 Hello everyone and thanks for joining me today for our webinar on using event fundraising to boost your next campaign. And I just wanted to give a special thank you to those of you who registered for this webinar last week. And unfortunately it had to be canceled at the last minute because I was out with the flu. So I appreciate you being flexible and showing up again this week. Also the flu was absolutely terrible. So if you have not gotten a flu shot. It is not too late flu season is not yet over. My name is Linda Gerhardt and I'm the Senior Community Engagement Manager here at Mighty Cause. I've been with Mighty Cause since 2016. And before that I worked in the nonprofit sector in marketing and communications roles. You can always reach out to me to discuss fundraising strategy, nonprofit marketing, communications strategy at Linda at Mighty Cause dot com. I'm always available to you. My job is marketing for Mighty Cause. But also I'm here as a resource to help you out in your nonprofit fundraising efforts. Here's a quick look at the agenda for today's webinar. I'm hoping to keep the presentation to about 30 minutes with some time at the end for a live Q&A. Just as a bit of housekeeping, since I'll be taking questions at the end, if you have a question, just type it into the questions box of your go-to webinar panel. And I'll go through everyone's questions at the end of the presentation. All right. So with that out of the way, let's get started. Before we talk about event fundraising tactics, I want to first go over what event fundraising is and how it works on Mighty Cause. In a nutshell, events on Mighty Cause are a supercharged peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. As you probably already know, a peer-to-peer fundraiser is when an individual fundraises on behalf of your nonprofit. And with an event, you're organizing multiple individuals and groups to fundraise on your behalf. So it takes that idea of peer-to-peer fundraising and amplifies it. An easy example would be a charity walk where a walker would sign up to participate and then ask their friends and family to make donations to support their participation in the walk. Mighty Cause provides tools you can use to easily onboard participants and get them started raising money more quickly. One of the ways event fundraising on Mighty Cause works is by inspiring friendly competition. An event page on Mighty Cause has a leaderboard where individuals and teams can compete for the top spot, and we'll discuss the different ways nonprofits can work to stoke the flames of competition a little bit later on, but it's built into the fabric of event pages on Mighty Cause. Events are also a great way to get sponsors involved, and Mighty Cause has tools to recognize your sponsors on the event page itself. You can add their logos, include a link to their website, and set up your own custom sponsorship tiers. So the key features of event fundraising pages on Mighty Cause are, as we just discussed, leaderboards, which are set up to accommodate individuals and teams, which is a new thing for us. You can now have individuals and teams fundraising at the same time and competing against one another. And that's one thing that's new about events. You can have teams within an event, and it's not just individuals. A team has individuals fundraising for a single cause, but an event has individuals and teams fundraising at the same time for a cause. So people can join us themselves. They can start a team to organize people that they know or join an existing team to fundraise for your event. So that is a lot of opportunity to add complexity to the event and engage different types of fundraisers. Event fundraising is always time-sensitive. So you have a deadline that's clear on your page and it's goal-oriented. So you'll set a fundraising goal and have a progress bar or thermometer on your page tracking how close you are to that goal. Now, one thing to note about event fundraising on Mighty Cause is that you're not locked into that goal. So if you don't hit your goal or if you want to change it, you can absolutely do that. You're not set in stone. You can change that as you need to. So you've got reports that you can use to keep track of members, as well as the ability to message participants in your event in the app. So you can customize the design of your page and really make it a jazzy standout page that's true to your nonprofit's brand. We also offer fundraiser templates which you can set up to help participants get onboarded and published more easily. And there's a lot of settings you can use to customize your event and run it the way that you want. It's a really flexible tool that can easily accommodate any type of event. And this is a new announcement coming soon in the next few weeks. We'll have an integration with Eventbrite so you can manage registration and ticketing through Mighty Cause as well. We're super excited about that update. We're working really hard on getting it out the door. So keep an eye on your email for an announcement about that very soon. One thing you may be asking yourself now, especially if you've used team fundraising on Mighty Cause, is what exactly is the difference between a team and an event. So team fundraising can exist within an event, but an event can't exist within a team. Teams can also form on their own so they can be standalone fundraising campaigns. The design of team pages is a little bit leaner and more simple. It takes less time and there's less to customize. Teams are really best for smaller scales campaigns where you're organizing a handful of individuals. On a team, each member has their own fundraising page. They can customize where they can collect donations for the team and they have a collective goal. But you can't have a team of teams. A team of teams is basically an event. So if you're looking for something a little bit more simple and don't anticipate groups of fundraisers working together, a team might be the right option for you. But an event is a larger scale campaign and events on Mighty Cause allow for more complexity than just teams. So for instance, a marathon where you'll probably have runners joining individually and teams of runners working together to raise money is something you'd want to use events on Mighty Cause for. And as I mentioned, we'll soon