Event Fundraising Blog

Well, it was a bit overcast in Beantown but the ideas were brighter than ever at our first Event Fundraising Roundtable in Boston last week. We met some terrific world changers – professionals working in charitable and nonprofit fields from hospitals to disease awareness groups to educational institutions to the performing arts and more! Boston proved to be an inspiring hub of people and organizations working to make an impact.

Since successful events are all about collaboration, meeting new people, and sharing ideas, in 2011 we partnered with our friends at the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council, Blackbaud, and Charity Dynamics to launch the Event Fundraising Roundtable series.

Everyone is in the customer service business. Customer satisfaction, truly understanding your customer's needs, is essential to event fundraisers and nonprofits. With that in mind, I have written a series of six blog posts on the overarching subject of customer service and how you can make it a mainstay in your company culture. This week's topic: creating a great donor experience for your fundraiser participants.

The view from 30,000 feet: You have a grassroots army of people working on behalf of your cause. This impressive group is comprised of participants, donors and volunteers. They’re all key to your success.

Is it important to understand what motivates them? You bet! By understanding what motivates your supporters, you can mobilize them to accomplish the goals of your organization. Once in awhile it’s smart to step back and take a look at WHY active participants stay….well….active.

I am analogous to an Italian Chef who adores cooking -- but who has never tasted a meatball. I consider myself a fundraising professional, but I have never participated in an event with a fundraising minimum. Sure, I’ve walked and biked to raise money for charities, but I’ve always shied away from committing to a nonprofit event that required a fundraising minimum.

“Don’t drop the football.” That was one of the first things Jeff Shuck ever said to me. It was 2004 and I had just been hired as a Coach for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. The other new hires and I were on-event at the Boston 3-Day for the Cure as part of our training.

We were discussing the importance of customer service when Shuck said those four words: “Don’t drop the football.” What he meant by that was if someone asks where the bathroom is, you don’t point and explain. You stop what you are doing and you walk them over to the bathroom. When someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, you never say, “I don’t know.” You say, “I’ll find out.” Those four words mean that no matter what your job title, every job is your job when a customer needs something and customer service is important.

How many emails do you get in a day? For most people, the answer is too many.

Email is still a great way to reach people, but you have to make your message loud and unique for them to listen. Let’s look at the success that Susan G. Komen saw when it revamped its image and restructured its email campaign.

In 2009, the Susan G. Komen National Race for the Cure became the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure, a name change that dovetailed Komen's expansion of breast cancer advocacy and awareness programs overseas. The race became symbolic of Komen's larger message of breast cancer as a global issue.

Everyone is in the customer service business. Customer satisfaction, truly understanding your customer's needs, is essential to event fundraisers and nonprofits. With that in mind, I have written a series of four blog posts on the overarching subject of customer service and how you can make it a mainstay in your company culture. This weeks topic: Saying "I Do" to Customer Satisfaction.

The secret is out. Anyone can run a marathon. Yes, it’s true America. You heard it here. Running a marathon is no longer the superhuman feat it once was. Everyone knows someone who has run a marathon.

After listening to Asma Khalid’s “Marathons, Once Special, Are Now Crowded” on National Public Radio, I found myself contemplating her claim that “there are just too many marathon runners.” Really? Are there really too many people running marathons? Who gets to answer that question?

While I write this post, I’m also texting, listening to music on Pandora, Yahoo IM’ing my boss and buying today’s G-Team deal on Groupon.

Ok -- so maybe I’m exaggerating a little. But these are the stereotypes of Millennials or Gen Y ... and they’re mostly true. We’re a generation of digital natives who grew up using computers, social media, mobile and the Interwebs.