 But now it's time for me to get out of promo mode and tell you about what's happening next So we are going to be talking today all about virtual gala's the thing that I'm all excited and nervous about And so Sarah Hushley is going to be acting as our producer today She's also brought in a guest, but I'm gonna get out of the way and and give you some time with our experts so here we go screen sharing off and It's over to you Sarah Wonderful hello everyone and just give me one moment, please while I do my screen share We practice this very smoothly in our process in our practice. Let me make sure I can get it for you here one second How's that looking? Perfect Great. Thanks. I'm actually I have two screens going so if you see me looking down It's because I'm just keeping an eye on the chat So welcome everyone like Eli said my name is Sarah Hushley I am the founder of charity shift consulting based in Vancouver I helped small and mid-sized nonprofits raise more money Specifically today. We're going to be talking about as you know virtual gala's Such an area of opportunity especially right now during COVID a lot of opportunities for organizations to try out a virtual event to do something new and But it is a bit of an unchartered territory and so there's some nervousness and some uncertainty so we're hoping to be able to show you today the possibilities And and show you that that there's a lot that can really be done So it's my pleasure to introduce you to Ina van Aken Ina is the executive director of one girl can The reason that I brought Ina here with me today Obviously because she's a wonderful person But also because Ina was part of the one of the first Gala's that pivoted from a live in-person event to a virtual event And that happened last spring so I'll turn it over to Ina to say hello and to tell you a little bit about her organization Hi everyone. Thanks Sarah for the introduction Thank you for joining us today I'm I'm very excited to be here A little bit more about one girl can just to give you a little bit of background So we are a Canadian and Kenyan registered charity organization and we work towards bringing the cycle of poverty and establishing gender equality and we do that through education and mentorship for girls and young women in Kenya Our organization is a little bit more unique compared to some other organizations out there in that we are We use a very holistic approach So we empower a girl from the minute she leaves primary school all the way up until she goes into employment Which is somewhat different from other organizations out there that work in this similar realm um, one thing to note though is that our program is or our programming is fully driven by our Kenyan office and our students so The Canadian arm is really responsible for fundraising. Whereas the Kenyan office is very much Working with the girls and our partner schools to make sure that We are able to empower the girls on a day-to-day basis. They should be empowered um now Uh, as sara mentioned, we were One of the first ones out of the gate with our virtual event last year and we'll tell you a little bit more about that later on But one thing to note is that we are a very small organization a very small nonprofit However, our virtual event was incredibly successful Um a little bit of background on our event. We started our annual fundraiser in 2015 and we had set out a goal of $35,000 and 75 people to attend Now over the years, um that event grew quite quickly and in 2019 we raised $550,000 with over 400 guests So that's about a 390 increase. So we grew quickly. Um, and we had a lot of Big boots to fill with our event last year Sarah said as a result of cobit, we couldn't have our in-person event which was scheduled for april 25th And we had to pivot quickly Which we will tell you more about just in just a little bit Great. Thanks so much, Inna So just wanted to touch on a little bit on what you'll learn today. So these are the three things that You'll come away with after our time together So how to prepare for your gala and making sure that you've got everything that you need to be well prepared How to ensure the maximum number of attendees and donors And also how to create an effective fun and engaging event that your guests will love Really, my goal today is to make you feel more confident In your understanding of virtual galas and what goes into them and also excited and Confident in planning for an event if that's what you are planning to do next I like to talk about, you know, people say that the new normal, but I think really what we're talking about Today and especially at this point in 2021 is we're really talking about the next normal Um, I think last year, you know, we saw organizations With some nervousness about events. They might have just fully canceled events Some of them might have pivoted to a virtual and maybe have planned to come back to a regularly scheduled in person event for 2021 but When I talk to different organizations and donors and you know surveys that we hear from across north america It feels like in most places For 2021 events will be Either virtual or hybrid model where small groups might come together or there might be A portion of the event that is in person, but for the most part it is going to be virtual I love it if you could I know some people have already which is fantastic To pop it into the chat and let us know what your plans are What you did last year. So last year, did you have an event planned? And you just you know decided to to cancel it Did you pivot it to a virtual event last year or are you planning a virtual event for this year? I would love to hear from you in