have an event break integration for events. So if you need people to register or you're selling tickets to your event, you'll want to use events as opposed to a team. All right, so now we'll move on to some of the basics of event fundraising. So to get the idea of what event fundraising is all about, I thought we'd go through some of the most successful types of events on Mighty Cause. First is marathons and the whole a-thon genre of fundraisers. That includes straight up marathons, but it also includes things like writeathons, readathons, artathons, and ergathons. I had absolutely no idea what an ergathon was until I started working for Mighty Cause and it's basically a bunch of rowers competing to row the longest on a rowing machine, which is called an erg machine. And it's probably surprising to hear, but ergathons are actually one of the most popular and successful types of events on Mighty Cause. That was a surprise to me too. As somebody who's worked in the nonprofit sector, I had never heard of it, but there's tons of them on Mighty Cause and they've raised a lot of money. Basically, any sort of a-thon is successful because it's tailor-made to get people engaged and it gives people an easy way to reach out for support. They don't really have to know a whole lot about the cause or explain the cause or get into the weeds of discussing your cause with people. They just have to say, hey, I'm participating in a readathon for charity and I need your support. They're easy for donors to understand and they give participants an easy way to talk about what they're doing and get involved. The second most common and successful type of event on Mighty Cause is athletic events. One that we've been hosting for years is a cycle across the state of Illinois for the nonprofit concerns of police survivors. They do it annually and they always raise a ton of money and garner an incredible amount of support. So things like triathlons, Ironman competitions and so on, where people are already in the competitive spirit and doing something remarkable that the average person probably can't do are awesome ways to raise money for an event. And lastly, there are more inclusive events that really anyone can participate in like charity walks, short hikes for charity, family fun runs and so on. These are things that schools can easily pull off and they can accommodate people of all abilities and fitness levels. These are live events where people raise money in the weeks or months leading up to the event and they can be hugely successful because they cast a little bit of a wider net with the people who can participate. Regardless of the type of event, successful events all have some key things in common. Number one, they are well organized. They have a person or group of people running the show, making sure participants know what they're doing, keeping them motivated and setting them up for success. They're also engaging to participants and donors. They get people excited to participate, to support someone they know who is participating and it's the kind of thing people want to be a part of. It feels like a community event. Organizations that host successful events think about what is exciting to communities, what they would want to attend and what piques people's interest and what would drive people to want to participate in their event. Basically, they're not boring. They get people interested. Another thing successful events have in common is a connection to a cause. It's clear what they're doing and they're doing it, why they're doing it and the event itself makes sense for the cause. For instance, an animal shelter might host a cherry walk for animals where people bring their dogs for the short walk. Or as a real life example, there's an organization called the Louisville Story Program in Kentucky and each year they host a write-a-thon where they have local writers participate in a writing marathon in support of their program, which of course teaches writing. During the government shutdown, a DC area food bank held a virtual food drive in support of government workers. So an event that successful needs to make sense for the cause and work hand in hand with that cause and not be in conflict with it or be confusing when considered alongside the cause. And lastly, events that are successful need a clear goal. What are you trying to do? Why are you doing it? How much are you looking to raise and why are people getting involved? Successful events bake this into the fabric of their event so it can easily be understood from the name of the event or just a quick glance at the logo and the event page. So successful events also have some essential roles that people organizing them or participating in them need to play. The first is an organizer and that's who the event starts with. That can be a nonprofit, a workplace, a school, a student group, volunteers or someone that's just motivated and philanthropic and involved in their community that wants to start an event for a cause. The organizer creates the event page and leads the charge really getting people involved, publicizing the event and setting up all the infrastructure that's needed for the event. Participants are people who sign up to raise money for the event and they can participate on their own as a team leader or as part of a team. And of course, you've also got donors. They're an essential part of any event. Usually your donors are friends and family of your participants who want to make a donation to show their support for the person who's participating. And that's one of the coolest things about events that have this peer-to-peer aspect built in. You're able to engage so many more people than you would if you were just operating from your nonprofit's own donor base. So it's a really great donor acquisition tool because you're basically leveraging your existing supporters, people who already support your cause or are on board with what you're doing to bring new people into the fold. In terms of the types of events that are out there, we've talked a lot about live events like walk-a-thons, but they can also be online only. At Lady Cause, we don't really see any difference in the amount digital-only events raise over live events. And that's often because there's a lower bar for participation. People don't have to commit to attending something