Healthcare Event Planning: 5 Best Practices for Advocacy Events

With corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the rise, one of the ways your healthcare organization can spread the word and generate support is through CSR events—specifically advocacy events!

By partnering with local businesses and other for-profit enterprises looking to make an impact, you’re opening your organization to receiving support and much-needed funds.

Advocacy events are important for your healthcare organization because they help spread awareness of your mission and bring the community together. These events can also double as advertising, making them extremely valuable for your local business partner(s). 

In this article, we’ll cover 5 best practices for running a successful advocacy event for your healthcare organization. Let’s get started!

Did you know that consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services from socially responsible companies? That’s why corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are often used to differentiate businesses from their competitors. 

These initiatives allow businesses to give back to the community, make a difference, and build a positive brand image that resonates with consumers. 

And what’s an initiative that most businesses can get behind? Healthcare. 

So whether your organization has been around for years or it’s just starting out, healthcare event planning can make a huge impact on your fundraising efforts. 

You never know until you ask. Plus, you might be surprised by just how many local businesses are eager to partner with your healthcare organization to create mutual benefit and impact. 

Convinced that CSR can help your healthcare organization broaden its reach? Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when planning your next advocacy event. 

It’s common to set goals for fundraising events and to set additional goals if your event is focused on advocacy. 

Ask yourself the following questions to kickstart the process:

Consider these goals in the context of the type of event that you plan on hosting. A peer-to-peer event such as a swim-a-thon is suited to advocacy and fundraising, as supporters will share their fundraising pages, spreading awareness and bringing in donations. That means that advocacy goals for this type of event can be higher than those of, for example, a bake sale fundraiser.

You’ll want to communicate with your local business partner about their event goals so that you’re on the same page. 

You’ll want to help your local business partner promote your advocacy event by creating promotional communications they can use. These communications can go to their employees and customers, as well as to your organization’s members and their networks. 

You can personalize these messages by:

You can make personalization easier by segmenting employees and customers into groups based on common interests and characteristics. This helps you send more targeted communications, resulting in a higher chance of success!

Although the event’s primary goal is to increase awareness of your cause, it’s still important to ensure attendees have a positive experience. Center the attendee experience by doing the following:

Remember that just because the event is meant to help your organization doesn’t mean the attendees your event partner brings can’t have a great time. Communicate with your event partner to brainstorm events that all attendees would enjoy and fit into their CSR initiatives.

Hybrid and virtual charity events are becoming more popular in today’s increasingly technology-focused world. These events have many benefits when compared to traditional in-person events, such as:

To ensure that attendees have a positive event experience, make sure to add interactive virtual activities, use music to set the mood, and interact with the attendees using the chat function. That way, you get all of the benefits of a hybrid or virtual advocacy event and the connection of an in-person event.

After the event is over, help your local business partner out by measuring the support generated from their employees and customers. With this data, you can help them quantify their impact on your organization—and use this information to improve the future events you run together. 

Take a look at the following metrics:

These metrics all represent some form of conversion from attendee to supporter. By watching these metrics, you’ll be able to assess how successful the event was in advocating for your cause and gaining supporters. You’ll also help your local business partner understand the impact they helped create, which they can use as part of their marketing materials!

Event software for healthcare makes it easy to measure success from pre- to post-event. 

While advocacy events can create a large impact for your healthcare organization, there’s no need to be stressed about making sure that the event runs perfectly. Simply implement the best practices above to make the most of your advocacy events, allowing you to foster a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with your local business partner!

Eager to streamline your healthcare event planning? Look no further than Attendease by Tripleseat. From small to large and complex events, it’s never been simpler to plan and manage all of your events in one flexible platform. Book a call today and discover how Attendease by Tripleseat helps you optimize your event management.

Make your attendees gather with ease. From small to large and complex events – plan and manage all of your events in one flexible platform – Attendease.