Event Q & A
May 9, 2005
By Judy Allen, author of the professional best-selling Event Planning series.
The question:
We are considering putting on a concert as our first fundraising
event, but we are looking at a six-month turnaround. Is this doable?
Judy's Response:
An event - not a fundraising event - can be put together in six weeks,
six months, or can be planned years in advance, if a corporation or
an individual is looking after all costs. A fundraising event, however,
presents time challenges that don't arise when simply planning an event.
What must be factored in, on top of normal event planning, is the time
it will take to form your committee, bring your volunteers on board,
solicit sponsorship dollars, negotiate donations, and sell tickets to
your event. For successful event execution, which means achieving your
fundraising goals as well as delivering a well-run event, the time needed
for these added event planning elements should not be underestimated.
For example, obtaining sponsorship dollars can be a much longer process than anticipated when first starting out. Committee members must first meet and determine what sponsorship levels will be, and what sponsors will be receiving in return for their support. Professional letters outlining your formal request need to be drafted, reviewed, and approved by committee members (who need to make sure that all legal issues are covered/addressed in the outgoing letters) before they are sent out to potential corporate sponsors. Once the corporate sponsor receives the request it is not a case of getting an immediate yes or no. It can take weeks, sometimes even months, for a request to be presented to the corporate sponsor's decision-makers.
Until you know your event's actual expenses (e.g. site rental, food
and beverage, decor, entertainment, printing etc.), the sponsorship
dollars and donations (related to your event charges) that will be coming
in, and the amount you are hoping to raise, you don't have all the information
that you need in order to set the price of your tickets. If you base
your ticket pricing on what you hope to receive from sponsorship dollars
and donations and then fall short, you are setting yourself up to run
your event at a loss. It can - and does - happen if ticket pricing is
set too low and the funds raised have to go to pay expense costs. Six
months is not enough time to send sponsorship letters out, receive responses
back, negotiate donations, set your ticket prices, and sell them, especially
if this is your first fundraising endeavour and you don't have established
sponsors and guest lists in place.
The best way to determine how much lead time you will need is to have
all committee members sit down and lay out a critical path incorporating
real timelines (e.g. how long it will take invitations to be printed,
how much time everyone can commit, etc.), and build in time buffers.
You may find that what initially seems doable in six months will actually
take a year of lead time in order to produce maximum fundraising results.
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please contact help@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in
this column.
For paid professional event planning consulting - event design, site
selection critique, venue and supplier contract review, budget analysis,
strategic planning, event logistical and timing requirements, and on-site
orchestration - contact Judy directly at Judy
Allen Productions.
Disclaimer: Advice and
recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as
a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.
