How to Craft a Post-Event Case Study

There’s no better teacher than experience. Use Your Experience to Put Together a Post-Event Case Study to Learn From.

Experience is the best teacher, and this is especially true for new nonprofit leaders. As you navigate the world of fundraising, donor relationships, and program management, you’re bound to make a few mistakes—and that’s not a bad thing! Learning from both your successes and failures is essential to leadership development.

If you want to learn more about the success of a specific program, initiative, or event, a case study can help. By compiling data and looking at the bigger picture, case studies help you identify the subtle trends and missteps that occurred during the planning and execution of a project, giving you deeper insight into how you can improve in the future.

In this article, we’ll show you the power of a post-event case study and how to create your own. We’ll walk through the process using the example of a capital campaign fundraising event—an
important fundraising event for any nonprofit looking to grow its long-term fundraising capacity.

Collect Data and Details

Start by gathering data and details about how the event came together and what it looked like on the day of. Compiling a financial report for the event is crucial, but it’s just the beginning.

Review your planning materials, budget, marketing collateral, attendance data, event photos, and any other documentation you have. Note relevant details like:

• Which team members were involved in planning
• The timeline of the event, from planning to follow-up activities
• The event’s budget, final cost, and total fundraising revenue
• How much you spent on marketing
• Engagement metrics for event promotional materials
• The number of guests who attended the event
• The average donation size
• Details about the venue, catering, and any donated event supplies
• Who sponsored the event, if anyone

For our example capital campaign fundraising event, say that the nonprofit wanted to focus on engaging community members by hosting a community game night. The event’s organizers
would collect data about how long the game night took to plan, which supporters and community members were invited, how they spread the word, and the technology needed to allow some supporters to join games virtually from home.

With all of this data, you’ll be able to form a full picture of the event and the steps you took to make it happen. Combined with the testimonials you collect in the next step, this will help you identify key factors that influenced the event’s success.

Gather a Variety of Testimonials

Nothing speaks louder than the voices of your community. Contact a variety of people who were involved in your event’s planning and execution, including volunteers, sponsors, and guests, to
get insight into the event from all sides. Then, pair these honest opinions with the hard data you compiled to see the bigger picture.

You might conduct individual interviews and/or send out a survey asking for feedback from a wide swath of guests. Ask questions about each person’s experience, what aspects they think could have gone better, and what they enjoyed most about the event. Whether guests donated or not, ask what motivated their decision. Did they think the event represented your mission well? Were they excited about the upcoming programs that the speakers highlighted?

Consider asking targeted questions based on any early findings from your case study, too. For instance, say that our example nonprofit already noted that offering some virtual gaming options likely increased both attendance and fundraising revenue. They might ask guests who attended virtually which games they played, if they had any technical issues, and at what point during the
event they decided to donate to the campaign.

As a bonus, gathering testimonials doesn’t just help your nonprofit improve future events. Donorly’s donor retention guide explains that asking donors for feedback shows them you value their opinions, leading to stronger relationships and more loyal, engaged donors.

Tell the Story of Your Event

Once you have all the information in front of you, it’s time to put it together and tell the story of your fundraising event. Stick to a typical narrative structure, making sure to include a clear:

• Beginning: Start with an overview of the event’s goals and initial conception. Explain your mission statement, target audience, and how the event fits into your larger fundraising campaign. List the planning strategies you used and provide specific information about the reason you chose your venue, vendors, and event theme.
• Middle: Next, provide a step-by-step account of the entire event hosting process. Include snippets of your marketing materials and photos of guests participating in event activities. Detail the happenings at the event, using both hard data and direct quotes from those who attended.
• End: Conclude your case study with the results, listing metrics about donations, attendance, and anything else that’s important to your organization. If you’ve proven the event was a success, say that! If the event failed to meet your expectations, provide suggested solutions to the problems or missteps you identified.

Try to tell your event’s story from a place of neutral acceptance, rather than being unnecessarily harsh or over-enthusiastic about your success. If you load up your narrative with too much emotion, it may diminish the validity of your reporting or stop you from seeing the reality of the event.

For example, our capital campaign fundraising event case study might end with the statement:

“While we successfully met our event fundraising goal and surpassed our online attendance expectations, we only received one gift above $1,000 and didn’t draw as large of an in-person
crowd. In the future, we should more heavily promote the in-person aspect of our events and specifically target mid-level donors.”

Use Your Event Case Study to Improve Future Fundraising Events

Finally, put your case study to good use by evaluating your findings and incorporating them into your strategic fundraising efforts for future events.

Based on the conclusion of our example nonprofit’s case study, the organization might put more emphasis on promoting in-person activities to community members and renew efforts to thoughtfully target mid-level donors. They might draft a new plan for engaging these donors that includes personalized event invitations, phone calls, and special opportunities to provide their
feedback.

To build on this momentum and set the stage for continuous improvement, you should also commit to evaluating future events in similar ways. According to NXUnite, it’s important to plan
follow-up activities from the beginning of the event planning process, including how you’ll reflect on the event’s results and use them to improve your next event.

A comprehensive case study is a multipurpose record of your work. It provides actionable insight for future planning, gives a detailed account of your successes and opportunities for
improvement, and acts as an argument for the importance of your event. Invest enough time into crafting a well-considered case study to ensure that you and your efforts are represented in
the best way possible.