the chat Um, you know, I'd love to know what sort of decisions that you've made for your gala for this year I know you've got just a couple months left What have you heard from your previous? Event attendees and and how does that lead to what you're planning for for 2021? Yeah, so it's a it's a very interesting question because And I've noticed in the chat too. Some people are asking. What shall we do this year? Is it an in person or a virtual? We have had some Conversations with some of our major donors in the last few months and we've actually asked them for their feedback As what what did you like from last year? What are you looking forward to this year? What are some other organizations doing that you feel? Feel aligns with with your goals And all of our donors are saying that they actually prefer having a virtual event over an in person event Interesting. Yeah, that was very that was somewhat surprising A lot of people are saying that it it took so much time of their out of their day to actually go to an in person event And they feel like they are much more dedicated with with a virtual event So what we're doing right now is the hybrid event Depending on how covet goes just to give you a little bit of detail our next event is scheduled for june We are hoping that by june we'll be able to have some bubble parties again We're planning for multiple scenarios here. So it all depends on what happens But what we've heard from the industry is that Hybrid events are here to stay. It's something that it seems to be well received So I think moving forward that's what we will be doing is a combination of both in person and as well as virtual really Great thanks for sharing that And I want to just jump back into last year and I want to talk a little bit about your gala I was so impressed, you know When you and I first started talking and you were telling me just how quickly You did from an in person event that was essentially Already planned ready to go And then covet hit and you needed to very quickly make a decision So i'm just going to jump to the next slide. So this tells us a little bit about Your gala and when it was but can you tell us what your process was when you walked through? The realization that the the gala that you had planned would have to be Changed into something new Yeah, for sure. So our event was planned for the end of april And then everything started shutting down here In bc around mid march I think for the longest time we were still somewhat in denial We still figured oh, it's going to take a couple of weeks and we'll we'll be moving forward with everything Everything was in place. We had started ticket sales. We had started advertising towards Our our stakeholders. We had done sponsorship agreements like literally everything was ready We were working on our presentations our slideshows The script was good to go And so when that happened we One thing to realize is for us our annual fundraiser was our biggest revenue-generating opportunity so The the lives of the girls that we support were were basically on the line So we we felt like we had an obligation Towards the girls to make sure that we somehow managed to pivot quickly We are a very small team. We have a team of four people And we just we realized there was no way around it So what we did is we looked at our structure and we looked at what our in-person event was set up as and how much that we could transfer into a virtual environment and so When we were going in To that process what we looked at was okay. What are the key elements that we need to keep? And what are some of the things that don't transfer well to virtual and in that decision? We decided to not do our live auction I know nowadays Live auctions are becoming a bit more common on virtual back then our live auction was focused around experiences and There was no way around that we couldn't do that But everything else was still very much in place and what we really looked at is finding the right Production company that was key One of the things to note with our event is that we have a very Low-cost event. That's something we've always prided ourselves on is that we don't do elaborate dinners or anything like that We keep it to the bare basics or the bare minimum and so The actual virtual event allowed us to work on that even more right Yeah, that's a really good point. I mean that's something With all of the events that that I partner with with other charities is that they're finding that Their expenses have been reduced. We're no longer paying for Hotels and catering and wine and decor And instead we're able just to focus on the that matter and providing a well thought out and well planned event and I think also Because we are opening it up to a wider audience. Anybody can join from literally anywhere in the world Our audience is bigger and our potential for revenue is bigger. So I'm really glad you mentioned that we'll jump into that in a bit more detail in just a second, but I think it's really exciting to share what your results were ena We've got that on the next slide here. So do you want to kind of talk us through what your results look like from last year's gala? Yeah, for sure. So we brought in 320 thousand dollars. Um, we have Five hundred and eighty two registrants, which was much more than we had in previous years Our goal was to get to five hundred and fifty in with an in-person event So to be able to reach that with the short turnaround To advertise was quite significant. We noticed that our audience was coming from Not just all over canada, but the us and even europe which was which was a very big Uh-huh moment for us In terms of our expenses, we