months down the line. They just have to sign up and devote some time to the event online. So they can sort of do it on their own schedule and their own timetable. So if you're intimidated by planning a live event or just don't have the resources to get a live event going right now, an online-only event can be a great way to get into event fundraising without having to worry about event planning and permits and parking and all that fun stuff that comes with live events. And then, of course, there's live events. These are a lot more labor-intensive for the people planning them. There's a reason event planning is often at the top of lists of the most stressful jobs. There's a lot involved with it. But when you have the resources to plan an event, they can be a huge source of revenue for nonprofits. One way to get around hosting your own event is to piggyback onto an existing event, like a local marathon or a bike race where people can choose their own charities. Our event fundraising tools work to supplement these live events. They're not the main show, but they're part of the event, and they help you generate revenue. And then, finally, there are integrated events. These events have an online component as well as a live component, and people can choose how they want to participate. For instance, a marathon might have some pajama rate participants who fundraise digitally but don't actually run in the marathon as well as some people who want to run in the marathon but don't participate in the fundraising aspect before the actual marathon. So these events allow the participants some flexibility in choosing how they want to get involved and Mighty Cause is able to accommodate these types of events as well. So now to move into some tactics you can use to boost your next campaign. So the biggest thing you can really do to boost your campaign is offer incentives for participants. Bragging rates are great, it can be motivating to some people, but having prizes for your top fundraisers and your top participants can really take an event from good to great. And that's because prizes help generate buzz and they make it attractive for people to participate. It would be awesome if altruism and wanting to help your cause were enough and for some people it absolutely is, but in general, people are more likely to do things if there's something in it for them, if the thing that they're being asked to do requires a little bit of work. So the opportunity to win cool prizes can help get more people involved and generate excitement about your event. It's also a great way to engage sponsors. For instance, if you were running a virtual food drive, having a local restaurant you've worked with in the past that's an advocate for your cause provided gift certificate to your top fundraiser could be a really cool way to nurture that relationship, get them involved and help them build some good will in the community. So you're engaging sponsors and engaging participants at the same time with prizes so it's a win-win for everybody involved. You can also put sponsor logos on things like t-shirts, pins and so on that are offered as prizes. So with prizes, there's so much opportunity to get creative with sponsors. And it's also a great way to start the conversation with a potential sponsor. Prices are something new at your organization and event that's coming up that you'd like them to get involved with is an excellent icebreaker. And prizes do something really well that's super important, they stoke competition. And just to be clear, these don't need to be super extravagant prizes to inspire competition. There was a nonprofit that we'll talk about a little bit later that offered a vintage board game that somebody had donated to them with a prize for their top fundraiser. And it was really effective at driving competition. It was something that cost the nonprofit absolutely nothing. And it was something that was connected to their cause and it motivated participants. So it doesn't need to be diamonds or something really extravagant and luxurious. It just needs to be something cool that's connected to your cause. Prices also give you a tool to keep contacting your participants, reminding them of who's in the lead, what the prizes are and so on. They're really creative with prizes and incentives. They really don't need to be limited to just give baskets and give certificates, although those things work just as well. You can think about experiences that might be meaningful for participants or even just little pieces of swag that they might appreciate having. One thing that will really give your campaign a boost is strengthen numbers. Encouraging people to team up for a cause will help you see bigger results. On average, people when they work as teams is 30% more than individuals on Mighty Cause. So our technology is perfect for allowing them to do that. So volunteer groups, workplaces, businesses, board members, student groups and so on can participate as teams and raise money together. So invite them to participate as a group. It gives you a lot of opportunity to engage different types of fundraisers and you'll get to see more from your campaign when you get people fundraising together. One thing that really famous and successful events do and you can probably think of a couple right off the bat is that they brand their event well and that means they give it a clever name and you can even hold a competition if you need help coming up with a clever name and work to create a logo. You can work with volunteers or again hold a competition to design a logo. You can use the hashtag on social media to identify your event, get it trending, get people talking about it and then you can just insert that into your social media shares from your Mighty Cause page using your social sharing settings. Get sponsors involved, create some collateral like t-shirts and stickers and pins to advertise your event and again you can work with local businesses to get these things for cheap and they can also double as prizes and swag for your participants in addition to helping you market and brand your event. You have a lot of flexibility with your Mighty Cause page to add your own branding, make your event custom and jazzy so all of these steps will help you build your event's brand and reputation and make it look professional and