Growing up my Mom always said I was “penny wise and dollar foolish.”  Mom thought I was good at finding a bargain and watching my pennies, but when it came to spending dollars I could make better choices.  The other day it occurred to me that Mom has it wrong.  I’m penny wise, so I can be dollar foolish.  I watch my pennies, so I can spend my dollars how I want.  So I go for the mani/pedi, because it makes me feel good. But, I’ll only buy paper towels that are on sale and I love using coupons.

My penny wise and dollar “my way” philosophy made its way into my event budgets.  With fiscal years are coming to a close; new budgets are being cut and approved; I thought it was a good time to revisit event budgeting.

I am proud to say I’m cheap, but I’m also proud to say that I will spend money if in the long run it will save time and money.  Last year, I shared my thoughts on when to DIY when to hire a PRO.  In the post I shared how your time is valuable and time needs to be a factor when deciding to DIY or hire a PRO.

At some point this June, your boss comes back to you with your newly trimmed budget take a close look at it.  See what’s been cut and ask yourself “did the right items get cut?” In my past life as an event planner, I’ve had managers cut items that seemed to unnecessary, but in reality there were other items that could be cut.

For some of you out there, your boss might come to you and ask you to cut your expenses.   Here are the most important questions to ask yourself when trimming your budget:

• How will cutting this item affect revenue?
• Is this line item tied to revenue?  Will you get a return on your investment?
• How much time will it take for me to complete this task instead of paying someone?  Is this task the best use of time?  Is task taking time away from my primary job: raise money?

By going through this exercise, you might find that your expenses are valid and cutting an expense will impact your revenue.  You’ll also find a few items that would be nice to have, but not necessary to increasing revenue.

Tip: share your findings with your boss.  You don’t need to go into every detail, but walk your boss through your expense.  Connect the dots between expenses and revenue.  Your boss will appreciate having a better understand of your overall budget so he/she can share your vision with the board.

Here’s the last thing to remember when budgeting.  Your budget just like your event it will evolve.  You might realize something you budgeted for isn’t necessary and instead you’ll use the funds for another purpose.  A budget is a work in progress… over the next year different items might get cut and new items might get added, so it’s important to keep track of the overall number.  And of course ask always ask yourself “What the purpose of spending money on this?” “Will this expense help me raise more money?”

For those of you who joined the RWR Teleconference last month you’ll know Amy Boulas, Walk MS National Director, and I are fundraising soul sisters.  After the webinar we received several follow up questions.  Today, I’m turning Friends Asking Amy over to another Amy.

Dear Amy Boulas,

Our non-profit holds a walk every September. We have the same crowd coming every year and most do not fundraise; even though when they register they get a web page and a minimum fundraising amount but it’s not a requirement. We charge a minimum registration fee, which is about half our revenue.

Would it be too risky to drop the registration fee and push the fundraising? How do we require fundraising without turning them away?

Sincerely,
To Reg Fee, or Not To Reg Fee: that is the question

Dear To Reg Fee, or Not To Reg Fee: that is the question,

Thanks for the great question. That’s a tough one, especially if the registration fees are half of your income and you know that you have a lot of returning participants. As you mentioned, it is risky to drop the fee, but I’m a believer that it would be a good decision in the long run.

A few things come to mind for me:

How are you promoting/pushing fundraising?

Are your asks strong enough?

Do you talk about your event as being a fundraiser?  I often see events promoted as a get together/party vs. a fundraiser.  It’s important to make sure it’s clear that the goal of this event is to raise funds.

How are you showing people the impact that their fundraising has on kids’ lives?

We do not charge a registration fee for our walks, and in the past, when we have we saw fundraising averages decrease. It indicated to us that people felt that writing a check was good enough. The thing is, when you don’t charge a registration fee you’ll have a fair amount of no-pays (zero dollar walkers) and that has to be something you’re OK with.

We do not have a required minimum with our walk event, however our bike event does. They do just what you suggested.  You cannot participate if you don’t achieve the fundraising requirement. Some chapters require an upfront fee; others give people 30-60 days post-event to get the money in. If someone does not meet the minimum they do not let them register in the subsequent year.

 I think if you were going to implement a required minimum, especially for a walk, I’d require it up front and not wait. The other variation on this is to give them 30 days post-event and then let them know you will invoice for the minimum (or remainder to achieve the minimum). Instead of a required minimum for Walk, we say things like “the average walker raises $250” to give people an idea of what to shoot for.