spent thirteen thousand five hundred dollars And I have to say with that number the majority of that actually went to our event management company that we worked with because When we had already paid a significant amount of money towards well significant in the big scheme of things not that significant But we had we had paid a lot of event management and event planning costs already In-person event So truly our production cost for switching to a virtual A virtual event was about five six thousand dollars And so that's that's all we we looked at so that was the the biggest The biggest expense really But we had a fantastic turnaround Mind you I do want to say one thing though is that what we did last year. I don't think we could get away with Any more this year? I think you would want to spend a little bit more on production The reality is that I from my perspective we we were at the beginning And so people were very forgiving with the quality of of the production Yes, it was still it was good. It was it worked well, but from behind the scenes from our perspective We know we could do better And so we are budgeting for a little bit more when it comes to our production for this year's event but It just goes to show you that you can reach a really large audience and you can still bring in Significant amount. This was at the height of the pandemic too. We didn't know whether we were going to get anything because People people were in a tough spot and still are so Yeah, we were quite we we considered this to be quite successful Yes, absolutely. And ena just thinking about your registry How how does that compare? Um to the number of people who actually attended your in person event in 2019. Do you do have those numbers are? Yeah, so we um, we had about 400 people attend our in person event So it's higher what we Are hoping for this year is around the same number around 500 ish people Because it's a bit of a different setup. Uh, we also know that a lot of people are are having having done many events So we're trying to operate that. Um, we are still focusing on the majority of our audience to be within bc But we are definitely expanding across canada and and targeting across canada audience Excellent. Thanks for sharing that Um, i'm so excited to follow along your story and see how your 2021 gala turns out because after the success of Of last year. I'm sure it will only kind of go up from there I hope it's going to be definitely different from before and and it needs to be a little bit different But we can get into that in a little bit too. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you um, one of the things I wanted to touch on How many people have heard that this makes me laugh a little bit because you know, I hear from a lot of Partners and they say oh like isn't everyone zoomed out and you know People don't want to attend just another online virtual thing and it's so funny I was having that conversation with someone. Um in the event Planning industry who I respect quite a bit and she laughed as well and she said, you know, what's funny People talk about zoom fatigue, but they don't talk about netflix fatigue And and to me that that really kind of got me thinking about Why is it that we don't get tired of watching netflix and it's because When we watch netflix, it's being it's it's interesting content. It's messaging that's been Curated and created just for us Um, netflix knows what we want to see it cuts out everything that that we don't you know need to see and because of that We're engaged and we're part of this and we kind of lose ourselves in the story I mean who's guilty of losing a couple hours watching netflix. You don't even realize how much time is passed by Um, but I think it's important to put that in context is that Yeah, nobody wants to sit through another boring zoom meeting But that's not what a virtual gala is and that's not what it should be um and and I think kind of touching on ena's piece about what to um invest in I think maybe a year ago Or almost a year ago when when covet first hit and we were all moving things to virtual I think people were kind of forgiving of you know tech issues and stumbles here and there But I think a year in people have really high expectations um Of you know good sound quality good entertainment value. Um, and and I would say when you are event, um Certainly that's one of the most important things to to consider and also to invest in Is to make sure that your uh production quality and your production value is really high So that people um don't have those stumbling blocks of difficulties with seeing or hearing or really understanding what your message is um, I think it's also important to to think about Who your audience is you know, um, I did an event a little while ago We knew that our audience was going to be a little bit older And we literally started the event with uh, it was hosted on zoom and I did a screenshot of You know the bottom um menu on zoom where where you said, you know, click this button Hover your mouse over this button and click it. That's how you mute yourself And you know go to this button and click this button to pin the speaker view and and really helping people feel Not feel embarrassed that they don't know that but making sure that everybody's on the same page with that knowledge Um, because then not only are they engaged in what you're doing, but they also feel included um Another event uh that happened locally a few weeks ago What they did about three hours before they their event They sent out sort of like a tech how to and I thought it was really really clever One of the things that was talked about how to connect your