Short on time? Need to plan a virtual event quickly?
We pulled together our team at Greater Giving who’ve been watching, supporting, and participating in virtual fundraising events to come up with the must-do items to host a successful event. Keeping this guide actionable with checkboxes and only the most critical aspects of an event, we hope it will help you #KeepFundraising in 2021.
With any project your organization is planning, we encourage you to start the planning process as early as possible. Establishing the Return on Investment (ROI) of a Virtual Event is a critical first step. Although these events generally don’t have as much of a hard cost associated (catering, venue, etc) if you’d like to hire an AV production team or Professional Benefit Auctioneer (both of which we recommend!) you’ll want to ensure the numbers will return in your favor after the event has concluded. While we’re discussing the financial side of a virtual event, reach out to your corporate partners and find the ways in which your virtual event can feature their business. More than ever, it’s time to be creative about sponsor benefits and really working with sponsors to maximize their support of your organization.
Another crucial component of the early planning stages is a program plan and marketing and promotion calendar leading up to your event. Building this early and even pre-writing and pre-scheduling copy can save you time and effort as you’re in the final stages of your virtual event.
Creating a live broadcast virtual event may seem a bit daunting in the beginning, but our checklist walks you through all the most important steps like selecting a streaming platform, scriptwriting and editing, working with an audiovisual company, and selecting a host. There are a lot of moving pieces to plan and host a successful virtual fundraising event, but our checklist should help you through the whole process. And never forget at the end you’ll have a great piece of content to share with your audience all about your organization and mission-expanding your fundraising outside the walls of a ballroom and beyond a single night event.