Lastly, are you offering fundraising incentives? They can be challenging to manage but they do work. But, the key to incentives is offer incentives for behaviors you want reward.  Here’s a great link which provides more insight on incentive: Event Fundraising Contests That Will Blow Your Mind!!

Last thoughts, be sure that as you think about this you look at the other walks in your market(s) to ensure that you don’t ‘price yourself out of the market.’

I hope this helps. Your friend,

Amy Boulas

BTW-  If you want to list to the Two Amy B’s teleconference, here’s the link:  http://www.runwalkride.com/audiocourses.asp.  Scroll down towards the end of the page. The session is titled: Focusing Efforts to Support Fundraising Participants

A few weeks ago I was able to attend the Boston P2P fundraising roundtable.  Not only did I get to hang out with Shana Masterson, a fundraising fav of mine, but I was able to hear from: Suzanne Fountain, Associate Vice-President of the Jimmy Fund Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Chris Mann, Director of Social Purpose Reebok; Andrea Marlar, Director of Special Events Children’s Hospital Trust.

I kid you not; I really thought Chris, Suzanne and Andrea were reading my mind when they were sharing their thoughts on P2P fundraising.   Here are some of the ideas that were shared

1. Personal touch makes you stand out.  It’s a difference maker.  This was music to my ears! Andrea and her team at Children’s Hospital Trust make sure everyone receives a personal touch. For some that means a hand written note, for other it’s a phone call or maybe it’s an office visit, but the bottom line is Children’s Hospital Trust takes the time to make their participants feel special and appreciated.
2. Suzanne from Dana Farber Cancer Institute is a fan of one very important word: segment.  You need to communicate to participants based on their interests and level of involvement.  For example send tailored messages based on participants goals.  After data analysis, the team learned their good at keeping folks, but needed to do a better job recruiting new participants.
3. Chris Mann Director of Social Purpose at Reebok focused on loyalty.  Providing a meaningful experience, breads loyalty.  Loyalty = revenue. How can give people best experience? Chris also touched on the need to connect on an emotional level with participants (It’s so funny, I just blogged about this very topic). Lastly, he discussed the need for cross promotion.  From corporate perspective he wants drive consumers who bought shoes to buy apparel.  It’s important to break down silos. Silos tend to be there because of budgets or internal issues; breaking down silos will take effort, but it worth it.  Working together will give greatest impact.

 There were so many great ideas from the Boston event.  Below are a few of my favorite one-liners.  I foresee these one-lines making a second appearance on Friends Asking Amy.

• Non profits are a business – you have to use sound business practices. 
• Team leaders are miracle workers on steroids!
• Build exclusive experiences in events. Exclusive doesn’t always mean give away free stuff; instead create an experience or recognition opportunities.
• Use prizes for behaviors you want.
• Turn your participants into celebrities.
• Show your participants who they’re helping. 
• Don’t need to do everything – do one thing well – (This is one of my favs, quality should always win out over quantity).
• How do you become world class at what you do?
• Think about what you what to do from a marketer’s perspective. Who do you want to reach? Look for ideas and inspiration beyond non-profit world
• Non-profit world we’re sales people – our job is to raise money!

Hey Chicago P2P Fundraisers! What are you doing on May 29^th?  Don’t have any plans. Then join us for happy hour and lively conversation as we discuss what’s next in the world of event fundraising? Connect with your peers and discover how they’re blazing the trail to event and peer-to-peer fundraising success. Chicago round table panelist include: Bright Pink, American Lung Association, and Feeding America.

Tuesday night I said good bye to Jamar.  But, I don’t think it will be for very long.  He’s a talent and I look forward to downloading his next record.  Jamar’s story was the hook, the initial draw to The Voice and even though he’s not in the finals I’ll still be tuning in next week.

I’m a fan of storytelling. I’m not a fan of public speaking, but it’s something I have to do.  To put myself at ease, I begin my presentations with a story. It’s a great way to form a connection with your audience. 

I’m not the only fan of storytelling; it’s a tried and true marketing technique. I’ve been reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  It’s a good book, but one chapter really spoke to me: Emotional.  In this chapter the Heath brothers discuss drawing on your audience’s emotions to achieve your desired results.

From the first sentence I was hooked and wanted more:  Mother Teresa once said “If I look at the mass, I will never act.  If I look at the one, I will.” I’m right there with Mother Teresa.  The mass is overwhelming, but helping one person is doable. 

