Use Events as a Way for Donors to Experience Your Work
There can be a layer of remove between the work you do and your donors’ ability to experience it. Often the work of the organization is governed by confidentiality and other mechanisms that make it that you can only tell donors about it and hope they get it.
There’s telling and then there’s showing.
Events are a live, theatrical and dynamic space that give you a great opportunity to really show your work to a room of major donors and allow them to experience the ‘ah has’ that will only deepen their connection to your work. You can create experiential learning for your guests that will make them a part of the story, and further compel them to support your mission.
Community Warehouse fully embraced this idea in refashioning their Chair Affair event this year. They are a furniture bank that collects and redistributes donated furniture and household goods to those in need. Imagine going from being homeless to getting into your first apartment. And then imagine trying to live in that space without furniture or sheets or even a can opener. This is where Community Warehouse comes in. They help make a house, a home. The impact of this transition, and the transformation that comes as a result, is the story that Community Warehouse wanted their event to tell.
The event was held in a warehouse with a loading dock and roll up door. During the cocktail hour, guests could walk into the back of two different Community Warehouse trucks. One had just a sleeping bag in it and one was totally outfitted with furniture and household goods from the furniture bank, showing what a client would receive from the organization and the difference that could make in a person’s experience of four walls. This allowed donors to see furniture in action and see the importance of a chair.
Guests then moved to their tables, where they were served their first course of soup, but with one critical piece missing: spoons. They were left for a moment to realize the missing piece and the emcee came on the microphone and asked if they thought something was missing. The room erupted together at the revelation. Servers then brought all the flatware for the meal and the emcee told guests that these tools were some of the most in need at the warehouse, and that all the flatware used at the event was going to be washed and donated to Community Warehouse for its clients.
And the room erupted again, this time because they were literally brought into the story of Community Warehouse’s work and their being at the event was directly giving a fork to someone who needed it, allowing them to metaphorically share a meal with a person they didn’t know but who would benefit.
This is the power that events can hold. Bringing people into spaces and experiences that both broaden their understanding but also deepen their commitment to the missions of organizations that are providing life-changing tools to our neighbors.
