Fundraising Event Planning: Common Event Committee Roles

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Fundraising Event Planning: Common Event Committee Roles

Conquer Fundraising Event Planning with the Perfect Committee Based Team

Large fundraising events can be intricate beasts, with countless moving parts and details to juggle. Assigning clear roles to your event committee is crucial for building a dream team that positions the right people for success. This guide will illuminate the most common event committee roles your team absolutely needs to fill.

Staffing Your Dream Fundraising Event Committee

The size of your event and available volunteers will determine if you assign individuals or teams to each committee role. Most committees have an Event Committee Chair who spearheads meetings, keeps the committee on track, and oversees members.

Logistics Guru

Your logistics person (or team) oversees the event from start to finish. If you choose to fill this role with more than one person, make sure they work together very well and communicate closely. The logistics person needs to take a high level view:

  • Generates the budget.
  • Appoints committee chairs.
  • Maintains communication with staff.

Event Planner Extraordinaire

The Event Planner handles the details of the event itself. This person needs to be really good at keeping several balls in the air and following up with people:

  • Coordinates with the event committee.
  • Contracts with vendors.
  • Coordinates with businesses.
  • Coordinates with other personnel.
  • Selects the menu.

Corporate Relations and Sponsorship Magnet

You’ll need a person or team with excellent relationship skills to develop a rapport with corporate sponsors and get them onboard with your event:

  • Identifies possible sponsors for your event.
  • Develops a strategy for acquiring sponsors.
  • Delivers the promised benefits to sponsors.

Volunteer Coordinator

Most big events rely on an army of volunteers to make it successful. You’ll need a leader (or a team) who is great at working with and motivating people, solving problems and generally helps people feel they are part of the team. This person:

  • Recruits and energizes volunteers.
  • Works with all event committees.
  • Identifies volunteer needs and figures out how to meet them.
  • Communicates with volunteers.
  • Organizes and delegates event night tasks.

Media/Public Relations Ace

This person or group is responsible for getting the word out about your event. They need to be creative, understand how the media works and even come up with a few novel ideas about how to spread the word and attract people to attend:

  • Decides how to promote the event.
  • Works with media sponsors.
  • Creates press releases.
  • Manages various methods of communication: TV, print, web, email and social media.

Behind-the-Scenes Heroes

Procurement Powerhouse

In order to hold a successful auction, you need a stock of highly prized items. This team is in charge of gathering and organizing all the items for the auction. They need to be creative in coming up with ideas and persistent in pursuing them. This team:

  • Holds a procurement brainstorming party to identify items to target for donation.
  • Locates and gathers items for both the silent and live auctions.
  • Creates an item request letter to be sent out to possible donors.
  • Creates an item donation form for tracking purposes.
  • Packages items together as needed for both the silent and live auctions.
  • Sends thank you letters to item donors.
View as an infographic
Common Event Committee Roles [INFOGRAPHIC]

Guest Experience and VIP Committee

A successful event is one where everyone has a great time while supporting a cause they care about. This team’s job is to make sure all your guests have a positive experience. Choose individuals who have excellent people skills and can manage details well. This job can also include Décor (see below):

  • Signs up attendees.
  • Coordinates registration.
  • Coordinates admission, check-in and check-out.
  • Organizes seating arrangements.
  • Hires photographer.

Décor

Part of helping your guests feel special is to create a beautiful environment. When your guests see that you’ve put some thought into the setting and ambiance, they’ll know they are at an event and will want to participate. Choose people who are artistic and who love to get the details right. The Decor team:

  • Determines which decorations are needed based on your theme.
  • Coordinates table settings, place cards, centerpieces, etc.

Invitations

You’ll want a beautiful way to invite people to your event. Find your best artistic talent, as well as people with the persistence to follow up with people. This team:

  • Designs event invitations.
  • Mails event invitations.
  • Follows up with invitees.

Entertainment/Program

You want your event to be beautiful, but also fun. With the right people on your event committee in charge of your entertainment, your guests will be looking forward to coming back again next year. Choose people who have a good sense of your audience, their interests and tastes. This team does a lot of coordinating, so they’ll need to be good at managing details as well:

  • Determines and contracts the entertainment.
  • Sets up the event night program.
  • Works with the logistics committee.
  • Selects the entertainment, the emcee, the guest speaker and the auctioneer.
  • Works with the lighting, AV and sound crews.

By assembling a well-rounded event committee with clearly defined roles, you can transform your fundraising event from a stressful scramble into a collaborative triumph. Remember, the key is to find passionate individuals who complement each other’s strengths. With the right team in place, you can ensure a successful, impactful event that leaves a lasting impression on everyone involved. Now go forth and conquer your fundraising goals!

Jill joined the Greater Giving team over 10 years ago, bringing her experience with event planning, marketing, customer success and copywriting. Her deep knowledge of fundraising trends and challenges are incorporated into many of the valuable fundraising resources Greater Giving provides to nonprofits worldwide. She is equally passionate about volunteering and yoga; and is a certified volunteer instructor who teaches family yoga.

11 Responses to “Fundraising Event Planning: Common Event Committee Roles”

  3. Jamie

    This came in handy in helping me decide on committee roles. Thank you for putting the information together so concisely!

    Reply
  4. Joanna

    Thank you for this helpful article. Used it as a much needed reference for a project!

    Reply
    • Jill Boyer

      Hi Joanna, that is great to hear! Don’t forget to subscribe so as not to miss out on other great content, and feel free to suggest topics that you would like to read about!

      Reply
  5. CARMELA CABATCAN

    Thanks for sharing. Super helpful!
    Wish us luck in our event for a cause, this June.

    Reply
  6. Kim Curran

    Thank you for this information. Was looking for assistance in creating the infrastructure for committees without having to recreate the wheel.

    Reply

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