentives can help you pull in more support fast.
You can integrate text-to-give into any live event with ease. Concerts, carnivals, walkathons, danceathons, or conferences can be great places you can increase support. To streamline the giving process, consider incorporating these best practices on your event day:
- Use clear signage. Use clear signs such as QR codes to instruct attendees on how to give and make it as easy as possible to do so.
- Promote text-to-give throughout the fundraiser. Remind attendees of the text-to-give option throughout the duration of the fundraiser so no one forgets. Add the number to your signage and frequently mention it in donation pitches.
- Provide real-time updates. Express gratitude for donations and provide updates on how close you are to your goal to increase anticipation and spur on gifts.
- Add suggested and customizable donation amounts. Make it easy to donate by adding suggested amounts like $15 or $25.
- Have an engaging speaker or performer. For concerts and conferences especially, an engaging speaker can encourage more donations and highlight how the funds will be used to further a good cause.
Throughout the live event, drive home the specific impacts of donations, especially if they’ve already bought a ticket. For instance, you can highlight that raising $200 via text-to-give enables your team to feed 100+ more families over the holidays.
If the text-to-give feature raises money for a different cause than the live event, it’s important to make the distinction. That way, donors can feel a greater sense of purpose when being asked to give, knowing their text donations are helping you reach meaningful goals.
Shoe Drive Fundraisers and Sports Themed Events
Donate athletic shoes to kill two birds with one stone—raising support and caring for the environment. Shoe drive fundraisers only require you to collect gently worn, new, or used running shoes from your community and ship them to a shoe recycling provider in return for fundraising revenue.
The most involved part of a shoe drive fundraiser is the collection period, which is when a sports-themed fundraising event can take place. Simply host a sports-themed fundraising event and ask attendees to bring their gently used sneakers. This way, you can charge admission and receive funding from donated shoes. Here are some event ideas to get the ball rolling:
- 5K race;
- obstacle course;
- bike-a-thon;
- mud run;
- color run;
- scavenger hunt; and,
- field day.
By nature, this event can be family-friendly, so if your donor base is composed of several families, this is the perfect opportunity to invite them to join in. Not to mention, they will likely have plenty of gently worn sneakers to donate from their growing kids! Just be sure to specify the necessary condition of the shoes as listed by your shoe drive fundraising provider.
Auctions and Raffles
Auctions and raffles are a classic concurrent fundraising pairing and are often run together for good reason—they’re effective! Offering attendees the chance to bid on appealing items AND win something ups the anticipation. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when running this concurrent fundraising event:
- Offer complementary raffle prizes. Ensure your raffle prizes and auction items do not compete, but complement each other. For example, you should offer high-value or unique auction items and more general raffle prizes. This could look like offering a prized set of golf clubs as an auction item and an athletic store gift card as a raffle prize.
- Provide a ticket bundling option. Incentivize attendees to join the raffle by offering a ticket bundling option where they can purchase both a raffle ticket and a bidding number at a discounted price.
- Give real-time updates via emcee or online. Utilize your auction atmosphere by having an emcee introduce the raffle, encourage attendees to participate, and announce a raffle winner during your event. If you decide to host an online auction, you can use software reminders to keep attendees informed.
The key to hosting these events is to offer a dynamic and engaging experience to attendees—whether you host it in-person or online. You can use gamification elements like leaderboards, badges, raffle announcement countdowns, and even tiered raffles for bigger and more exclusive prizes. Also, ensure you understand and abide by your area’s laws regarding raffles.
Upgrade your fundraising strategy by hosting concurrent fundraising events to increase your engagement and make the most of your efforts. Follow these tested combined fundraising events to get started, and don’t forget to make adjustments according to your donor base preferences. Happy fundraising!