We’re all looking for safe ways to move our missions forward and bring our communities together. In-person events are still limited in a lot of ways, and we can help you hit fundraising goals with a virtual or hybrid event.

We have assembled a team that is ready to help you fundraise in the virtual and hybrid event spaces. Contact Samantha Swaim at Swaim Strategies to engage our team. She can be reached at 503-234-4546 or sam@swaimstrategies.com.

Here are some recent virtual events for you to explore the formats and technology:

Virtual Galas

Virtual Breakfasts / Lunches

Virtual Fashion Show

Virtual Conferences

A Virtual Team

Effectively raising money through a virtual event will require communication, producing a mobile giving switchover on Greater Giving, an auctioneer host and powerful, concise content. Here are the critical resources we can provide:

  • Data Team: Our data team can set up your mobile giving platform on Greater Giving, can prep all of your packages to go online, can source photos for every package and can support data tracking and registration support during the virtual event.
  • Content Team: We will reshape your 3.5-hour event into a powerful 30-minute virtual event.
  • Communications Team: We will craft all of your communications to attendees and sponsors plus create email, website and social media content for you to market to a broader audience.
  • Production Team: Come to our studio or we’ll come to your event venue to film and host your virtual event. We will create overlay tools for you to promote your sponsors, market your auction and track your giving. Additionally, we can use created content such as videos for your live feed.
  • Pre-Virtual Event Production: Are you interested in capturing a few speakers such as sponsors or honorees to include in your virtual feed? We can pre-film them at their own convenience in our studio and build them into your virtual feed.
  • Host / Auctioneer Team: This is going to require someone who is fast on their feet, can promote a lot of content in a short period of time and can be engaging. We can provide you a virtual event host that can support your content and your fundraising.

If you’re still trying to figure out your options, we have a free webinar in which we have covered all of these variables and demo a virtual event for you.

Watch the Webinar: The Show Must Go On—Fundraising Despite the Odds

Virtual + Hybrid Toolkits

Templates

Downloadable Templates

Engage a Virtual + Hybrid Team

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New Information + Ideas

Webinars + Training

Articles + News

Alternatives to In-Person Fundraising Events

Go Virtual with Your Event

When pivoting to a virtual event, you can utilize all of your in-person event elements (auction, videos, script) and arrange them into a much shorter event format and engage your key constituents in some immediate and valuable fundraising.

While you may not raise as much as with your in-person event, you will be able to capitalize on the moment and let donors continue to be heroes creating impact and funding your work. Canceling an event means no fundraising, but going virtual can help you continue to bring in funds.

In Going Virtual With Your Fundraising Event we offer some guidance when considering virtual events.

E-Appeal Communications + Fundraising

Your event’s special appeal holds the largest fundraising potential at your event. So, without an event, consider ways to build an even-more imperative case for your work with an e-appeal to your donors.

The always-great Steven Screen and Chris Davenport from Work Less Raise More have shared a great video about what you should be talking to donors about in an emergency e-appeal. The communication should follow an 8-point outline that lets donors know the urgency of your specific situation and how their donations will make an immediate impact.

Watch the video here and get point-by-point instruction with illustrative examples, and start to create your own impactful e-appeal communications now.

Relationship Cultivation + Management

On a larger level, the truth is that this may become a climate where it becomes harder to fundraise. But something that is always good for fundraisers to spend time doing is cultivate donors.

  • Spend some time in your database to identify your major donors
  • Know the names of your top 25 so you always have them on your mind
  • Reach out to talk to as many of these folks as you can in the next couple months
  • Check on their wellbeing in this time
  • Write them a note, thank them for all they do, wish them health and safety

While we can’t control the changing world, you can plan for the future and use this time to be thoughtful in your outreach to supporters.

Run a GoFundMe Campaign

If you have a specific need you’re funding, especially if it is in response to the outbreak, put together a contained GoFundMe Campaign on a fixed timeline to gather your community around a cause they can immediately impact.

Using Facebook to Fundraise for Your Nonprofit

For nonprofit organizations, Facebook goes a step beyond simple social distancing and provides easy-to-use tools to help you fundraise online. Facebook’s Charitable Giving Tools provide a simple way for you to raise money through Facebook—and 100% of the donations go directly to your work.

Convert Your Live + Silent Auctions into an Online Auction

You’ve already done all the procurement for your event, so use those items to fundraise now by converting your auctions into an online auction. Communicate often with donors to let them know where to find the auction and to create buzz around some of the packages. But, most importantly, build the case that their purchase of auction items will fund your important work at this very crucial time. Use countdowns to the auction closure in your communications to prompt action on deadline.

Greater Giving occasionally offers discounts to activate the mobile bidding platform to facilitate online auctions.

Keep Your Mission Moving

Let's talk about taking your event virtual or hybrid!

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