Fundraising Events That Work with Samantha Swaim 

We'll go ahead and say it, events are not always the most effective form of fundraising. But often knowing this requires assessing what you do, why you do it and how it all fits together in your development plan. But where to start?

We'll take a look at how to build an event calendar that supports both a good ROI as well as your development and cultivation plans for the year. Looking at why an organization does an event is the crucial piece in unlocking its potential. When the why is "because that's how we've always done it," you're already missing out on crucial strategy that can elevate your cultivation and fundraising.

Our objectives for the first half of this session is to learn to:

• Evaluate current and upcoming events
• Identify ROI for time and resources dedicated to event planning and production
• Look for opportunities to streamline and increase donor revenues through fundraising events
• Create an event strategy in partnership with your overall donor cultivation plan

Once you have an understanding of your event structure and how to maximize your ROI we will look at your single biggest fundraising opportunity at an event, the special appeal. It is time to have an organized strategy that generates money. You should know who is in the room, what their capacity is to give and how you are going to motivate them to do so.

Our objective for the second half of the session is to learn to:

• Find a great special appeal story that showcases the effect of the organization’s work
• Place the appeal at the best point in the program to maximize giving
• Leverage challenge gifts or grants
• Identify giving levels

We’ll look at some specific event case studies where nonprofits were able to dramatically increase the amount of money raised at their event by capitalizing on their special appeal in a very strategic way.

Full Schedule

10:00 am -- Fundraising Events 101

12:30 pm -- Lunch Break

1:45 pm -- The Special Appeal

4:00 pm -- Close

About the Presenter

Samantha Swaim has more than 20 years of event planning and fundraising expertise. She founded Swaim Strategies, a fundraising event consultancy, in 2004, working internationally with nonprofit organizations to produce impactful events that move missions forward. Samantha is the co-author of “Planning a Successful Major Donor Event” and the founder of the annual Elevate fundraising event conference. She travels internationally to teach nonprofit professionals the tools they need to elevate their impact through events.

 

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Note for MVDP Members:

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