laptop to your tv For those of us that know how to do that that would be second nature But for somebody who doesn't know how to do that this was very easy steps, you know Set up your laptop find your hdmi cable. Here's a little image This is what the cable looks like and connected and it was done a few hours in advance so that if somebody Wasn't familiar with doing something like that. They might be able to you know do a bit more research and figure it out So um, these are the kinds of things to think about it's different than when you're in person And you can just you know bring somebody in the door and show them You know, here's the silent auction section and here's the the ballroom and here's your table This is something that people sort of have to be able to sort out for themselves And you want to make sure that they're able to do that in a really easy way Um, you know, I'm so curious to know what you're doing with your event to make sure that people are Engaged and included and also that it's not boring Yeah, so we um last year it was a very much um a one-way street. It was a It wasn't it was a broadcast basically there wasn't Interactivity this year We are changing it up because that was feedback that we received from both our sponsors as well as donors was that they are looking for interactivity and They don't just want to sit and stare at a stream and and listen in they actually want to play and become a part of that and so We're having a pre event that First of all allows that interactivity We might do like a mixologist or something along those lines But it also allows people to sign up ahead of time and actually test their connection and make sure that everything runs smoothly We will have tech support On site the entire time as well as if we go to the point of having some bubble parties We will have tech support With with our with our bigger bubble parties as well We are having a somewhat a unique event with a virtual reality experience So Yeah, we're transition. We're basically traveling to kenya and Our audience will be able to walk around with the girls and use their phones to be able to do that They'll visit the the family's houses. They'll walk to school with the girls. So it's a bit more technologically Advanced in a way. So we know we have to have that tech support ready But we also know that our storytelling is going to be Quite unique and quite different which we know will resonate with our audience So we we really make sure that as part of our platform choice There is also that opportunity to be interactive and that's something that we went back and forth about Quite frequently about okay, is it is it relevant to have this more expensive platform that allows us to have that connection So that we're on communicate with each other and still feel like there's somewhat networking And so that's that's really what we're what we're looking at right now we're making sure that People have the ability to communicate with each other as well as with us And and feel part of the show and not just sitting in a room and staring at a at a computer screen or a tv screen absolutely, I love that idea that you're actually Literally bringing people into your story That to me that's kind of that next level of beyond the storytelling beyond sharing an impactful story. You're you're in a way That's fantastic. I'm excited to see that all kind of come together The next thing I wanted to talk about is audience and we've kind of touched on audience a little bit but I think it it is The most important thing to consider when I work with charity partners, they'll say to me, you know How how long should we do the event? What platform should we use? What's the what's the best? You know way to do this and what it really comes down to is your audience. There's there's no exact answer for every Event because every event is is slightly different And I've chosen the photos on this slide because I want to really show that you know Someone could be sitting at home with their laptop watching your event They could have young kids and they're all you know sitting in their living room watching the event Or it could be you know depending on restrictions and what those might look like in the coming year In different areas. It might be a bubble party that people can have in their backyard So it looks almost like it would have been before covid Um, but I think it's super important when you're building your program when you're building your speeches When you're doing your pre-recorded That you really want to make sure that everything is tailored to your audience Um, I did an event a little while ago. That was really I would say the average person in our audience was probably 65 plus And the way that we spoke to that audience the way that the program was built was designed very very differently Um than an event that I did that was geared to kind of a 20 and 30 year old type of audience Um, the other thing that I think is really exciting about virtual events is it completely democratizes Um, this idea especially around gala's, you know when we think of gala's the very expensive high ticket Uh, you know social event in this city There's so many people for so many different reasons that they're not able to to go to something like that With virtual events what we're seeing Is that people are no longer bound by physical barriers? By financial constraints by health constraints Um, I did one for a health charity cystic fibrosis. Actually, we've got a couple people from cystic fibrosis canada On the call today and with our virtual events. We actually had people who live with cystic fibrosis Whose health prevented them from attending