When you are planning any event (for fundraising or otherwise), it’s so important to have a generic checklist to go through during your planning so that you don’t miss something obvious. Most checklists you find online are geared for wedding or other non-professional events. So, I created my own.
​
Here’s the list of things you should think about when event planning. If you have small events inside a larger series of event (like a convention) you will want to go through this checklist for all of the smaller events and the event as a whole.

• Who is the program planning lead for this event?
• What will be calling this event?
• What other staff or departments are involved?
• Where will the event be?
• Have you secured space?
• What date and time will the event take place?
• Who or what groups will be invited? What is your target audience?
• Does this event require a fee to attend? By invitation only? Open to the public?
• If the event is not in your city, who will be representing your institution? Who will make travel arrangements for staff? When do different parties need to arrive?
• If your event is not in your city, when do you need to ship your supplies in advance of the event to get them there on time? Who will hold the supplies for you?
• When do the save-the-dates need to go out? Email only or email and mail?
• When do the invitations need to go out? Email only or email and mail?
• Who will design the save-the-dates and invitations? Who will stuff the envelopes and send? How much lead time do you need for those processes to take place?
• Will you advertise this event? What channels will you use? Write a promotional plan for this purpose.
• Who will handle RSVPs? How will the RSVPs be received? Web form/Email only or web form/email and mail?
• Do you need to send an email reminder the day before or day of the event?
• Is there a need for catering? Will there be a bar? Cash, tickets or open bar?
• Do we need to make arrangements for vegetarians/vegans/food allergies? How will that be handled?
• How do you want your room to be laid out? What are your technology needs?
• Who will document the event? Do you need a photographer or videographer or both?
• What kind of decorations do you want? Who will handle this?
• What accessibility issues do we have for this event? Do we need a sign language interpreter and are there any accommodations we need to make for handicap access?
• Does the venue provide adequate signage? Should we have our own produced so that attendees can find out event easily?
• Do we need background music, a DJ or a band? What kind of music will be played?
• How much parking is needed? How close is the available parking to the venue? Do we need to shuttle attendees back and forth?
• Will we need a registration table? Who will work that table? What information will they collect? What information will they distribute? Do we need nametags?
• What is the timeline of the event and the flow of the program? Who will speak, when and for what purpose?
• What collateral material needs to be on hand at the event? Where will it be placed? Will any of the speaker reference this material?
• Who will handle event clean-up? What staff are expected to stay and clean-up?
• Who will handle thanking attendees and marking attendance in the database?
• Will there be any follow up from the event? Asking for a gift? Inviting attendees to become further engaged with institution in some way?

When I was working at Southern Miss, we received a file to do a mailer to parents of current students. Of course, Admissions didn't have lovely and clean addressee and salutation fields and in fact, we didn't even have the parent's first name in most cases. 

I learned to use the "concatenate" formula to use that raw data to create addressees and salutations that were appropriate for direct mail. When we didn't have the parent's first name we used the student's name. It looked like "Dear Parents of John Doe,". Sometimes you make lemonade out of lemons. 

It's not uncommon in fundraising to get a list of prospects that has "raw data" with first name and last name as separate fields, no titles and no addressees or salutations. Before you can create a mail merge or import those into your database, you'll need to create the fields that you need. And you'll want to do it cleanly and efficiently. 

In this video, I'll show you 3 tricks in MS Excel that will help you save time and frustration in creating addressees and salutations for a list of prospects. 

1) Use filters to create working groups
2) Use the "concatenate" formula to string text together
3) Use "paste values" to turn your data set into editable text

If you liked this video, check out my video on using Excel's "filter by color" function to plan your donor trips. And subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising to get content like this in your inbox. 

Hey you. Yes, you. Sitting at your work computer munching on your toasted bagel with cream cheese. And you there, scrolling on your phone on public transport. And you, scrolling on your laptop killing a bit of time before your staff meeting. I’m talking straight to you. All of you.

You are amazing.