exciting. Alright, so this might seem obvious but it's kind of amazing to me as somebody who's worked in communications and PR how often media outreach gets overlooked by nonprofits that are hosting events. First, the easiest thing you can do is start out by writing a press release about your event. Writing a press release is actually pretty easy, it sounds intimidating but you can find templates online. It's basically an inverted triangle format meaning the most essential facts are at the beginning of the press release, the date, what you're doing, when it's happening, what it's all about and then you add some fluffier details and some quotes from leadership that your organization further down in the press release. So the important stuff is at the top of the inverted triangle and the less essential stuff that the media into a piece is a little bit further down. If you have a media contact list send them the press release and if you don't have one yet you can just put one together, find some local press emails, do a little bit of internet research and put together a list of media contacts you can send your press release to. Getting some press coverage for your event will help more people learn about it obviously. It generates buzz and it can help elevate the status of your event in your community. You can also host a press conference like your media contacts. You can have it at your location if you have a broken mortar location just have your executive director or a staff member that's comfortable speaking with the press camera ready, prepare some talking points about the event and that can help you secure some local media coverage. Local reporters especially are often on the lookout for content because they have to chart it out at a really high rate. So being proactive with a press conference can be beneficial for you and also the press to build relationships with local media. Some nonprofits, especially small ones don't think that a press conference is something that they're allowed to do especially if they don't have PR or media experience but it's actually a very simple thing. You just need a room, a representative and if your contact list was good people will come and talk to you about your event. You just need to invite people and often they'll just bring cameras, get a quick interview and put you on the news. Also look to local opportunities to promote your event. For instance, I worked for a local animal shelter and did their PR and marketing and we had a regular spot on a local news channel that was called Adorable Adoptables where we would bring in puppies or kittens or whatever and talk about how they were available for adoption. So getting the message about an upcoming event that we had coming on the news was literally just a matter of finding the staff member who would take puppies or kittens to the news station and telling them to plug that event during the segment. You can also reach out to local radio shows and sometimes morning shows especially are willing to let you talk for a few minutes about your event because they've got lots of time to fill so if it's happening in their community and you're available to talk about it and willing to talk about it they're usually very happy to let you talk about it on the air. Another thing that rarely gets considered is public service announcements. Most media companies do devote a certain amount of time that they donate to PSAs so if you're a 501C3 non-profit you are eligible to have a public service announcement with donated airtime. There are some regulations like you can't use it for direct advertising but check with your volunteer base if you have any PR folks in your volunteer base they can help you write a script and record a radio PSA it does not need to be an elaborate production you can find out how most media companies handle PSAs on their websites but that's also free advertising you can use to spread the word about your cause so think about how you can use it as a note getting donated advertising space is also something that board members tend to love hearing about so it's something you can also use as a feather in your cap when it's time to report on your results so that's a win-win definitely involve volunteers with this and see what you can do you don't have to do all of these things but these are just some ideas to get more exposure in your own community Lastly generating early interest is another key to running a successful event you can charge a cheaper early bird registration fee through Eventbrite that incentive is getting involved early and you can also offer up some perks to people who sign up early things like offering a t-shirt for us 50 people who register or a swag bundle to the first 100 participants can motivate people to sign up early and getting people on board early is important because people are more likely to join events when they see that others are already participating and when you've got a robust base of participants your event feels more legitimate and credible and it carries a little bit more cloud so getting that early interest is really essential but now we're going to change direction a little bit and focus on three successful events on Mighty Cause and just guess why they were successful these are all real events that have happened or are happening on our platform so hopefully these can help give you some inspiration and show you what goes into making an event successful the first campaign we're going to highlight is called Raise the Do it's actually in progress on Mighty Cause right now but they are well on their way to hitting their fundraising goal Raise the Do is a fundraising event from the Campus Kitchens Project which is a national program of a non-profit called DC Central Kitchens and they aim to end hunger by addressing their root causes and teaching students at campus kitchen projects across the country to turn unused food into meals for their communities and you can take a look at their page screen shouted here they have a really attractive page it looks great Raise the Do is an annual event that's taken place since 2013 so it's got some history behind it and it engages students on high school and college campuses all over the country it's mostly organized by one woman who works out of DC Central Kitchens headquarters in Washington DC and she not only works to get