Tag: non-profit events

Top Tips for Leveraging Branding Throughout Your Nonprofit Organization’s Event

  • Event Management
  • EventUp Planner Contributor
  • August 22, 2024
Group of people listening to a speaker in an auditorium.

Branding is a crucial part of any organization’s success. Effective branding helps supporters remember who you are, builds an identity for your nonprofit, and boosts your marketing and advertising results. Over time, you can communicate that identity with just a logo or mission statement— for example, think about the feelings, values, and ideologies that come to mind when you see the Nike logo or hear the brand’s slogan.

To strengthen your nonprofit’s brand identity, it’s important to weave your unique logo, mission statement, messaging, and other branded elements into everything you do, including your events. Events offer many opportunities to leverage the power of effective branding, from sharing invitations via direct mail to selling merchandise with your logo. 

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can use cohesive branding to your advantage during each stage of the fundraising process to drive event success. Let’s begin!

Phase 1: Planning

Planning your event is the most important part of the process. As Funds2Orgs’ guide to fundraising event planning highlights, this step will make or break your event’s ability to “drive revenue, expand your reach, and strengthen existing supporters’ connections to your organization.”

Keep your brand in mind during the following event-planning activities:

Defining the event’s purpose and goals.

Each of your fundraisers has some purpose or goal, such as raising money to pay for food and medical care for your animal shelter’s latest round of rescued puppies. Make sure there is a strong connection between your event’s purpose and your brand identity.

Creating event materials.

First, decide whether your nonprofit will use its standard branding or create a custom brand just for the event (like the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life). Then, plan how you’ll feature the branding on event materials like the event website, signage, tickets, packets, and more. For virtual or hybrid events, experiment with creative ways to incorporate your brand into the experience, such as designing a custom Zoom waiting room with branded graphics.

Developing a central theme or message.

Determine how you’ll communicate that connection to your supporters. Incorporate this message into all of your planning documents, especially your marketing plan. With features such as a drag-and-drop email builder and the ability to clone templates, EventUp Planner makes it simple to add your organization’s logo and branded copy to all of your event documents.

Keeping your brand in mind during the planning phase builds a strong foundation for the rest of the campaign. Shaping your event around your nonprofit’s identity and mission is much easier than trying to bend your brand around a mismatched fundraiser.

Phase 2: Promotion

During this phase, focus on spreading the word about your event to attract attendees. Reinforcing your branding in your marketing campaigns is crucial, particularly when you’re reaching out to donors through multiple communication channels (or balancing multiple events). Strong branding makes your communications more recognizable, trustworthy, and memorable. 

When your supporters can trust the email, social media post, or advertisement inviting them to your event, they’ll be more likely to attend. To establish this credibility and cultivate brand recognition, your organization should:

1. Develop a unified visual identity by incorporating your logo, brand colors, and fonts into each marketing message. This includes emails, flyers, posters, digital graphics, videos, and more. If the event has its own branding, make sure to add your nonprofit’s primary logo to these materials as well.

2. Try using brand storytelling, a technique that involves creating a narrative around your brand to build emotional connections with your supporters. For example, the clothing retailer Patagonia has an ongoing program called Worn Wear in which customers can trade in and buy used Patagonia items to offset clothing waste. This aligns with their branding as an environmentally-conscious, outdoor gear brand.

3. Always keep branding consistent across various communication channels. As Allegiance Group + Pursuant’s nonprofit digital marketing guide explains, this consistency is what will boost recognition the most among your supporters. Event planning tools like EventUp Planner can keep your event / fundraiser on-brand using handy features like an intuitive website builder, pre-built templates, and easy cloning functions.

Remember not to limit your focus on branding to just the visual elements. Your brand also extends to your messaging, which is influenced by your mission, values, promises to your beneficiaries and supporters, and other related concepts. In other words, your promotions shouldn’t just look like they belong to your nonprofit—they should also sound like your nonprofit.

Phase 3: Execution

Once it’s time for the event, you should have all of your event materials ready, finalize an agenda of activities for supporters, and expect plenty of attendees. To reinforce your branding at this stage, prioritize the following elements:

1. Environment: Ensure your event venue reflects your brand identity by using branded signage, banners, displays, and booths. Match your decor to both your brand and the event type (e.g., using tablecloths and floral arrangements at a gala and balloons and streamers at a charity race). To encourage more engagement, consider adding links or scannable QR codes to signage that lead attendees to your website, donation page, or social media accounts.

2. Experience: Offer a consistent experience that aligns with your values, from registration to the close of the event. For example, you might send attendees a heartfelt thank-you note when they register for the event, share a reminder email that tells the story of one of your beneficiaries, and have volunteers embody your brand values when interacting with supporters.