When it comes to marketing our events, most folks feel that big numbers are the way to go. Big numbers are just that big.  They’re often so big that we’re unable to relate, process, or fathom solving them.

Sixteen million people are living with XX. I have no clue what 16 million people means. It’s a big number, but the impact is lost because you can’t identify with it. It’s seems too big to solve.  Many organizations are taking the big number, making it smaller, making it digestible: 1 in 5 Americans have XX.  One in five is easier to understand, I can relate to five people.  But, it’s still a number.  Which are more impactful stats or stories?

The Heath brothers tackle this topic in their book.  They share a study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.  These researchers wanted to know if people feel the same as Mother Teresa.  Turns out most people are like Mother Teresa.  When making a charitable donation, the group given a story about an individual who needed their help gave twice as much as the group given a bunch of statistics.   Check out their book to get the full story; it’s an easy and fun read. Plus, I’m sure you will find a few ideas to improve your marketing efforts. 

Marketing your programs is the key to increasing revenue.  If you want more people to fundraise and participate in our events you need to market to them.  You need to tell them about yourself.  They’re not just going to come to you.  You need to be proactive.

What do you think?  Are you talking to your audience in stories or stats?

Nope, I’m talking about politics; we don’t get political on Friends Asking Amy. I’m talking about The Voice! I’m 100% addicted to The Voice.  You might not think this is a big deal, so let me explain.  While, I tune in for most episodes of the Real Housewives (yes, I admit it and I’m a little embarrassed), I’m probably one of few left who’s never watched American Idol. I’m not sure why, but I just never got into American Idol.  But, this year I found The Voice and I love it!

Since the beginning, Jamar’s been my favorite.  Before he sang one verse, I was a fan.  Why?  It’s his story.  Yes, he has an amazing voice, but before the blind auditions we got to know Jamar.  He’s 30, a former drug addict, living with HIV and now a fan favorite.  He’s a survivor; he picked himself up and got his life together.  I love a good comeback story. His is a story of triumph.  I was fan before I heard him sing.

This is the power of a good story.  It connects with you and you’re hooked.  As fundraisers, we can use stories make a point, they can impact the experience.  Consider this; while only 20% of peer-to-peer participants share their story on their personal fundraising page, they’re the most successful fundraisers.   They receive larger donations.  Their story is power.

I know many of you are telling your participants to update their personal page with their reasons for participating, but are you using the right approach? What do you think about this idea?  Instead of simply telling them to update their page and share their story; why not use a story to inspire them.

Here’s my example.  Thoughts?

Thank you for signing up XX event and taking their first step.  Now, it’s time to inspire others to give by sharing your reasons for participating on your personal fundraising page. (link to login).

There’s nothing more powerful than sharing your story.  Just ask Mary.  Mary is a survivor. She’s a fighter.  She’s determined to make a difference.  Mary took a few minutes to post her story on her personal fundraising page.  Less than an hour after updating her page, sending 10 emails and posting a link on Facebook Mary received 4 donations! 

Mary called me after she received her first four donations.  She was so excited and just wanted to say thank you for encouraging her to share her story.  She said she knew her friends were awesome, but didn’t realize they would act so quickly. The support Mary received from her friends, inspired her to reach out to more of her contacts and host fundraiser at a local restaurant. 

Thank you Mary! Get started today!  Tell your friends and family about XX event and why you’re involved: (link to login).

What do you think of Mary’s story?  Is this something you’re going to try?  Tonight I’ll find out if Jamar’s going to the finals.  It’s going to be a nail-biter; Juliet’s performance was amazing!

Today, the most amazing thing happened to me. I was sent an unsolicited guest post.  I love this!  I’m always asking folks to be guest bloggers. To share their stories and ides, but so far only a few of my friends have taken me up on my offer.  Today, when the 99 characters in the outlook preview read “Guest blog post for Friends Asking Amy” I immediately stopped what I was doing and went to read this very enticing email.

Below is the guest blog post from my good friend Ed Doolittle.  Thank you Ed for your kind words,  I’m blushing.  Take it away Ed….