our events in the past And they were able to join them for the very first time virtually And that's really exciting. I think to to truly be inclusive And to truly break down these barriers and and allow people to to join regardless of of where they are Um, I think it's also important to um, again think about how are these people feeling in a virtual setting? Are they you know people who work from home and they're on video calls all day every day? Um, or might this be the first time that they're attending? An event like this and so so how comfortable are they how familiar are they with what they're doing? um, and I think Ina said as well Thinking about your audience don't only think about who's attended in the past Think about who also could potentially attend now and in the future Um, and what their expat expectations might look like And how you can make it uh engaging and exciting for them Um, Ina, how are you planning this with your audience with your with your event for this year? it we We've gone back and forth with different options. Um, but uh, again speaking to our donors we we Really tried to get their input on on some of these topics to see okay. What can we do with with our new event and so? um One of the things that came up was that accessibility? If a lot of our our donors feel that we are quite well known to have like anyone can go to our event It's targeted to anyone even in person. That was the case um, so what we're doing this year is um, we're we're basing it. We have we have such a diverse audience of different Stages in their life. So what we're doing is we're actually working with different tiered ticket options So whereas we used to have our early birth ticket and then you just paid full price for the ticket and you came We're now looking at making it even more accessible. So we have a low-cost ticket just for the broadcasting link um, we'll have a second tier ticket, which is probably going to be around 125 Dollars and that includes a gift basket for one of our sponsors So are the the people who purchased that ticket will get a return of 99 dollars worth of product Uh for a ticket of 125 dollars And then we have a third tier where we can offer something like whether it's wine or charcuterie Or maybe a more carefully curated box based on on the audience that you have that That would appeal to we played with the idea of having more elaborate bespoke bubble parties almost But we actually walked away from that because we feel that A lot of our donors If they are going to buy a package of maybe even a thousand dollars or more That might take away from their actual giving capacity at the event So what we decided is we'll work with our event planner if a donor comes up to us and they say Oh, you know what the time is right? COVID is somewhat under control. We can have a more elaborate party that Will work with your event planner and there's a menu of choices that they can pick and choose from to see if they want their their party catered or not or if they want decorations or anything anything like audio visual Anything related to that so we leave that up until up to the donor to decide It's available. We offer the service But then it doesn't take away from our logistics knowing that we are a fairly small team And we can't be possibly planning this for uh all all the all the donors that we're working with So yeah, it's it's a different approach, but it feels like there's something for everyone and Even if you don't want to don't want to spend too much you can you can look at that Something else we've seen out there that seems to be doing quite well is also offering the opportunity to give by donation So you set the standard for your ticketing And then you allow people to give more if they want to give more So just a different way of looking at things and making it more accessible That's interesting. I love the idea that you're making it low cost for people who Don't want to spend the extra money on a ticket, but that you're also kind of Outsourcing Your event planning so that you're taking the logistics off of your small team But still allowing people to have those kind of extravagant Parties and celebrations if that's what they choose to do. I think I think that's really smart Because then you're still allowing the people who used to attend a very You know luxurious or exciting Gala can still have an element of that in a way that's that's safe and and kind of appropriate for what you're doing So I think that's really smart One of the things that comes up a lot when we talk about Making sure that we're you know raising as much money as possible with our virtual galas is sponsorship And of course sponsorship being such a big part of revenue, but also a big part of what our events are And I think personally I think that the opportunities for sponsorship in virtual events are actually larger than opportunities for Sponsorship in live events and I'll tell you why for sponsors We in the nonprofit space we see we sometimes think of sponsorship as the same as a donation And it's really not a sponsorship a company is trying to Market their brand and position their brand in a particular way And if you think about it for a sponsor at a live event Their only their sponsorship is only being seen by the people physically in that space When we talk about it from a virtual perspective and and I think Ina's example was great about the number of people Um included in a virtual event as opposed to the live event That sponsorship opportunity in a virtual space becomes huge Um the opportunities are endless for the ways that a sponsor could Partner with your organization in a way that makes sense for them. So