Let me guess, your fundraising event is lagging and you're not raising enough money. You're getting lost in the masses (after all, there were 35,000 new nonprofit organizations created last year). Before you can make any changes and successfully alter your programs and strategies, you need to understand the changing world of which you are a part of.

You know those 35,000 new nonprofit organizations from last year? Well, they all have a good cause; everybody is doing something that is important. As such, it is becoming increasingly difficult for nonprofits to differentiate themselves. In addition, Giving has been in a steady, flat proportion to our GDP for about 40 years. So giving is growing with the GDP, but it remains in a steady proportion.

There is a much more competitive environment than there used to be. There are more and more organizations competing for a static pool of funding. There are more and more media outlets and messages out there for the public. The internet has transformed and is continuing to transform how people get their information and how they relate to giving with their organization. 

Old methods of advertising, awareness and general marketing aren't working and new methods are expanding and increasing. Experiential marketing is a $50 billion annual industry, because as old methods decrease in effectiveness, experiential marketing has become very effective. 

Cause marketing is the fastest growing field of sponsorship, accounting for $1.4 billion of that $50 billion, or over 10% of the total sponsorship money.

The largest and wealthiest organizations are the ones reaping the benefits. Nonprofits have $1.04 trillion in assets, but 60% of those assets are held by just one percent of the organizations.

So, how can you apply all of that to yourself?

  • Differentiate yourself as best you can. Do anything that others aren't doing en masse.
  • Join the fold and include experiential marketing -- events -- into your overall fundraising strategy if you don't already.
  • Establish a fundraising event planning process that is driven towards clear, definable and measurable goals. Fundraising events are much easier to manage if the process is begun the right way, and if they aren't, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Source: Adapted by Jake Emen from Jeff Shuck's Nonprofit 911 Presentation "Event 101 for Fundraisers"