An article was published recently in the Run Walk Ride (RWR) Fundraising Council's e-newsletter titled "Numbers Down? You Are Not Alone." The article references the decreases at the Pan-Mass Challenge and AIDS Walk San Francisco. These organizations are reporting decreases of 8.5% and 20% respectively. Throughout the year, Event 360 has been working with our clients and partners to understand the economy's impact on the 2009 event season. We agree that every fundraising event is impacted by the economy and are happy to report that participation, in most cases, has not decreased dramatically. If your event is experiencing a decrease in the range of 5 - 20% you can attribute the majority of that decrease to external factors. However, if you are reporting more dramatic decreases, you may have another issue at hand. In order to combat the economic impact and implement some best practices, President and CEO of Event 360 Jeff Shuck recently highlighted that it is "imperative to lock up the base of supporters, to make sure they are tied to the cause - not just to the event - and to THANK them. Two main strategies are to push towards keeping attendance up even if that means the average participant donates less, but at the same time to focus on the higher-yield participants to try to keep their fundraising up."
To learn more about online event fundraising best practices, download the Join the Race Whitepaper. To hear more about the economic impact on fundraising events and what you can do to minimize the impact, attend Jeff Shuck's 'Doing More With Less' teleconference hosted by the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council on September 16, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. ET. Register now!
About Event 360
Event 360 is the nation's leading designer and director of events for nonprofits. We engage hearts and minds through entertaining, moving and flawless experiences that help nonprofits inspire record levels of interest, giving and loyalty. We offer fully scalable services in event development and production, strategic consulting and information technology that can be customized to your organization and need. Whether you need to improve an existing event program, upgrade your infrastructure or create an entirely new concept, our set of consulting, planning and management services will help you take your mission and put it into action. Your mission is our passion.
Original RWR Article
The economic downturn is taking its toll on fundraising performance for many programs, according to our conversations with organizers and published reports.The Pan-Mass Challenge, #15 on the RWR Thirty, estimates it will bring in $30 million in individual donations, down from $35 million in 2008. On the West Coast, AIDS Walk San Francisco raised $3.5 million in July, down from $4.4 million in 2008. "Every fundraising event is seeing a fairly large reduction. I don't think that's surprising," San Francisco AIDS Foundation spokeswoman Deborah Holtz said. "What we're really happy about is that so many people participated despite the recession."
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