What are the best ways to measure your event's success?
I'm asked this question all the time, especially when I'm chatting with new, potential clients. Measuring your event's success is not as simple as you may think. While LW Events does not do direct fundraising for our clients (it would be a conflict of interest), we have the development background to be able to provide fundraising strategy, structure and advice.
Here are my top 4 suggestions for how to measure your event's success:
1. Attendee feedback: It's really important to ask your guests about their experience after the event. Whether this is through a post-event email survey or just chatting with Board Members the week after, this is where you will get the most honest and timely feedback on how you did. Guests will have no problem telling you what they liked and didn't like, and it's important to take those notes (but not always make the changes they suggest) into consideration.
2. Fundraising goals: If your event is a fundraiser (and not all events are), this is an obvious one, but can be complicated. A few questions to ask yourselves:
Did you set a realistic goal?
Did you hit your goal?
Did you utilize the time leading up to your event to close gifts, or were you depending on dollars to come in at your event? What was more stressful? (This is the biggest question)
What were the most successful revenue streams: sponsorships, ticket sales, silent auction, text2give? The answer to this should push you to focus on the higher yield revenue streams in the future.
3. Attendance numbers: In my opinion, using this metric is not a measure of successful events anymore. It's not enough to have 300 people in a room, you need to have the right people in the room. My recommendation is to take the time to analyze your data from past events to see if the ROI is there. Pull those lists, and ask yourselves the following:
How many people have come to the event each year? Are the numbers increasing or decreasing, and why?
Are they the same people each year, and if so, do they increase their gift? If they haven't increased their gift, have you asked? A common mistake is assuming guests are going to increase their gifts just because they're invited. That is not enough. Fundraising = relationships. Use your event to build relationships, follow-up post-event, and build towards a bigger gift.
It makes more sense to go after the "low-hanging fruit" as opposed to getting new people to attend (or new sponsors) each year. If you have continuous supporters, are you looking at them for potential increases instead of trying to get new commitments? Take the time to look at this information. Your data can do amazing things for you.
4. Did you spend too much time on event planning as opposed to fundraising? This is where an event consultant comes in to tell you like it is. If you added-up all of the hours you spent on worrying about event logistics, and refocused that time on fundraising, how much more money could you have raised? LW Events is here to take the planning off of your shoulders so you can focus on fundraising and engagement. The internal team has the power to work those connections and build relationships. Having an expectation that anyone other than those connected/working for an organization to raise the funds, is putting too much focus on an event being able to do everything for you. That's not what they are for, so we recommend focusing on your storytelling and building relationships with your donors. Trust the experts to manage everything else.
Reach out to our team anytime to discuss setting up your events for success!
