Infographic: 17 to-dos when planning a street running event

“Marathons are a great way to bring people together and also one of the best ways to raise money for charity.”

We wanted to add some data behind this statement so we randomly studied about 200 street running events/marathons for which organizers created events on Facebook and noticed that, on average, 1350 people stated their clear intention of participation (meaning they’ve selected “Going”) and over 3100 selected “interested”. This means that, on average, every marathon that has an event on Facebook has interacted with 4500 people – at least. To this numbers, we must add the exposure offered by a marathon – especially if it takes place on city streets, and we can see why more and more NGOs select marathons (marathons, half-marathons or other types of runs) to raise awareness and collect money.

We gathered 17 ideas that you must have in mind when planning a street running event:

infographic about running events

October 6, 2017 Event management, fundraising events, Infographics No comments yet

7 PR tips and tricks to increase event awareness

You have almost set up all the details for your event: location, schedule, guests and speakers. But for everything to go smooth, you still need a few tricks and PR awareness, so everyone will be happy and attendees will talk about the event for a long time after it ends. This also means you will be able to spread your message to your target audience and attract potential customers and get positive press and publicity.

1. Write a blog

If you have enough time before the event – at least 6 months – you can create a blog for your event. It seems a bit outdated but hey – you are reading this on a blog, right? Here you can write posts about the topic of the event, announce new speakers or conferences, some promotions for tickets, maybe even a contest for a full-access pass. The purpose is making your audience come back to your blog for relevant content, even if they cannot attend this edition of the event, and keep the attendees posted with the latest news in the market.

2. Use Social Media to the max

With over 1.6 billion users, Facebook is now the biggest global media outlet. You need an official page for the event on Facebook or other social media. Here you can share posts from your blog, but do not limit yourself to that, you do not want to be boring or redundant. You can even post a live video on Facebook – a quick interview with one of the guests/speakers of your event, some footage of the location, as it is being prepared for the event or some rehearsals, depending on your event.

3. Engage your audience with contests

Two or three months before the event, create fun contests on your blog or social media pages and let people win tickets to your event. It’s best to make an original contest, with a fun task. For example, if your event is a concert, those who want to win need to post a video of themselves singing a song of the main band in the schedule. Be creative.

4. Get journalists on board

To make sure you get positive and enough media coverage, you can invite key journalists or bloggers prior to the event, and offer them a preview of what’s going to happen. Furthermore, you can facilitate some interviews with guests/speakers for top newspapers or televisions in your city that should be broadcasted before the event, so that people could be still able to buy tickets.

5. Goodie bags

People love receiving free stuff, so make sure you prepare a special gift for your attendees. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be branded and thoughtful. You can offer anything from selfie sticks, headphones, stickers for the laptop, to discount vouchers for your next event, badges or plastic bracelets.

6. Free food or drinks

Maybe you won’t be able to offer a gourmet experience, but you can offer the illusion of it. Greet your attendees with a glass of champagne, prepare a simple candy bar for them or offer each one of them a bottle of water, if it’s a hot summer day. Kindness and taking care of your attendees goes a long way.

7. Partner with Charities

Donate some of your profit to a charity and everybody will win. People like helping other people and you probably do to, but in a simple way, without having to do too much. So if they find out that part of the money for the ticket will go to a charity, they will be more motivated to attend. 

When the event is over, get some rest and enjoy your success. But remember to share your results with your attendees, guests and everyone involved. You can make a graphic of the event – number of hours, number of people who attended, number of songs played, number of cakes eaten during the event or other funny figures. You can also make a video, presenting the whole event and giving some hints about the next one.

October 10, 2016 Event professionals, Events, fundraising events No comments yet

4 Simple Ideas to Raise More Money for Your Charity

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

Winston S. Churchill

2539029180_45e10fced2_b

Charity. Source.

Each year, non-profit organizations face the difficulties of the modern-day business society.

However, there is one difficulty that stands out from the crowd: raising money. Whilst in sales a company offers something in exchange for money, most of the times non-profit organizations have nothing to offer… or do they?

Looking towards fundraising in our times you must remember what fundraising is all about.

1. Asking is the best way to raise money

Money doesn’t grow on trees, nor is anyone willing to part from it without a good reason or a good story. The main rule of fundraising is that if a charity wants to be funded, it first has to ask for it. Donations will not come by themselves, they come from people. Hence, it is important to see that money is necessary but not important. People are important. Friends of the cause are important. And one must always remember that each donor is unique and must be seen as a real person, not as a walking wallet. 

2. Inspire people with your vision

A wise man once said that the hand asking for money will not receive anything unless it has a good story to tell. This means that behind each cause there has to be a story that stirs emotion and makes people join forces or donate some money. Nobody will ever donate anything unless they empathize with the cause. Charities need a larger vision. They must think outside the box when they tell a story. Be original!

3. Organize fundraising events

How to raise money for the charity? Involve them in your story and make them actively participate in your campaigns. Get them to know the beneficiaries of the charity and let them be fundraisers themselves. Most important, organize fundraising events. These are the moments when potential donors and sponsors can interact, discuss and get to know one another. Manage your events with care, get to know each and every one of your participants and offer them an easy way to make donations. For this it is recommended the use of an event management tool that can handle access management, registration management and offer you an easy and smooth way for people to donate. Oveit can give you all the above-mentioned tools so that you can focus on telling your story to the people and not worry about managing your event.

4. Show me the money!

Once your event is finished, the adventure is not over. You might have raised an impressive amount of donations for your cause, but that’s not the end. So, follow-ups are required. A fundraiser must go from door to door and talk to the people he now knows and who are now familiar with the cause. For this, a fundraiser needs a good data base of the people who participated at the event. Using Oveit you can visualize and use the event data in the CRM section and follow up . So all you have to do is pick up the phone or write an e-mail and follow up with your kind donors .

Fundraising is not hard once you have a good cause and the right tools for your events and donations. Go out there, talk with your donors, keep them active, involve them in your campaign and always show them your results. People need to see where their money goes. If what the person donated made a difference, rest assured that she will be ready to donate once more.

May 23, 2016 Event management, Event professionals, Events, fundraising events No comments yet