all these student groups on board but she sends them weekly emails prepares a toolkit for the campus groups and coaches them on how to fundraise effectively all together Raise the Do has raised over $300,000 since it started on Mighty Cause and their average donation is just $55 so it's a really great example of how people coming together to give it smaller levels can have a huge impact collectively now one of the reasons for their success is the campaign itself as we discussed earlier they have a snappy name that's clever it's punchy it's affordable and it's connected to their cause they also have their own logo so they've done an awesome job of branding this event another thing they do really really well is they organize the person at their headquarters office does an amazing job connecting far flung groups with the campaign and getting them working together for the cause and just working to motivate them and keep them on track toward the goal this really is not a huge nonprofit and they don't have tons of people in this campaign one person is really the force behind the fundraiser so they're a great example of how you can run a large scale event with a smaller workforce and budget the next campaign I wanted to highlight is called champions of diversity which is an event that's organized by a nonprofit called Bay Area Urban Debate League every year and they're also known as Bottle they get underserved youth involved with debate which is an important part of the campaign. We have a lot of people who are trying into the legal profession a lot of people who do debate in high school go on to law school and become legal professionals so teaching these young students debate helps them succeed in school helps them graduate and pursue college education. Champions of diversity is an online fundraising event where the local legal community raises money for Bottle it takes place in the first two weeks they achieve quite a lot and they have raised more than $365,000 since their first champions of diversity event on Lady Cause in 2014 they've engaged a lot of donors more than 2,000 and it's one of their two main fundraising events each each year so one of the reasons champions of diversity is such a success each year is that competition is built in giving the participants they are all lawyers so they're all naturally pretty competitive people and Bottle also sets up a template that allows participants to get their pages published more easily with talking points about Bottle and the campaign built in since their participants are busy legal professionals they don't have a lot of time to spend customizing their pages and creating them from scratch this really helps the people who are participating in champions of diversity get up and running and raising money sooner similarly like Raise the Doe the reason for the event is all over it it's all about diversity debate the legal pipeline and it's 100% about their cause it's clear from the event what they're trying to do and advocate for and their event is really clear and has concise easy messaging alright so last up is Thrive by Five Giving Day which actually just concluded for this year this is a newer event on Lady Cause we've done an amazing job building their brand and making their event a success Thrive by Five Giving Day is organized by the community foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County in Indiana and it's a 24 hour online giving marathon that supports their Thrive by Five program which advocates for early childhood education and the idea that with support from the community children can thrive by the time they're five years old they have a fund for this program which they use in part to match funds for this event which adds an incentive for fundraisers and donors they get to double the impact of their donations because of this matching grant this year which is just their second year on Mighty Cause they raised almost $120,000 in just one day one of the major keys to success here is the giving day format the time limitation creates a sense of urgency to donate now and it makes it a lot harder for people to say well I'll give some other time or the next time I get paid it really effectively motivates people to give now and the matching funds add to that urgency if donors want to be able to maximize their donations impact they have to give on the giving debt they have a snappy name their own logo and it clearly communicates what Thrive by Five is all about they do a really great job each year creating adorable clear well done photographs of kids to drive home the message of their program and their giving day on their Mighty Cause page and they're also finding some of their biggest advocates and fundraisers from within they engage board members local teachers and so on to fund raise for the giving day so these aren't strangers off the street that are doing the legwork here it's people who care deeply about this cause and are connected to the cause of early college education so I hope that these events have given you a little inspiration I'll be sending out the slides and you can always search for them on Mighty Cause to check out their page and I just wanted to mention that all of these are actually online only events they don't have a live component so they're digital only and they're great examples of how you can organize creative funds successful events without having to plan a live event alright so now I want to make a little bit of time for questions so give me just a minute to take a look at what we've got so there's a question here about planning an event they had reached out to a marketing person who had said that they need some immediate funds and they reached out and said that they shouldn't start doing this without a donor base without a group of people who know and support your organizations work they would have suggested a fundraising event that it's not the way for them to go and instead focus on building a board and then meeting with everyone, the staff and the board to talk about the organization and start building a fundraising network for this organization do I think that's true I would say probably yes that is a good starting point if you don't have a board in place board members are typically a really great resource when you're planning an event so it's important to make sure that you have