Preparing Your Fundraising Event for a Public Health Crisis

UPDATE: Get our COVID-19 fundraising event toolkit HERE

You’ve worked hard on your fundraising event for a year. You and your event committee are in the final stretch. Guests are excited and you’re focused on finalizing all of the last details for a great night of fundraising. Suddenly, a news update raises a new concern—an extreme flu season, coronavirus or some other public health crisis.

What should you do? This event is critical to supporting the work of your organization, so the show must go on. Right? Maybe.

Here is our guide for making hard decisions and creating pre-event communication plans that take public safety into account.

When a public health crisis has local leaders telling people to stay home, attending your event becomes a difficult decision for your guests. While they are big supporters and want your organization to be successful, they may have other things to consider. Perhaps they have someone in fragile health living in their home, or maybe they have a compromised immune system and have to protect themselves from germ exposure.

If the outbreak is something that the community is simply trying to be prepared for, there are some pre-event communication strategies you can put into place to address health concerns. However, if the city has identified that it’s unsafe and everyone should stay home, then you must consider the possibility of Plan B: canceling or postponing your event.

First, start tuning in and listening for clues in the news. If the city is asking people to stay home, then your guests are receiving the same message. Time for Plan B.

But before we talk about Plan B, let’s talk about what you can do to prepare your event for a rapidly spreading virus. First, communicate directly to all guests that while their participation is important, if they are experiencing any symptoms they need to stay home. This is to assure that any possible germs are not spread throughout your event. This should be true for vendors and volunteers as well.

Explain that everyone’s health is a priority and if people arrive coughing or sneezing, they will politely be asked to leave. As you begin to set up for the big day, be sure to provide hand sanitizer, stock up on soap in the bathrooms, wipe down all services and if you see anyone coughing or sneezing, politely ask them to leave. You also can post signs around the venue reminding people to avoid hand coughing (they should instead cough into their elbow or a tissue that they throw away) and to wash their hands. It’s always a good idea to be cautious.

Now, if local public health organizations are asking folks to stay home, then it’s time to consider cancelling your event until the concern has passed. Generally, if you make a plan with enough notice, you can greatly reduce your cost impact. In the event that you have to cancel, you do create some empathy from your guests who will come ready to support when you reschedule.

The Risks of Continuing Forward

• No-Show Guests: While it may seem like the best idea to move forward, there could be large attrition. When guests don’t show, they don’t give. If you take a ‘show must go on’ perspective, it may make your guests feel that you are being irresponsible or inconsiderate of their health. This won’t create a lot of empathy from those who choose to stay home. If you choose to go on during a public health crisis, the impact can be a significant loss in giving.
• Perishable Food: While finding a new date for your event might create some challenges, the real cost is going to be if you have to pay twice for food. By thinking ahead, you can work with your catering team on when decisions need to be made to create the smallest impact to your bottom line. Often, this is the difference between making the decision a few days early vs. an announcement the day before.
• Vendors: While you are working with professionals who care about your event, they also have to make hard decisions about the safety and well-being of their team. If you choose to continue during a public health crisis, will you have a full catering team available to serve your guests? Will your AV team be able to support your production?
• Staff + Volunteer Safety: How will an outbreak impact the safety of your team? Will your staff and volunteers be healthy? Do you risk their well-being? These are questions to consider when deciding whether or not to move forward with an event.
• Liability: Consider the impact of someone at your event giving an illness to every other guest. What accountability would you have as the host?

Decision Making

We don’t recommend canceling your event, instead we recommend rescheduling it. If you have several days of advance warning, contact your vendors and ask them to help you identify cost implications, alternative date availabilities and most important: a deadline for when to make the decision with as little cost as possible. This often means trying to make the decision before perishable food has been ordered.

Start with your venue and catering teams. Once you have identified cost implications and alternative dates, it’s time to contact the rest of your vendors. Keep in mind that you may lose a vendor in the shuffle and might have to engage a back-up vendor for support.

Can your venue accommodate another date? If not, you may lose the full rental fee with the venue and will need to identify another venue of equal size. This might be the hardest part of a rescheduled event and the key piece that you have to work around. When considering future dates during a health crisis we recommend going at least 90 days out but you may want to even consider 120 days out.

Once you understand venue options, it’s time to work with catering. In some cases, the venue and the catering team are one in the same. In other cases, you will have to contact your caterer and identify, with the time you have remaining, what the cost implications will be to reschedule. On short notice, you might have to pay for the loss of food product. With longer notice of 3-5 days, you might be able to avoid the cost before the food has been procured. The deadline for your final headcount is usually the time when food gets ordered, so if you are making the decision before your headcount deadline, you might be able to avoid additional fees.

Communication

Regardless of your decision, you must communicate to your key stakeholders immediately. If you are rescheduling the event, seek feedback from your big sponsors before announcing it publicly. They have invested in the event happening and deserve clear communication so that they can be your advocate and ally when the news goes out. Additionally, notify your staff, committee and board before the news goes out to attendees. These are the folks who have recruited guests and are hosting tables. You want to be sure they know that the announcement is coming before their guests do so they are not caught off guard and can be in support of the changes.

Finally, update your website, send an email to all guests and reach out to each table host or sponsor to be sure that everyone receives the same message. If you are able to have a date and plan for the future event at the time that you communicate, that is ideal. If you do not, be sure to let them know that reschedule plans will be announced soon.

When you announce news of rescheduling, be sure that your communication is positive, proactive and addresses the safety of guests and the excitement to see them on another date.

If you choose to go on, communication is equally critical. Because guests are making hard decisions for their own safety, you don’t want them wondering if the event is going to happen. Assure them that the event will continue. Let them know if anything has changed. And let them know who to call with questions and how to donate if they are unable to attend.

Don’t forget about your vendors. If you choose to move forward during a health crisis, be in touch with your vendors early to make sure that they have the resources you anticipate. If you have time to troubleshoot gaps, you can ensure that you don’t have any surprises. Additionally, have something prepared for your venue, should anyone call to inquire about the event. Venues often receive calls from guests once you have left the office.

Emergency Planning

Finally, if you decide to move forward during a health crisis, have a safety plan in place. You may want to create a communication touchpoint for your staff and volunteers if they are not feeling well and have to make last-minute changes.

The Plus Side

In the past, we have had to reschedule events for weather conditions. And what we discovered was that guests appreciated clear communication. They understood how much work went into the move and felt bad for the organization impacted. In the end, turnout for the rescheduled dates was great and guests came prepared to give and give big. The weather crisis led to empathy and a big show of support.

Rescheduling an event is always a hard decision. But some planning can often help you avoid costs and clear, direct and upfront communication can help you keep the support of your community.