it's no longer going to be you know Coat check is sponsored by this law firm or uh, you know a big sign when you walk into a ball Room that this gala is presented by so and so But there are ways whether that be Um, you know, I've seen a gala where we had a sponsor who sponsored a virtual wine tasting Um, I saw another event where there was a virtual uh cheese tasting that was done And these are sponsored by different companies and it actually makes the sponsorship quite a bit stronger I think because the there's there's a bit more of a tie-in rather than just a sponsor logo kind of showing up here and there Um, I'm curious to know what you're doing with your sponsorship Um opportunities for your next gala. Um, so we have taken a bit of a different approach We used to go out with our sponsorship package with all the different sponsorship Available and then it was like a pick and choose menu almost for our sponsors So what we've done this year is we've actually created a different package. We've created an outline of our event And we have taken that to our existing sponsors as well as new sponsors and um, we've we engaged their interest in the event first of all, um and then the second part to that is that Based on the conversation we're having with them. We actually create a specific customized sponsorship package for them mostly because sponsors kept telling us that I don't just want my logo on a slideshow I want leap generation and so Some sponsors are very much about the logos and the visibility But there are a lot of other sponsors out there that are more specific and they want leap generation And even though it may seem more difficult in a virtual setting There are platforms out there that allow you to create a sponsorship room And they can bring all their leads in and so what we're doing is we're actually tying our sponsorship to our storytelling So when our audience is getting a message We're sending out push notifications as they transition to a different segment of the story as we're sharing and so One of them could be for example The story of this person is brought to you by this sponsor And so it's it's more it's more holistic It's it feels more natural and organic rather than just a name on a a name on a slide And we're sharing the sponsor stories in terms of how they became involved with us and making that A part of our actual event rather than just again just that logo and there are sponsors that want just that logo But for us Personally, we've noticed that that's the requests that we're getting is they want something more And they want that engagement piece and that goes back to your platform choices Make sure that you find something that that Works with your sponsorship needs and have those conversations As you build out your your structure for the night or for the for the event So don't don't go out and lock everything in but try to find out what your key stakeholders need from you Before you determine which platforms you're going to go with Right, right. Absolutely And just kind of touching on that point. I wanted to jump into moments of impact And I think when we talk about audience when we talk about engaging people and truly raising as much money as possible I think it's those moments of impact where we're bringing people into our stories and getting them Um to feel Whatever it is that we want them to feel So our stories our videos Uh site tour, you know, you gave that great example of with your story telling how you're actually bringing people Into your organization And thinking about what the journey that you want your audience to go on so You know in a live event it might have been uh, you know, if you're at a hospital foundation, for example It might have been a patient who is treated at your hospital And they they tell their story about the impact In in a similar way We would have something like that where everything really leads up to the big ask moment So that's you know, what we would call a fund to need Where we're asking people to to make a donation for whatever the the causes that we're talking about um Best practice from what we've seen is that an event should typically be about 60 minutes Usually any longer than 60 minutes is when you really start to lose your audience Um, and the most important content. So you're really key moments your big In the first 35 to 40 minutes because that's about the time that we start to lose people's attention Um, you also want to consider what's pre-recorded. So definitely if you've got uh videos or speeches Anything like that that you've got, you know people speaking you want to make sure that You can have it pre-recorded so that you can edit and you can also control the time of it as well Um, you want to consider live and remote people just like me who are, you know, coming to you live But from their home office And then also live and in studio if you choose to do A portion of your event of your event maybe your your mcs and your auctioneer for example are are in studio and they're live And the most important thing when we're talking about impact is to remember that every minute counts So not only do you want to make sure that your tech and your production is removing any hiccups any You know awkward screen issues or any sort of delays or time That's wasted, but you also want to make sure That every word that's spoken Is also impactful. So what I like to do when I'm working with my charity partners is I'll go through their script And if there's anything that's repeated It just cross it out or suggest that it be, you know communicated in a different way Um, I think we've all gone to those events where you know, we hear 10 different