Episode 40: Seven systems for nonprofit event success

Planning

Apr 7

There are seven core systems you need for nonprofit event success.

The difference between a system and a process

Systems are a group of related tasks. They are the framework. Processes and procedures are the steps within a system that ensure the tasks are done efficiently and consistently.

Put another way, a system is a set of processes and procedures that give you the ability to delegate and enable you to grow your event.

For example, Starbucks has a system for making hot beverages. They have a system for making cold beverages, one for making and serving food items. Within each of those systems, there are a series of steps that are processes and procedures.

Seven systems for nonprofit event success

My goal is for you to first think about the systems and then develop your own processes and set of written procedures for maximum success.

#1 - Sponsorship Sales System

The goal with any event is to get enough sponsorship dollars to cover all the costs of your event. Therefore, it is crucial to have a sponsorship sales system.

Within your system, you should have a process for determining sponsor levels and benefits or whatever it is that you're offering in exchange for sponsorship dollars. Remember, sponsorship is not philanthropy. Sponsors are not donors. They expect to get recognition or some type of benefit for their money. If you need a refresher on sponsorship, go to Episode 28_7 steps to get ready for sponsorship sales.

Once you've determined levels and benefits, you need a process for creating the materials that will be sent to potential sponsors, a way to track prospects and confirm sponsors, and a process for ensuring that each sponsor receives the benefits they were promised. You should also have a process for thanking and keeping in touch with sponsors after the event, so they feel like a true partner, not an ATM.

#2 - Volunteer Recruitment and Management System

You need a great team to help plan and carry out your event. With that comes the need for a system to recruit, train and retain both planning volunteers and day of event volunteers.

How you structure this will depend on if your organization has a volunteer coordinator. As part of your planning team recruitment system, you need a process for creating and updating the roles and responsibilities for each volunteer, a process for communicating with volunteers, and a process for onboarding new volunteers and ensuring that they have everything they need to be successful. A successful volunteer makes you and your event more successful.

#3 - Event Registration System.

Technology has come a long way and registration tools are in abundance. It's a matter of finding the right one that works for you and your event.

The three main things you want to look for in an event registration tool is ease of use.

1. Ease of use for you, the person setting it up on the back end.

2. Ease of use for your guest on the front end.

3. Ease of getting information from your registration platform to your CRM or donor management system.

Many CRMs and donor management systems have their own event registration tool or module. Sometimes it's included in the cost, or it can be an add on for an additional fee.

Qgiv

If your donor or customer management system doesn't have an event registration module, I highly recommend a platform called Qgiv. It has impressive functionality for a very reasonable price, which they are transparent about. The price comes with essentially unlimited support to get your event registration site up and running.

Go here to set up a demo of Qgiv.

The only thing you need to do is have a process for how the site gets set up, who will set it up and then a process at the end of the event for getting your donor info into your donor management system.

#4 - Money Management System

The point of a fundraising event is to make money. But you need a system and process for how you will accept payment for revenue-generating activities such as sponsorship, ticket or table purchases, games, auctions, and so on.

If you have an event registration platform, accepting payments is typically rolled into it. So, it's not something you have to worry about.

However, with sponsorship or some of those higher ticket items, you may not want to pay the credit card fees or other fees that come with the platform.

Most platforms have an option where you can run the transaction through the platform so it registers the income on any reporting but you can mark the payment method as check or cash payment. You’d then have to ask whoever is paying to send you a check instead of using credit card through the system.

It's really important that you figure out the processes and procedures within your money management system. That goes for both sides of the equation – money coming into and going out of the organization.

#5 - Marketing and Promo System.

Event promo is a huge deal. If no one knows about your event, you can't sell tickets or get anyone to attend.

Similar to volunteer recruitment and management, the processes and procedures within your marketing and promo system will depend on if your organization has a dedicated marketing person.

Event promo needs to fit into your regularly scheduled plan. You need to determine what the process is for mixing event emails, event social media, and paid ads into the rest of the organizational content. An oft forgotten part of any event promo plan is word-of-mouth. Be sure to include a process for encouraging event volunteers to spread the word about your event. That process might include images they can share on social media or documents they can download.

# 6 - Project Management System

This is how you will organize the planning and execution of your event.

The biggest piece of this system is creating your event planning timeline. If you don't already, you should have a process for creating your timeline.

You should also have a process for document naming and document storage. I recommend using either Google Docs or Dropbox or some other online source for document storage so that no matter where or when your team is working on the event, they can access event documents.

For naming documents, create a standard for naming documents, especially when using a date as part of the document title.

For more information on my upcoming guided workshop, Plan to Plan, sign up to receive my email newsletter.

What is Plan to Plan?

A workshop outlining my system for creating an event planning timeline using wall calendars and sticky notes.

As a bonus, I will have a tutorial for how you can transfer your timeline information from your wall calendar into either a Google spreadsheet or into Asana, which is a project management tool.

This workshop will be live, via Zoom. I walk you through the process step by step. You’ll be able to ask questions and get guidance on your planning timeline.

# 7 - Gratitude System

It requires a lot of money, time, and effort to pull off a successful event. You couldn't do it without your sponsors, staff, volunteers, and donors. A little gratitude goes a long way, but writing thank you notes is time consuming.

Within your gratitude system, you need determine who gets what type of thank you, when and how the thank you notes or letters are created, and when they're sent and how they are delivered – email, mail or in person.

There you have it. Those are the seven key systems you need for nonprofit event success.

Four tips for creating systems and procedures:

1. Keep your systems, processes, and procedures simple. Focus on high-level systems. You can always go back and add more detail to your system, but start with the basics first. Get them in writing.

2. Automate whenever you can. If your event registration or donor management platform has a feature allowing you to automate thank you notes/emails, set it up and let it work its magic.

3. Document everything. By putting your procedures in writing you are better able to delegate and gain consistency in your event from year to year.

4. Update your systems and procedures frequently. Ask your planning team to update the procedures as they are planning the event or you can schedule some time every 1-2 years, or as needed, to update your documents.

Listener action item

· Rank the systems from 1-7. Number one is the most important, urgent or needs the most work. Seven needs the least. Block time in your calendar to work on the number one process.

If you start thinking about all of these at once, you're going to get overwhelmed. Start with the most important, most urgent, and set aside some time and work on your first system for nonprofit event success.

That sounds like a plan.