a strong board in place with members that are well connected in the community so if you don't have that in place first you may want to focus there one thing that can be really helpful especially if you're in the early days of your nonprofit is a friendraiser event which is basically where it's a non-ask event where people who are involved in your organization whether they're staff members volunteers, your existing board members where they bring a friend and you just meet them and you talk to them about your work you can provide some snacks and some drinks and just make it a social event so you can build your donor base that's one way to build some roots in the community and get some connections with people organizing a big event without a donor base is going to be tricky because those people who already invested in your cause who are already working as advocates for your cause whether they're board members or volunteers or staff members are going to be essential as you're planning an event those are the people that you're going to count on to spread the word to bring people in to get them involved in your cause so I would tend to agree with that but I would say that you can still have an event like the friendraising events you can have in the next session where people can learn about your work get out into the community you can also see if there are other events already happening that you can piggyback onto like for instance if there's a charity walk happening or a marathon see if you can set up a booth and hand out information and meet people in the community so having a giant full boogie event when you're still kind of in the infancy of your nonprofit is tricky you can do it but you might want to focus on the groundwork first and then build up to an event because they are definitely more resource intensive more time intensive and they're kind of advanced fundraising techniques so I would tend to agree with that but don't be discouraged you can get there and as far as immediate funding is concerned diversify your fundraising stream start a crowdfunding campaign you can start a digital event where people can fundraise for you if you have a specific need that you need to address right now so don't be discouraged just maybe scale back your expectations you probably won't be able to successfully host a big charity walk when you're still getting established but you can host smaller events out in the community that will help you fundraise and also help you build your donor base build your email list and so on and if you need to chat with me I'm happy to connect with you outside of this webinar so we can talk about it and maybe see if there are some strategies you can put in place all right again if you have any any questions just type them into the questions box on the go-to webinar panel and we'll make sure to get to them I have a question about the event bright integration when will the event bright integration be out my understanding from our developers is that you'll have it by March so as soon as it's ready and pushed to the mighty cause platform if you're an admin you'll get an email announcing it so make sure that you're signed up for our emails we also announce everything on our blog which is blog.mightycause.com so keep an eye on our blog for an announcement there but just make sure you're signed up for our emails because as soon as it's available we will let you know in an email so that you can start using it if you're really excited about it it's going to happen very very soon so keep your eyes peeled for that announcement okay we've got a question about a media contact list this question is if you don't have a media contact list how do you put one together it's actually something you can put together with just an hour or so of online research you can probably pinpoint the main local media outlets near you the news stations newspapers and so on their websites will have some contact information listed there if possible you should try to get in touch with an actual reporter rather than just a generic email address so check to see if there's a reporter that seems to cover the local event beat or tends to cover a nonprofit and charitable efforts and see if their email address is listed often it is so you can always add that to your list just stick all of that information into a google sheet and create an email contact list this is a task that can also easily be farmed out to volunteers so if you have a volunteer that likes to do remote work and likes to do internet research this can be a really fun task for them and it's not a very time time demanding one and then the trick is just maintaining that list as you get coverage make sure that the reporter's names and contact info is tracked in your contact sheet and updated in your address book so it's really something that is a great investment it only requires a few hours of your time if that you just need to do some internet research figure out who the contacts in your area are and then stick them in a spreadsheet and that's something that you don't need any special contacts to do you can just see what's available publicly local news outlets especially they want to have story ideas from people they want people approaching them and saying hey here's an issue you should cover so often it's really easy to find information about local news outlets and get in touch with people at those outlets okay there's a question about planning a live event for the first time I'm planning a walk and I'm a little nervous about missing something so do you have any tips yes and the biggest tip I can give you is to make lists and get someone to double check you you don't have to go it go it alone involve a volunteer involve another staff member and just you know let them let them double check you work with them so that you have someone checking behind you and saying hey did you think about this sit down make a list investigate any permits you will need well in advance because those can be the trickiest and most time consuming things about an event like a walk often there's a lot of red tape and bureaucracy that you'll need to wait through and you'll need to give yourself some time to secure the permits that you need and work things out with the venue wherever you're having the walk if you need streets shut down for instance that's a whole