people thanking the volunteers and sponsors And while that's nice by the time you've heard at the second time you kind of yeah, everybody gets it So it's just making sure that all of that content Is really aligned the other thing When you're talking about the tech and the production pieces as well Is uh, rather than speaking some of those words you could also, you know Potentially have it running across the bottom of the screen. So instead of, uh, you know, maybe You are I don't know one of your your smaller dollar or smaller Sponsors rather than taking the time to to to say their name and recognize them Maybe you just have it running across the bottom of the screen along with some other information So those are kinds of the things to keep in mind when you are making your When you're planning your event is really having those moments of impact and making sure that it's exciting and interesting the whole way through Um, ina just curious to know what you've with your moments of impact I know you've touched on a few things so far But did you have anything else that you wanted to add in this area? Yeah, so we limit um our programming is limited to just one keynote speaker And our impact stories. Um, we typically have one impact story But in this case considering that we're taking our our audience on a journey. We have about six little stories And that's going to be spread throughout the event but much to your point We We do the most important fundraising in the first half an hour to 40 minutes Um, and that's we start with those stories with that that really eye opening Moment of this is why we're doing what we're doing and then we head straight into the fundraising And so there there is nothing in between. We don't do Speeches it's it's very short and brief and we typically stick to 60 minutes as well, which has been very Perfect, that's great Um, I just wanted to touch on this keeping keeping an eye on the time We've got about seven minutes left together So I'm just gonna maybe just kind of rush through this a little bit but happy to chat with people afterwards um Planning for success when I work with my charity partners I put together a fairly detailed plan so that we know what Happened and when so similar to your in-person events. There's a lot of things A lot of moving pieces a lot of different things that need to happen But I think it's important I won't go through everything here just in the interest of time But one of the things that I really do want to Point out here that I think is super important Number one is three to six months prior is to confirm your fundraising channels. So if you you are You have a website where people are are donating online if you've got a silent auction on that website If you have sponsors who might be paying by check or credit card If you you may want to set up text messaging for For donations so confirming all of those fundraising channels well in advance is really going to help you Um make sure that you've got all the details that you need that does take some time to set up um And the other thing that I wanted to note from this plan is tech and dress rehearsals In a in a live event, you know, you might have the mc go up and do a mic check and You know the av team and and the event manager is testing sound and lighting And it's fairly easy and quick to do but in a virtual space Um, I hope we've highlighted to you during today's session How important it is to have your production and your tech working perfectly and your tech and your dress rehearsal is ideal To have one to three weeks in advance Um, and then closer to the to the events if you could do it one to three weeks in advance And then maybe the day before the event or event day And I will say for two of the events that I've done the tech rehearsal actually Revealed some issues that we would not have been aware of Had we not done that tech and dress rehearsal? So there was a couple things that we dramatically changed that made all of the difference In the success of our event. So I would certainly recommend that you do that At least one to three weeks in advance because that gives you time to actually change things If you're doing your tech or your dress rehearsal your first one happens the day before it might actually be too late To make any final changes Um, and then post event I think is also really important that you want to thank everybody You want to report on the numbers? Um, so far Send them the recording of the event for those that weren't able to join And also remind people that donations are still being accepted So what I like to do with fundraising events is at the end we announce the total amount raised so far But we let people know it's just so far and that will come back to them with a final total Whatever the the end date the decided end date happens to be um And then finally just on maximizing fundraising These are just some additional items that I wanted to highlight here. There's so many plays We can take this but I think that these are some some important things to get you thinking so Making sure you have donors giving at each level that you're going to be asking for Looking into potentially having matching donors Again multiple ways to give Consider how your ticket costs might impact your fundraising When you're doing your asks having impact statements. So your hundred dollar donation helps us blah blah blah Make sure your mc is well informed of who your top donors are And recognize your donors. So whenever a donation comes in You want to make sure that you've got something planned so that your mc says Wow, I just got a $1,000 donation in from ena ena. Thank you so much Um, and then you