Really. Truly, amazing. You get up every day and do a job that most people would be scared out of their wits to do. You ask people for money and provide no tangible product in return. That’s hard work.

And that work requires a broad-ranging and diverse skill set that many just do not have. The soft skills of messaging and etiquette and the hard skills of data and statistical analysis. You are also probably highly skilled at various aspect of technology too. It’s likely that to do your job you also have to have knowledge about finance, management, marketing and human resources. That’s a tall order.

You are a force to be reckoned with. Your work enables students to get an education, hungry people to eat meals, animals to find homes and so many other wonderful life-affirming things. All of which wouldn’t happen without the work that you (and others like you) do. You are the superpower of the non-profit world, the engine that makes this sector move: the fundraiser.

So, approach this week like the amazing being you are.

At this point, you are probably sitting a little straighter, nodding your head in agreement at the realization of how awesome you are. Maybe you are claiming the amazing things your non-profit does in the world as your own accomplishments. Yes, they are yours. Own them. The more connected you are to mission, the happier you will be in your work and the more funds you will raise for your good cause.
​
Now, ask yourself, how can I create this same feeling for each of my donors? What would make them feel amazing and personally responsible for the good things this organization does in the world? What would make them stand straighter and take ownership of the good your non-profit does? Do that and they will give more and they will feel amazing about giving, about your institution and about themselves.

If you don’t know Adam Grant, let me brighten your Monday. He’s a powerhouse business writer and an amazing TED talk speaker. Today I want to walk you through three takeaways from his book, Give and Take.

Grant states that people can be divided into givers, takers and matchers based on whether they are motivated by giving, getting or some combination thereof (respectively). In one chapter he looks at the concept of burnout and he ends up (of all places) in a university call center.

He assessed whether the callers were givers, takers or matchers. He assumed that the takers would not be good at the job but is surprised to see that the way in the job is marketed (highest paying job on campus) and the way the motivation is structured ("win", "be the best") is actually highly motivating for the takers. Grant wonders what could be done to improve the results of the giver callers. 

What he finds is remarkable: spending 5 minutes reading letters from scholarship recipients motivated the giver-callers to close the performance gap between themselves and the taker-callers in ONE WEEK! So, Grant brought in an actual scholarship recipient to chat with a random group of callers about the impact that the funds they were raising had made in their lives. All callers (regardless of motivational type) saw a drastic increase in performance (as measured in calls per hour, number of minutes on the phone and dollars, which quintupled versus the control group). Givers saw an even more dramatic increase in performance.

Then Grant writes a line that takes this lesson far beyond call center: “The turnaround highlights a remarkable principle of giver burnout: it has less to do with the amount of giving and more with the amount of feedback about the impact of that giving.” (Page 165).

Wow!

Takeaway #1: Many, if not most, of our donors are givers. So, what Grant is saying is that DONOR burnout is within our control. Make it your goal this year to make your donors as aware of the impact of their gift as possible. If 5 minutes reading a note from a scholarship recipient can make a huge difference in the performance of a student caller, what could consistent, impact-oriented messaging around these issues do for your donor’s happiness and willingness to give again?

Takeaway #2: Think about the ways in which we are marketing the student jobs in our call centers. Are you only recruiting and motivating for the takers/matchers? What are you doing to be mission and impact focused in your recruiting and training materials for callers? What are you doing for all of the students to reconnect them with the mission and impact during the normal shift? You should incorporate strategies like Grant suggests not only because you have giver-callers who need the motivation but remember ALL the callers saw an increase in performance when given explicit and emotional examples of impact.

Takeaway #3: Here's one last thing to think about: What type are you? If you are a giver and you're feeling burnt out, what can you do to connect back to the mission? Maybe you need to take a walk on campus and go speak directly with students and faculty, the beneficiaries of all of your hard work. Nurture yourself to your type so that this important work can be completed.

If you like Adam Grant, check out his TED Talks here.

If you found this information helpful, please consider subscribing to Real Deal Fundraising by clicking the button below. You’ll immediately get a copy of my e-book, “15 Best Call Center Games”.