Events in the Midst of a Pandemic - What should nonprofits do?
It has been a rough five months for everyone, and I know for myself, it has taken a while for me to figure-out how my work fits into the new nonprofit landscape. In the beginning I thought events would be cancelled or postponed, and I would have a quiet few months, but the opposite has happened. Once I established my home office, and got over the mourning process of postponed events, I realized there was so much to learn and a lot of work to do.
On the practical side, I've learned to listen even more to my event partners and trust the experts on what's going to work best for our current virtual environment. I still think it's imperative to work with professional AV teams, event planners, marketing experts, and videographers if you want your events to look and feel a certain way. I realized early on that I was not going to master new virtual technologies during this time, and I don't think anyone who works for a nonprofit has that capacity either. If you were going to hire a professional AV company to help you execute your live/in-person gala, why wouldn't you do the same thing for your virtual event? I understand the need to cut-back on expenses, but if you're going to do a virtual event, it will cost probably half of what you had already budgeted for your in-person event. It's still super important to have a way to connect with your donors, and virtual engagement events are a great way to do that (if done correctly).
On the philosophical side, I think nonprofits are starting to look at their fundraising structure in a new way. They're not sure how to raise the money that would have come from their events, now that they can't be with everyone in-person. I'm hearing a lot of the same questions around whether nonprofits can still raise money if their events are virtual, and my response has consistently been, "did you raise the money at your in-person event?" In most cases, the answer is no. Nonprofits raise the money before the event happens, so I'm not sure why that would change now that events are virtual. What I'm seeing is a lot of fear of having that direct conversation with donors; even professional fundraisers are afraid to ask for gifts without having an event to give them something in return. This is a sign of a bigger issue within the fundraising framework. Sponsors and donors should be supporting your cause, not your event, but many nonprofits have gotten away from this and are depending on their events to do so much of the fundraising for them.
Now we are in an unprecedented situation, and most nonprofits don't have the relationships with sponsors outside of their events, and they aren't sure how to have those "ask" conversations without offering something in return. The truth is, if you're doing good work, and helping the community, that should be enough to garner support. We are all in the same boat, and donors will understand that your event will look significantly different this year (if it happens at all), but that doesn't mean you don't need their support.
My advice? Buckle-down and provide metrics to your donors that illustrate where their dollars are going. Show them why their gift matters. Explain how they are having an impact by supporting you. There are so many ways to showcase this with a virtual event, and it doesn't have to be a fundraiser (in fact, it probably shouldn't be a fundraiser). Use this time to hone-in on what sets your organization apart, and figure-out an innovative way to articulate it. I know my silver lining has been the discovery of a creative/innovative side to my brain that I never knew was there before Covid. The organizations that are able to connect with their donors, and make this pivot, are the ones that are going to come through this time stronger than ever.
