Virtual Fundraising Events: Ideas & Strategies That Drive Results

Many nonprofits have faced situations in which they can no longer hold the in-person gala or event they had been counting on to raise money for their organization. While our days of social distancing may be a not-so-distant memory, the cost of venues, the distance between members/patrons, and seasonal/weather concerns are just some of the reasons you may not be able to hold your in-person events as you have in the past. Instead of canceling, postponing, or rescheduling these events, there is another viable option: virtual/online fundraising.

Virtual events can provide your organization with expanded reach, lower overhead, flexible participation, and year-round scalability. By harnessing the potential, reach, and technical capabilities of the internet, you can host an engaging, fun event that allows individuals to attend from the comfort and safety of home. All they need is a web-enabled computer, smartphone, or tablet to participate and make a donation to your cause.  

Leveraging the power of online fundraising and adding creative social media and technology options, such as live streaming, you can bring the excitement of your event to your donors’ computers, phones, and tablets.

Are you new to the world of raising money online? You probably have many questions about how to stage an event that attracts donors and optimizes their experience. We’ve compiled a list of tips, strategies, and advice that will help you succeed with virtual fundraising.

Types of Virtual Events

Going virtual with your event can open up a plethora of options: 

• Livestream auctions
• Virtual galas 
• Text-to-give campaigns
• Watch-party fundraisers
• Online raffles
• Contests
• Voting-based campaigns

What You Need to Succeed: Virtual Fundraising Essentials

Once you’ve determined your event and timeline, these are your essential next steps:

• Define clear goals, and ensure everyone is on the same page and aligned throughout the event.
• Ensure that you have a donor-friendly digital setup – it has to be straightforward for donors to contribute, or you’ll risk losing some of them.
• Your cause and your event must have compelling storytelling – year-round, yes, but especially for your high-target events.
• The marketing is what will really sell your event to participants and donors. You’ll want to make sure you have strong visual assets to accompany your stories, theme, and additional events.
• Along with a donor-friendly digital setup, you’ll also want the participant registration to be frictionless – perhaps streamlined with the help of fundraising software. 

Virtual Fundraising Communication Strategies: Pre-Event

Your online fundraiser’s success depends on proactive outreach that makes your supporters feel valued and eager to participate. Implement a two-pronged, “inside-out” approach consisting of:

• Internal communications: Begin by letting key stakeholders, such as your employees, volunteers, management team, and board of directors, know of your intention to hold an online event. Once you do, you’ll be able to deliver a unified message and rally the team to support the effort.
• External communications: Once all internal stakeholders are aware of your intent to use virtual fundraising, you’ll be ready to communicate the change in plans to your donors. Depending on your situation, you can either contact donors individually or en masse to explain the reasons for the pivot — and how much you need and value their support for the event.

Virtual Fundraising Communication Strategies: Generating Donor Excitement 

It’s possible that some donors may not be thrilled about attending a virtual fundraiser— they’ll miss the opportunity to meet and socialize with other attendees. But there are several steps you can take to overcome the resistance and bolster enthusiasm for the event.

Social media can be your biggest ally when you’re attempting to generate donor excitement. Use engaging, upbeat posts to promote the event and actively connect with donors. Include mission-minded photos, constituent testimonials and even a few inspirational quotes to reiterate the worthiness of your cause. Facebook Live is an excellent platform for reaching out to donors and helping them get to know the speakers in advance, or for holding informative Q&A sessions about the upcoming event.

Using Social Media to Promote and Amplify Your Virtual Fundraiser

Promoting your event on social media is crucial to standing out from the crowd. Your organization must plan every piece of content it shares. What you post directly influences how your donors think about your organization. Taking the time to properly articulate and plan how to promote your virtual event and fundraiser can make the difference between success and failure. 

Ways to promote your virtual fundraiser include:  

1. Create Compelling Content and Graphics: To stand out on social media, it’s essential to create posts that are as eye-catching as informative. A great way to do this is to use a variety of mediums to share your message. Create a mix of straightforward text posts, graphics with a save-the-date, and short videos to promote your event. While it’s best to vary your content, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Use free tools like Unsplash for stock photos, Canva to create graphics, and your smartphone to record a video. 

2. Utilize Your Network: Don’t only rely on your nonprofit’s social media accounts to promote the event. Encourage your network of staff, engaged volunteers, celebrity guest speakers, and beneficiaries to share posts about your virtual event. Resharing content puts it in front of people who may not know about your organization.  

3. Stay Organized with a Content Calendar: Once you have created compelling content to share on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and your supporters have agreed to share on your behalf, take the time to put together a calendar to outline what will be posted, where and when. This will help keep things organized and maximize the number of people who will see and learn about your event. Alternate the types of content you share and where you share them, and always put out high-quality posts. Social media is a quality-over-quantity approach. A well-thought-out post will consistently outperform something posted quickly.    

