A blog I read and admire struck a chord with this short blog. Here are 9 Donation Page Mistakes you need to be certain you’re not making (the link to the blog is below). Today we explore Mistake #3 (Too Much Junk On Page) and how to fix it!
#SummerLearningSeries #BlockbusterFundraising #JoyOlsonGroup #Nonprofit #Fundraising
A blog I read and admire struck a chord with this short blog. Here are 9 Donation Page Mistakes you need to be certain you’re not making (the link to the blog is below). Today we explore Mistake #2 (Asking For Too Much Information) and how to fix it!
#SUMMERLEARNINGSERIES
A blog I read and admire struck a chord with this short blog. Here are 9 Donation Page Mistakes you need to be certain you’re not making (the link to the blog is below). Today we explore Mistake #1 (Hard to Find Donation Buttons) and how to fix it!
http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2017/06/9-ways-you-might-be-chasing-donors-away-from-your-donation-pages.html
#SUMMERLEARNINGSERIES
here’s a link to it if you have interest
So I have a question for you right now about your fundraising event and goals!
How far do you push your guests to spend, spend, spend and how much noise can you take to do that?
This is an issue I have personally wrestled with for the last 5 years as we were taking an annual fundraising event from $80,000 to $200,000!
After thinking this to death in my mind every year and sometimes arguing with the professional auction advisers over my decisions, here’s my final thought, at least this year! 🙂
# 1. Hire the best sound person or company you can find in your area and discuss your concerns about noise levels in the event location. Ask them if they have ever done sound in this venue and what can you do to make the sound surround sound versus blast off sound. Use 4 point or 6 point speakers in the room and find out if you can lower sound of each individual speaker on the fly at the event! You may need to make emergency adjustments!
#2. timeline your event! Is it 4 hours, 5 to 9? If so, make a decision how to divide up the “selling with the mic” time! Current thought seems to be to, via the mic, talk up and through the Silent Auction and coming possibilities in Live Auction for the first 2 hours with barely a let-up! In my opinion, this is wrong and disrespectful to your guests! Give them enjoyment time, let them visit with their friends, hosts, let them visit with one another! Let them share their stories of why they love your mission! Let them enjoy “light” and “quiet” music in background if you like that idea (I do) because favorite tunes in the background make peeps feel comfortable and happy.
#3. At 7PM, unleash a dynamite program, loud, fun, zany, uplifting, great videos and stories and get that support! Plan for months to make this 2 hour program extremely compelling, two-hours that positions all the passion you and your staff can muster for your mission! Save up your best stories all year and tell those stories via video or personal visits from those your mission has helped, etc etc etc! Just make it really really good with you very best efforts.
You will start at 7PM with everyone relaxed and ready for a good time! Some may leave early, but you won’t lose a mass folks that have napkins stuck in their ears! And I’m not kidding as I hosted a table of 10 at my favorite event and 5 of the 10 had to leave because of the noise level, it was so uncomfortable and it had been constant for 2 hours by the time the program started. As the table host, I was embarrassed and convinced that I had been right for advocating for more relaxed Silent Auction and pre-event announcements. SAVE ALL THAT JAZZ for last 2 hours, with well located speakers and a sound crew who will work with you!
I did my first Facebook Live this weekend on Sounding Off Hey, I would love to hear from you! Sound off! It’s Joy, sounding off and signing off for now!
here’s a link to it if you have interest
2016 has been a busy year of putting together all the pieces of Blockbuster Fundraising, getting ready to get the training modules on line!
So what is the What and the Why of Blockbuster Fundraising! Why are we doing this and why do I want to do this? What is the purpose of this endeavor?
Having been a very successful fundraiser now for 20 years and coming into very stressful situations and painful moments at certain nonprofits, I learned how much it means and how to keep a cherished nonprofit alive and well in the community.
To be able to raise money when a nonprofit faces dire and urgent circumstances is an art that takes experience and the best of best practices! When it is a cause you truly passionately believe in, there isn’t any finer feeling in the world than to be able to keep those doors open and make wonderful things happen for those who need them to happen.
It is much nicer for a fundraiser or development director to enter a situation that isn’t so dire, but one where you can put together a fabulous plan to take the nonprofit to new heights and beyond their goals!
And fundraising has never been more exciting with greater possibilities! Nothing compares to the last few years, the dramatic changes in fundraising and development due to the internet and social media; it’s a wonderfully, exciting and creative time to be a fundraiser.
Watching Shark Tank inspired us, wanting to make our fundraising skills ‘scaleable’! Don’t you love it? Why scaleable??? Easy, because every single day hundreds of worthy wonderful caring causes come to my mailbox, arrive on my Facebook newsfeed and get tweeted to me, they all desperately need help!
But like everybody else in the world you can’t be everywhere and you can’t donate to every good cause so what can I do to make a difference in the world?
Ah-ha! I can share my fundraising knowledge, excitement, and passion with any fundraiser in the world who is trying to figure out right now how they’re going to find the money to keep their cause alive and well.
So what difference will Blockbuster Fundraising make and what is the real value of my knowledge to other fundraisers? In a nutshell, nonprofits will be able to get instant quality affordable fundraising help the moment they need it without having to hire expensive consultants or make a new hire.
How can we help? Blockbuster Fundraising is made up of only best practices, tested, current and proven best practices. Blockbuster can help nonprofits right now in 2016 raise the dollars they need to meet their goals. Blockbuster is creative and forward thinking, using all new technologies to benefit our clients. We love developing Development Relationships for development department through social media and have learned how to make it truly add to the nonprofit bottom line.
Development and fundraising is so important to every nonprofit organization in the entire world. Nonprofits struggle to find qualified development & fundraising people. Add to that that most of the U.S. non-profit organizations (currently 1.5 million US nonprofits with budgets of $1 million or less) often don’t have the budget/money to hire or even really train their fundraisers. And they flounder and so does the budget.
As of now, studies show there are less than 80,000 Development officers in the US non-profit arena, making it a field that has tremendous potential along with the great need. Because of the limited or non-existent training budget dollars in the nonprofits of this size, turnover, disappointment, and people leaving the field are rampant!
Blockbuster Fundraising is introducing in May of 2016 a tangible digital, video training product to enable nonprofits to experience success and immediately bring dollars and supporters to their mission. These are nonprofits with meaningful causes so close to the heart, and all extremely worthy, and many so in the need of help.
Blockbuster Fundraising can help nonprofits achieve their goals achievable and become sustainable.
Blockbuster Fundraising will give people the chance to truly change the world because that’s what nonprofits to do, they change the world! But to do the good that makes the changes, they’ve got to raise the money!
The goal at Blockbuster Fundraising is help worthy nonprofits with their development program, offering an affordable, immediate and proven successful training program that will get them to their goals and beyond. YOur goal is our goal! We can help make a big difference in the world by helping the worthy causes that need more dollars to stay the course!
Take care and talk to you soon. How to Achieve Successful Fundraising Plans will be the next blog subject. And when I’m not trying to figure out how to help you get more supporters and dollars in the door, I head outdoors with the WestieFore, below! Thank you for your valued time.