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As we started to design our AIDS Walk Atlanta & 5K Run FAF website for 2012, looked at a lot of different thon sites around the country to see what others were doing.  Well, when it came down to it, all we needed to do was to ask Amy!  First a little bit of our story:

Over the past 3 years since we have been using the Friends Asking Friends platform we have had an increase in fundraising revenue, even though we have had a decrease in corporate cash support.  Our fundraising increases have averaged 8.7% year over year.  This has been accomplished several different ways:

Our first year on FAF was a great improvement over the platform we were using before. The second year we instituted a registration fee, which not only brought in extra income but we had a lot more participants that actually fundraised.  This enabled our team coordinators to really focus on those that were serious about fundraising for the cause and also conserved resources by not having to focus so much on the “zeros.”   The third year we refreshed our FAF site and did some minor design changes, which made it easier for the end user.  We also purchased a social media component to use.

Now we have upgraded to the essentials design and this year, I will say, our site is poppin’ hot!  So far in our soft launch our top fundraisers have loved it.   Making it easier for our fundraisers is definitely one of the keys to success.  

Now, Amy, we have taken a lot of your advice.  We have done a lot of metrics based on last years’ numbers; (thanks Anna Leary) we pulled the mean, median and mode of giving. (Number geeks are good!)  We implemented a suggested giving level on all our donation pages.  We upped our median gift (the middle value of all gifts) by $10.00.  We also increased the suggested fundraising goal by $25.00.

One of our biggest challenges was to get fundraising participants to personalize their page and tell their story of why they are involved in our cause.  So instead of a mostly blank participant page, we have put a call to action and a thank you on every page so each donor gets solid information and can feel good about why they are donating to the cause even if the participant doesn’t personalize.

Thank you, Amy, for some great tips and thought-provoking ideas over the past year.  We felt confident enough that this year we could up our game just a bit.  We are pushing for a 12.5% increase in all fundraising and we hope to raise $1.125 M in the fight against HIV/AIDS, fight the stigma of it through prevention and education programs, HIV testing and counseling, emotional wellness, primary care and case management.

 I loved the 2 Amy’s yesterday and your reference to the 2 Ed’s, 2 of each are better than one! My last thought of today and it was a takeaway from yesterday’s teleconference, I’ve heard it before but you should always remember that you need to find your focus.  My big three:

• What’s my purpose?
• Who’s my audience?
• What’s my goal?

Registration opens 5/1 at http://www.aidswalkatlanta.com/.

How about joining me and my friend Amy for a fun discussion about increasing revenue?  Tomorrow at 1pm Amy and I are hosting a Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council teleconference.

Amy and I not only share a first name, but we’re also both Amy B’s.  Did you know two Amy B’s are better than one?  Amy Boulas my fabulous co-host is the National Director of Walk MS at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  I promise this a fun and informative teleconference, sign up today!

What are we talking about?  The theme is focus.  When it comes to P2P fundraising events, there’s a ton that needs to get done and sometimes it’s tough to find your focus.  We’ll share ideas to help you focus your fundraising efforts to increase revenue and participation. 

I hope you’ll join us. If you’re busy and can’t make tomorrow’s session, have no fear.  We have more learning opportunities.  Check out our new web seminar series.  I’ve recruited more fundraising friends to share their knowledge.

Next Tuesday, May 1^st, join me and Alison Belden, Director of Cause Development at the Arthritis Foundation as we kick off our new series, which  build a bridge between understanding data and actually using it improve your event fundraising program.

Tuesday, May 1^st – How can I increase participant activity and revenue?

Before developing strategies to increase revenue, you first need to take a good look at the numbers.  After reviewing the numbers and comparing them to industry benchmarks, now it’s time to identify growth opportunities. Alison Belden, Arthritis Foundation and Amy Braiterman, Blackbaud, will discuss how to your event data provides a wealth of information that should be used when creating short and long term fundraising strategies.   

Thursday, June 7^th – Are you asking your participants the right questions?

Jennifer Ashbaugh, Individual Giving Manager of Donor Development, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America will help us find out if we’re asking participants the right questions in post event surveys. We’ll discuss how to create a post event survey to make sure you’re getting the right information. Then they’ll share how you to use the information gathered from the post-event survey to drive decision for your event program including: website design, marketing, and event planning.

BTW – I wish I could take credit for coming up with “Two Amy B’s are better than one.”  But, sadly I cannot.  I borrowed the title from two amazing Ed’s who live and work together in ATL and presented at BBCon a couple years ago. Hi Ed’s!  How are you? I hope to see you at BBCon this year!

If so, no worries, we’ve all felt that the feeling of “ugh… followed by one question… how am I ever going to raise that?”