know a couple minutes later. Wow. Eli just sent in $1,000. Thank you so much Eli People love to hear what other people are doing and of course we all love to hear our names Um, and so making sure that people are recognized in that moment as best as you possibly can Is is really great And we'll really help kind of feed that excitement and get people really Engaged and excited about the fundraising that you're doing So that kind of is the final part of our presentation We've got about two minutes to go and I know that elie has been super busy in the chat So thank you so much for that But we've got just a couple of minutes if there's any questions that we can answer Right away if there's anything that's come up I don't elie if you had one that you wanted to Yeah, there's a couple questions that I've been showing up and I've been putting them into the q&a Um, but let's start here with a question from cindy, you know, people are always excited about the tools questions Which is what online platform is that one girl can using for the 2021 event? So right now we're still in the process of making that final decision. Um, we're working with um two producers or production companies one is peak performance and the other one is Pro show now the decision will be driven by our sponsor needs mostly Because we we know that the platforms that we've selected the audience needs are taken care of it's mostly driven by sponsors So we're finalizing our conversations with our sponsors to really determine. Okay. What is it that they need and that's gonna Ultimately decide which platform we choose so if anyone does want to know More about that I did share my email in the um in the chat to free to reach out to me because I can I can share the details and the research that we've done so far If that's of any interest perfect So we have time for two lightning questions. We're looking at like, you know the three sentence answers So question one you said that there are characteristics of a good events partner that you should be looking for What are those? What do you need in a partner to make this work? So was that about sponsors? Sorry, this was about finding like sort of the event planning consultant Oh, yeah, great question. Um, I think it really depends on what your ability is within your team some of the teams that I work with You know, they might not have anyone on staff who does event planning and I can come in and help them um With that and sometimes, uh, it's really just kind of taking the lead on the virtual pieces so in some some cases the charity might you know, do the the program and and Put together all of the elements of it and then um as an event planner I would just come in and help them really with the kind of behind the scenes tech Portion of it and make sure that the donor experience Is exciting and engaging for everyone cool one more question Which is how are charity online auctions going to work without the powerful lubricant of liquor and peer pressure? That's a great question. So what's worked really well is um having that engaging auctioneer and mc I'd be happy to share A recording of an event that I did where we had fred lee for those of you that are familiar with fred lee He gets so excited Um that people get really really excited About making their donations and we also had volunteers at the production studio As donations were coming through on the website through text messages through our whatsapp channel People were quickly running up names to him and he was legitimately getting really excited about hearing people People's names come in and also in that event. We had a matching donor That was secured in advance that we announced partway through the The auction ask so people knew I better give in the next, you know 10 minutes because these donations are going to be matched Lovely. Well, thank you so much. As you said with your best practice One hour in people are starting to drift off as as happens. I've learned that same thing myself So let me then take for the screen share and just do a final closure to talk about what's coming next. Um But uh, but here we go kapow kapow So of course First of all, thank you It is such a gift to have the two of you donating your time and expertise and then offering to keep sharing What you've learned with the rest of the community. So I'm super grateful for that We will of course wrap up the video and share that by the end of the week as well But we're not done yet We are going to be back on april 13th And this is going to be a really interesting event where we're going to actually do Really a visual interactive event around graphic recording now can be used for building equity and community in a virtual age So i'm really excited about that event too. I think it's going to work out really well with their screen sharing setup And we encourage you to register for that april 13th event Otherwise, as I said, we need your help We're a scrappy group of volunteers and it doesn't happen by accident It happens because people keep on putting their hands up and saying I want to get involved. So If you've got a great event idea Bring it to me and i'm happy to support you in making that happen in the world Or maybe you want to be the person monitoring the chat Again, happy to work with you on setting up for that. Um, so reach out Drop your you know a note to me by email or right there in the chat and and we'll find a way to bring you into this community And with that Let's wrap it up again. Super grateful to our experts for you know being convinced to to get involved with this and uh And we'll keep doing these great things again Don't be strangers. I'll see you all Bye. Thank you