So, You're in Charge of Fundraising!

My favorite event every year as the Director of a local Crisis Pregnancy Center has been our Annual Fundraising Banquet. This event is key to raising the funds needed to carry on the work of the Center. The goal for the event is to, not only raise funds, but also to solicit one-time and monthly pledges throughout the year. While I tend to work best under pressure and tight time constraints, the general rule for a smoothly planned banquet is to start working on it six months in advance. The reason I say this is because if you are considering a National Speaker, which I highly recommend, you are going to want to make sure you can get them before their calendar is booked for the year. In the initial planning of your event, you will need to start thinking about whom you’d like to ask to be on your Banquet Committee. Please make sure this is a committee of peers who have a true heart for your cause and who are not afraid to, you guessed it, “ask!” I put together my budget, choose my date and the venue, then spend some time researching speakers. I then obtain board approval of my plan before pulling the committee together to work on the logistics and marketing of the event. Your event budget should include projected income and expenses. If this is your first banquet you will need to do a bit of dreaming in this department, unless of course you already wrote specifics into your regular budget for the event. If you have held banquets in the past, use your income and expense reports to project for this event, of course while increasing your anticipated income this year! Income should include: underwriting, ticket sales, love offering, monthly pledges and one-time pledges. Expenses should include: speaker (honorarium, travel, and accommodations), venue, meals, printing, advertising and decorations. Once you have determined your budget for the event, pick your date and venue. A sample Banquet Checklist is available at the end of this chapter. Keep in mind that the best nights of the week to hold fundraising banquets are on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Mondays tend to be meeting nights, Wednesdays are church nights, and weekends are for rest and family. That’s not to say that a Friday or Saturday night event wouldn’t be successful, however; it has been my experience that people are more available on Tuesday’s or Thursday’s. Your venue should be a central location to your organization and your service area. Make sure the facility you are using has adequate parking and will allow you to post any required signage outside your event. You will need to make sure you have well maintained bathroom facilities and that a kitchen will be available if you are using an off-sight caterer. It is helpful if you find a location that already has tables and chairs available; then you won’t have the added expense of rentals. Before signing your contract, make sure you are clear on what their staff will do to assist with your event from set-up to clean-up. I also always request the opportunity to set up and decorate the night before. I then just add finishing touches, like balloons or flowers, on the day of the event. I have never been charged extra to set up the night before, of course I’ve never been afraid to ask either! While there are several booking agencies and speakers bureau’s that can assist you with choosing the right person for your event, I would highly recommend using Single Source Speakers. I have worked with Ron Miller and his staff for years and have never been disappointed! You can view their roster of speakers at www.singlesourcespeakers.com. The SSS staff is very knowledgeable of their speakers and they are sure to offer up a perfect match for your event. The right speaker will make your event a huge success! The wrong speaker will reflect in your donations without a doubt. I know this from real experience, trust me; choose wisely! Also, realize that great speakers may come with large honorariums. I once had a speaker that charged $15,000. Guess what, I paid $7,500! Don’t be afraid to “ask” if the speaker might negotiate his or her honorarium. I can think of numerous times when I wrote a letter to the speaker through the Speaker’s Bureau to request a discount on an honorarium; only once was I denied that request. Don’t forget that you will need to take care of travel, meals, and accommodations for your speaker. Most agencies require a deposit up front at the signing of the contract. You can seek out someone to specifically underwrite this expense or just pull from your general budget with the understanding that, once it starts coming in, underwriting will accommodate for that deduction.