thing if you need you know police to be involved that's a whole thing so think about those logistical aspects first those are the things that are going to need a long lead you're going to need some time to deal with those so prioritize those and then good luck in that planning is not for the things of heart so don't be afraid to loop in volunteers and ask for some help with some of the tasks involved you know you don't have to go out alone you may even be able to find somebody at your city or county that has experience helping with these types of events obviously they probably won't be able to devote 40 hours a week to it but they can sort of give you some information that might be helpful to you as you're planning your walk so you know don't go it alone ask for help reach out to your city or county and see see what you can get help with okay so there is oh this is a good question what about tagging into an event that's already existing because of relevance such as raising funds for girls education on international women's day yes that's exactly what I was talking about in terms of piggybacking on an event so if you ran a nonprofit that was dedicated to teaching girls how to write code or advocating for girls to get education in different countries that sort of thing can be perfect for plugging into and hosting an event on that day we've seen nonprofits do that we actually have a nonprofit that has a phenomenal women's campaign every single year where they've raised a lot of money and having that additional trending topic to talk about when people are thinking about your cause they're thinking about girls in education on international women's day that is perfect that is the perfect time to host an event so if you know of any holidays like yesterday I think was like love your pet day if you have an animal shelter or an animal rescue having like a 24-hour fundraising marathon event on love your pet day is great that's something that you can piggyback onto you can also check your local events calendar to see if there is an existing in-person event that you might be able to get involved with and by that I mean local events like a farmers market sometimes will allow nonprofits to hand out information that's not really a fundraising event sometimes if you have a marathon that's happening in your town you can invite people to fundraise for your cause during the marathon sometimes you can have booths at events where you can pass out information grow your email list meet people but definitely the international women's day campaign something like that where it's kind of vague if you have that a cause that's connected to that topic definitely plug into that use that force that's already driving the international women's day train and just let it propel your event forward have an online giving event on international women's day that's a fantastic idea and that's exactly what I was talking about like piggybacking onto an existing event and then the other idea of course there I already said this is piggybacking onto a live event so who is hosting a live event who's already done the work of getting the permits can I get involved somehow can I call them up and be like hey can I have a booth or can people fundraise for my organization too at this event so just keep your pulse keep an eye on the pulse of what's happening in your community because you may be able to find some things that you can just get in on and you don't have to go through the motions of starting from scratch and planning the event yourself there's already lots of events that are local and have lots of nonprofits participating in them so see what's out there and definitely keep an eye on those sort of online awareness raising events obviously like you're breast cancer nonprofit breast cancer awareness month is a perfect time to do a fundraiser so these months these days they happen throughout the year and it's a perfect excuse to have a giving day online and raise some money for your cause okay so how can I find out how to most effectively use Mighty Cause for our nonprofit to piggyback on a community giving I will say that there's a little bit of nuance there so for instance we have giving days on Mighty Cause that are contracted events that are usually hosted by a community foundation have lots of nonprofits involved in those cases you may be locked into using a specific platform hopefully they're using us if not you can certainly make the case that they should switch to Mighty Cause because we have a giving day platform that's super user friendly we host giving events all over the country so check to see if it's not something that's already hosted on Mighty Cause and then just find out more about the event if it's something that's hosted on another platform you may be locked into using those but if you're not involved in that giving day who knows you may be able to just start your own fundraiser and fundraise on that day outside of the platform but you can email me at lindaatmightycause.com with a few more details about the giving event and just we can talk through how you can get involved with that giving days are a little bit different like price by five that's their own giving day they just created that they run it we don't have anything to do with it aside from providing the technology sometimes giving days can be a little bit more specific in terms of how the hosts want people to participate so it just depends on some of the particulars of that event but just send me an email lindaatmightycause.com and we can talk through that and figure out how you can use Mighty Cause to get involved alright so I think that was all of our questions and again if you have a specific question about running an event or how to run an event or just general nonprofit fundraising I am available to you my still getting caught up from being out for a week because of the flu but I will try to get back to you as soon as I can my email is lindaatmightycause.com so feel free to reach out to me I'm always available to you and that is it for our presentation today I will make sure that all of you get copies of the slides and the reporting once it's available thank you so much for being flexible and registering for this event and sticking with me even though it was cancelled last week I hope you all have a great day and good luck with your events