Here’s my trick.  Forgot about the overall fundraising goal and instead create monthly goals for yourself. Fundraising is a lot like weight loss. Trying to lose 20 pounds can be overwhelming and frustrating.  Nutritionists and trainers will always tell you to stop focusing on your total goal and focus on weekly goals.  Stop thinking about 20 pounds and focus on losing 2 pounds, with the right plan 2 pounds will become 20.

Fundraising works the same way.  Instead of focusing on your $100,000 event goal, ask yourself what do I need to raise this month to eventually reach my goal?

A good way to answer this question is to look at last year’s revenue report.  You’ll notice several revenue peaks and valleys.  For example if you’re event is Oct 1^st, then August and September are your most profitable pre-event months.  And, maybe you ran fundraising contest in May, which makes May another peak month. Below is a sample breakdown of last year’s event revenue.  I’ve included the month, event activity and amount raised.

Now that you have a breakdown of what you raised per-month last year, you can use this as a guide for this year.  The bulk of the revenue is going to be raised in the last few months leading up to the event. Instead of just waiting around till August for the dollars to roll in, begin brainstorming ideas for increasing April-July revenue.  What activities or contests can you run in the early months to encourage fundraising? 

Maybe have a team captain only event at your office, make it exclusive so team captains feel special and appreciated.  At the event, spend time teaching team captains about team building and motivating team members to fundraise. Or, how about a special Early Bird fundraising contest?  Create a 4 week contest and at the end of the contest, raffle off a big prize.  Usually big prizes are given away closer to the event, but make your Early Birds feel special by offering them exclusive opportunities.

Tip: It’s often not what you’re giving away that will get an individual excited, but it’s how you market the giveaway.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we all want that exclusive invite or that special prize.  It’s human nature. Use this to your advantage when creating text for your website, emails and social network posts.

If your team recruitment goals have you stressed.  Use this same method for team recruitment.  Breaking down large numbers into more manageable goals can help alleviate some of the stress that comes with fundraising.

This trick always helped me.  Once I was able to stop stressing about my revenue goals, I was able to get creative and have fun.  We spend a ton of time at work, so make it fun.  I would not only create contests for my participants, but for myself as well.  Maybe I’ll share those on another post.

Morale of the post is: don’t stess.  It doesn’t help anyone.  Instead of stressing about your goals, focus on creating a plan to achieve your goals.

That’s not Stuart Smalley’s daily affirmation, that’s your data talking.  Are you listening? 

Data is the most important part of any event and often over looked.  I’m not talking about YOY metrics or benchmarks; I’m talking about participant activity data.  Whether you’re using Friends Asking Friends or another set of online tools, there’s a wealth of information housed in your online database just wanting to be used.

Are you ready to go beyond simple registration reports to uncover your active participants?  If you’ve checked out my two recent papers; Peer-to-Peer Consumer Survey and the 2012 donorCentrics Report, you probably noticed a common theme.  Participants view signing up to participate and signing up to fundraise as two separate tasks.  When you’re looking at your event data, it’s important to keep this in mind.  Also, let’s start segmenting your participants into: fundraisers, participating donors and zero dollar participants.

Fundraisers – Individuals who have signed up and are actively fundraising

Participating donors – Individuals who signed up, made a donation, but are not actively fundraising

Zero dollar participants – Individuals who signed up to participate in your event, but are not raising money.  I know we give this group a hard time, but here’s the deal.  These aren’t terrible people; they’re doing what you’ve asked… they’re creating awareness by participating in your event.  Their participation is important if you want a huge crowd at your event.

Now that we have our three groups, let’s focus our energy on the fundraisers.  First up, how do you identify your fundraisers?  Successful major gift officers excel at identifying prospects.  Let’s identify our fundraisers like a major gift officer.

Sphere users you’ll want to pull a participant detail report.  Here’s my trick for pulling reports in Sphere, I run a standard report then go back and extra fields.  I don’t know why I pull my reports this way; it works for me and what’s it they “old habits die hard.”

Once I have my Participant Detail report, I click Choose Column. If you’re not familiar with Choose Column, it’s right above the report under the export to excel button.  When you click on Choose Column all the reporting fields will appear.  Simply select the fields you want to add to the report and click save.