4. Follow-Up Post-Event: Don’t lose momentum after your event is over! When you are creating content ahead of the event, plan to share thank-yous, an event recap, and fundraising results on the same channels you used to promote the event. If you have the date(s) planned for your next event, use this as an opportunity to share a save-the-date and start the buzz around your next fundraiser. 

Another effective method for generating excitement is creating a short email or text series using your donor email list. Structure each message to build excitement as the event date draws nearer gradually.

Virtual Fundraising Communication Strategies: Engaging Donors During and After the Event

You can implement various techniques to keep donors engaged. Finding an influential individual with a connection to your organization who can speak at your virtual event should increase donor interest and the dollar value of their donations. The effective use of slides that present compelling statistics helps donors understand how much you need their sponsorship. Holding a contest where you award a prize at the end to individuals who correctly answer a question about the event is another way to keep your attendees’ attention.

The conclusion of the event — when donors are in a giving mood — is an excellent time to ask them to make recurring donations, which you should offer on your donation page. Make sure to follow up with an email thanking them for their participation and expressing your appreciation for their ongoing contributions to your cause.

Setting the Mood: How to Create the Right Atmosphere for a Virtual Event

You want your donors to feel comfortable during your virtual fundraising event, and the best way to accomplish this is to choose a format that’s most likely to appeal to your unique donor group while still enabling you to make an effective presentation. For example, live streaming via Facebook Live, Vimeo, or YouTube will work well if you want to hold raffle drawings or display items you’re auctioning.

If you’re looking to inject some fun into your event, you can implement some creativity to lighten the atmosphere. For example, developing an off-the-wall theme for your event can encourage donors to relax and enjoy it more. Additionally, adding a virtual game or contest will further encourage attendee participation.

Contests and Voting Campaigns as Virtual Fundraisers

We all love a little competition, right? Hosting a contest or competition is a fun way to engage your community while doing a little fundraising. Voting campaigns can include: 

• Doppelganger competitions 
• Voting for your favorite in a competition (singer, dancer, painter, etc.) 
• Voting for an organization’s next project 
• Recipe cook-offs 
• Voting for your favorite virtual bartender or cocktail recipe 
• Voting for a virtual/viral competition (Chalk Art, Magic Moments) 
• Holiday décor competition
• Naming decision (like if a baby Panda is born at the zoo)

Example: The Humane Society of Utah hosted a doppelganger contest for some of the furry friends available for adoption, and supporters could cast their votes for $1 each. 

These competitions can be stand-alone campaigns or coincide with a live or virtual event if you’re focusing your fundraiser on dance, singing, or performance contests. Like with the pet doppelganger, supporters then cast their vote, for a small donation, to their favorite performers or artists.  

Example: Holy Angels asked supporters to cast their votes for their favorite recipes as a part of their TASTE Virtual Chef Recipe Contest.  

Whatever you’re asking your supporters to vote for, make it fun! Include photos and descriptions for each voting “item” that they’ll view. Or, you can have the voting coincide with a live stream or live event. When there is excitement built up around voting, more of your donors are likely to participate. The more they vote, the more they contribute to your cause!

Fundraising Software Can Simplify Virtual Events

Fundraising software can make your online-hosted fundraising event or campaign stand out and simplify the back end for your staff & volunteers. These are just some of the features that fundraising software offers:

• Manage your events and other fundraisers from any device, anywhere.
• Admin-friendly Backstage area for a one-page virtual stream management experience
• Live support for your event day
• Keep donors engaged through silent auctions, online donations, and peer-to-peer campaigns – all from the same online platform.
• Share a custom image progress thermometer to keep the momentum going.
• Text-to-donate allows your supporters to give directly to your fundraising campaign with ease.
• Cancel-proof your event by hosting your fundraiser entirely online, so that no matter the weather, people have the opportunity to give.
• Make bidding easy and open to all by hosting your silent auction entirely online.
• Add photos, text, and video to your dynamic silent auction, games of chance, merchandise, wish lists, and more directly from your phone.

Hybrid Fundraising Events: Fundraising Software Can Help With That Too!

Hybrid fundraising is also on the rise. Instead of going entirely in-person or fully virtual, hybrid fundraising provides your donors with multiple options to participate without limits.

In addition to everything that is supported by fundraising software for virtual events, some hybrid event features include: 

• Hosting a livestream with integrated fundraising and chat
• Automated, customizable texts and emails ensure your supporters, wherever they are, are informed and engaged.
• Host all fundraising activities online – raffles, auctions, paddle raise, ticket sales, and more – virtually for fun giving opportunities.
• Personalized day-of-event staff and volunteer training
• Easily manage event attendance and ticket/group types.
• Empower your highest-level volunteers – board members, table or team captains, and long-time supporters – with peer-to-peer fundraising.

Our goal at GiveSmart is to help nonprofit organizations create and manage successful digital fundraising campaigns, raise more money, and retain donors longer. Request a free demo with one of our fundraising experts to learn, step by step, how GiveSmart’s fundraising software can support registration, host event livestreams, manage mobile bidding, coordinate text-to-give campaigns, and offer digital engagement tools. 

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