You can also enhance attendees’ experiences by offering interactive activities that immerse them in your brand. An organization dedicated to bringing clean water to those with limited access could set up an activity that allows attendees to walk through a day in the life of a beneficiary. Or, it might offer a mini volunteer opportunity such as assembling water filter kits to send to those in need.

Phase 4: Follow-up

Your work isn’t done when the event ends. Now, it’s time to dive into your event analytics and follow up with attendees.

Start by sharing personalized, branded thank-you messages with everyone who attended- sincerely thank them for their support, and leverage donor segmentation to tailor each message to their giving level and preferences. In addition to visual branding, clarify how their support and attendance at the event are promoting your brand values.

Consider reaching out to attendees for feedback as well. Share surveys that ask them about what went well and how you could improve. Add a question or two to gauge how well you communicated your brand, such as, “Are you aware of our core mission and values?” Event management software like EventUp Planner makes sending post-event communications and surveys an easy and painless process.

From planning your event to thanking attendees for their support, your branding should feature prominently during each step of the campaign. This gives each attendee a cohesive, positive experience with your nonprofit and frequently reminds them of who you are and what you stand for. As you refine your brand and infuse it into your marketing efforts, you’ll strengthen your nonprofit’s reputation as a trustworthy organization dedicated to social good.

Learn more about how EventUp Planner can help your nonprofit organization plan, manage, and track your events, without breaking your budget. Set up a free demo with our team today!

Healthcare Event Planning: 5 Best Practices for Advocacy Events

  • Event Trends
  • May 2, 2024
Advocacy Events: 5 Best Practices for Generating Support

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!

Table of Contents

  1. Set clear goals for your advocacy events
  2. Personalize all promotional communications
  3. Center the attendee experience
  4. Consider virtual or hybrid advocacy events
  5. Measure the support generated

Healthcare Events and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Perfect Fit

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. 

5 Tips for Planning Healthcare Advocacy Events

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. 

1.   Set clear goals for your 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:

  • How many conversions are we aiming for?
  • Are we planning on funneling attendees toward becoming donors, volunteers, or both?
  • How long do we want our new relationships to last?
  • Will there be media coverage, and what do we hope to gain from it?

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. 

LEARN MORE: Need fresh ideas for your next healthcare event? We’ve got you covered. 

2.   Personalize all promotional communications

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:

  • Using the recipient’s preferred name. Some individuals want to be addressed by their first name or a nickname, whereas others will be more receptive if you use their title and last name, so make note of these preferences.
  • Leveraging employee and customer interests. If your local business partner knows that some of their employees or customers would be particularly interested in an event, make sure to address that in your communications to them.
  • Examining the recipient’s advocacy history. If your partner’s employees or customers have a history of volunteering, advocating in the community, donating to healthcare organizations, or attending healthcare fundraising events, they will be more receptive to attending advocacy events for your organization. 

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!

LEARN MORE: Review our top tips for streamlining your healthcare website to better communicate about your upcoming events. 

3.   Center the attendee experience

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:

  • Make registration easy. You’ll want to make event registration simple and convenient to encourage more people to attend. You can make the registration page mobile-friendly and have a simple ticket purchase system.
  • Choose an event that supporters would enjoy. Consider both your supporters and your event partner’s employees, and decide on an event that both groups would be happy to attend. You can even survey supporters and employees to determine what events they’d enjoy.
  • Keep presentations short and sweet. Presentations are often held at advocacy events to educate attendees on your cause and operations. However, these presentations can distract from the main activities of the event. Keep them concise so attendees can absorb the information and go back to enjoying the event.
  • Pick interactive activities. Games, performances, virtual reality experiences, and other interactive activities keep attendees engaged throughout the event!

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.

4.   Consider virtual or hybrid healthcare events

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:

  • No distance limitation. Since the event is virtual, supporters from all over the country or world can attend.
  • Greater outreach. Because individuals from different locations can attend your virtual event, your local business partner will be able to reach a wider audience.
  • Convenience. Supporters can attend your virtual event from their homes, making it a convenient option.

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.

LEARN MORE: Engage more supporters and grow your audience with virtual fundraising events. 

5. Measure support generated

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:

  • Newsletter sign-ups
  • Volunteer registrations
  • Donations

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. 

Simplify the Complexity of Managing Your Meetings and Events with a Powerful Suite of Tools

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.

Simplify the Complexity of Managing Your Meetings and Events with a Powerful Suite of Tools

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.

Learn More!