Here are some of my favorite fields:

Additional donation amount (made an additional donation when they signed up)
Total messages sent
# of gifts from email
Facebook messages sent
# of gifts from Facebook
Tweets sent
# of gifts from Tweets
Image/Video Personalized
Story Personalized
Last login date

You can choose to add all these fields or some of them.  My favorite feature in Friends Asking Friends is the ability to add or remove field to reports.  Once you’ve added the desired fields it time to look at your participants and indentify your active fundraiser.

Sphere reporting tip:  If you click on a column header the report will shift. The most active participants will appear at the top of the report.  For example, if you click on the # of emails sent, participants who sent emails will appear at the top of the report and those who haven’t sent any will shift to the bottom of your report.

Ok, so now you have your report.  Let’s look for fundraisers.  Look for participants who’ve take a couple actions, like made an additional donation and sent emails.  This is an active fundraiser.  If the individual made an additional donation, but didn’t send emails or take another action than I’d consider them a participating donor. 

Now what?  How about make some calls to your most active participants.  Click on choose column and add phone number to your report or click on the participants name to view their constituent record.

Now that you have some info about your participants, when you call them you have something to talk about.  Maybe one of your active participants has sent emails and Facebook status updates, but they didn’t personalize their page.  When you’re chatting, you could let them know personalizing their page is important and offer to help if they need it. 

Or, maybe a participant has raised $700, but has logged into their My HQ in over a month.  When you call this participant ask if they’d followed up with contacts they thought would donate, but haven’t.  Also, remind them to send a thank you email to their donors.

There’s a ton of information that will tell you if your participants are active.  Listen to your event data, it will help you raise achieve and exceed your revenue goals.

Do you have a favorite report?  Or a reporting trick to share?

I’ve spent the last month or so talking about email and how to think like a direct marketing pro when creating your campaigns.  My hope is during the slower months you’ll go ahead and set up your email campaigns, so you don’t need to bother with email during the busy event session.  The plan is to work smarter and not harder.  You already know the email content (update last year’s emails… right?), so let’s create content, segment participants, schedule emails and then forget about them.   

Imagine all the things you’ll be able to do during the busy months, now that you don’t need to worry about sending fundraising emails.  While some of you might not think emails take a while, especially if you’re re-using last year’s content, the truth is they do. 

It’s not actually creating an email that takes awhile, but it’s all the other things that distract you when you’re sitting at your computer.  Has this ever happened to you: You’re in Sphere (or another email provider) and you get distracted by 90 characters in the Outlook alert, you click and read the message; then reply; check your inbox again; yup same messages still there that you didn’t want to respond to; then you try to remember what you were doing before you got distracted by those 90 characters… Oh right I was creating my team captain email.  Before you know it its 5pm and you still never sent your team captain email.   You could eliminate this entire process, by creating your email campaigns in advance and work smarter not harder.

Now, that you’ve set up your email campaigns it’s time to put the computer away and stop email-dating your participants. Go meet them!  I know you probably can’t meet all of them, but make it a point to call everyone.  Plan to visit top fundraisers, corporate teams, team captains, and go to events hosted by teams.  Going participant’s events is a great way to show your support. Attending their event is something they’ll remember next year, when you ask them to sign up again.

Get out from behind your desk and hit the road just like a major gift officer. Believe me meeting your participants is a heck of a lot better than actually online dating.   The only thing worse than online dating is when your married friends say “oh, it sounds like so much fun, you get to meet new people, go for dinner, etc…” Don’t be fooled by the commercials, online dating is awful. Even those who’ve meet their significant other via online dating will agree… it’s awful. 

Individuals participating in your event signed up because they care and want to support your organization.  Building relationships with participants requires more than an email.  Have you ever wondered why P2P events have such a low retention rate?  It’s probably because participants were not made to feel that their participation mattered.  How many times have you heard a participant say they we’re too busy to participate again this year?  I’ve heard it before and I just realized what a horrible and hurtful answer they’ve given.  Too busy, if you’re getting this answer you need to ask yourself “What can I doto make you feel that this one day event is important and more important than a weekly soccer game?”  The other question to ask is “How can I make people feel their participation matters?” 

The latter question is actually a little easier to tackle.  Call your participants; invite them to an open house at your office; meet them in person; offer to host a kick off at their company; attend their fundraising events; send participants a hand written note. Email is important, necessary; a helpful way to disseminate information as well as encourage fundraising, but you can’t just email your participants. 

Today’s assignment… brainstorm ideas for how you can treat your participants like major gift prospects. I’d love to hear your ideas, please share your ideas below.