Soapbox Engage Blog

Large or small, planning an event can be an overwhelming process. Have no fear! From setting your goals to running the event registration, we have all the information, resources, and tools you need to plan a successful event for your nonprofit.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to plan events for your nonprofit that accomplish your goals.

Set SMART goals for your event

The first step to planning events is to write some clear goals and objectives. As Tony Robbins said, "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."

What do you want to accomplish? Knowing your top goals before you begin planning the event will ensure that everything is optimized to achieve your objectives. Well-written goals are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and timely.

Specific

Be as specific as possible about the purpose of your event. If your objective is to raise money, exactly how much would you like to raise (down to the dollar)? If you would like to expand your network, raise awareness about your cause, or bring in new donors, how many people do you need to invite?

Include as many details as you can about the event. Of course, you’ll need to fill in many details as the planning progresses, but the more information you can include during the goal-setting phase, the better. When will the event take place? Where will you host it?

There are many examples of specific goals for nonprofits online. Here are a few:

• We will increase the attendance at our annual Holiday Gala.
• Our annual Bike Ride For Backpacks event will raise more money than last year.
• We will add new donors to our support base with our Christmas phone-a-thon.

Measurable

Goals must be as measurable as possible, so you will know if your event was successful. Did you or did you not increase the attendance at the annual Holiday Gala? If so, by how much? If not, why not?

It is important to write objectives that are specific but allow a range of outcomes.

Instead of writing, “We will increase the attendance at our annual Holiday Gala,” write, “We will increase the attendance at our annual Holiday Gala by 22%.” This goal is measurable but allows for varying degrees of success.

Examples of measurable goals:

• Our annual Bike Ride For Backpacks event will raise $25,000 to provide school supplies for 500 children
• We will add 750 new donors to our support base with our Christmas phone-a-thon.

Achievable

This may sound painfully obvious, but your goals must be realistic and achievable. It is good to be ambitious and set big goals that keep your team motivated. However, if your goals are too ambitious or unrealistic, it will be overwhelming.

Continuing with our Holiday Gala example, is the goal of increasing the attendance by nearly 25% achievable? That’s quite a jump! Consider all the factors. Has your support network grown enough since the last gala that you can invite that many people? If not, what new groups will you invite to the party?

Relevant

The goals for your event should be relevant to you and what your nonprofit wants to achieve. Make sure your goals point to the top priorities of your organization. This step of setting SMART goals can be a little tricky.

If one of the top priorities of your organization is to expand your donor network, then it is essential to be smart about WHO you invite to your annual holiday gala. Focus on planning an event that will bring in 22% more people who are financially capable of joining your team of donors. Filling the room with more people who already support you or who cannot contribute financially will not help you accomplish your goal.

Timely

Every goal needs a deadline. Having an endpoint that isn’t too far away will help keep everyone motivated and keep the goal actionable. Of course, an event has a specific time and date, so this might be the easiest part of the goal-setting process.

So, our SMART goal for the annual Holiday Gala should be something like:

"We will increase the attendance of our annual Holiday Gala (Date: Nov. 29) by 22% with potential donors capable of giving more than $6K / year."

With this goal, your team knows exactly how many and what kind of people to invite to your gala. This is a SMART goal.

Set your budget

Set your event budget as early as possible to make sure you stay on budget throughout the process. Even if you don’t know the costs of everything yet, set your overall budget and begin allocating funds as you go.

It is essential to know the maximum that you can afford to spend on the venue for your Holiday Gala before you begin looking at options and making reservations.

This step may be impacted by your efforts to get corporate sponsors and donors to help fund the event. However, it’s easier to approach businesses about sponsorships when you have a clear idea of how much the event will cost. It’s much easier to increase your budget as you go than to figure out how to recover from going over-budget.

Gather your team

A fundamental part of a successful event is a great event planning team. Running a great event requires a lot of time, energy, and a variety of skill sets. It is essential to find the balance of having enough people to get the work done without having too many people. Make sure you choose the right people with the right skills to do the job well.

As you gather your crack team of event-planning superheroes, make sure everyone has a clearly defined role. Every event is unique, but most have the same basic requirements. Most event planning teams should include the following roles.

Team leader

Whether you call them the team captain, president, czar, or duke/duchess, you need someone who will oversee the planning team and make sure the event accomplishes your objectives. The team leader sets the tone of the team and ensures everyone understands and is working toward a common vision and goal. Much like in sports, the job of the team leader is to rally the team and create the best possibility for success.

Program coordinators

These people take on tasks like reserving the location, arranging the catering, scheduling the entertainment or speakers, and taking care of all the little details and logistics of the event. You should keep this committee small, so there are enough people to get the work done without having “too many cooks in the kitchen.”

Creative / branding coordinators

From media and marketing to the after-event survey, this group ensures your guests have all the information they need before, during, and afterward. People who succeed in this role are creative, understand your organization, and have a strong understanding of the event goals.

Operations coordinators

The responsibilities of this group can vary widely depending on the type of event you are planning. Tasks might include anything from set-up, security, and running the AV booth to distributing swag and running the sign-in table at the event. You can either assign employees or volunteers to this committee or even hire experts for each task. The number of operations coordinators you need depends entirely on the type and size of your event. It is vital to make sure they have the right skill sets and resources to get the job done well.

Treasurer

It’s all about the money. The treasurer sets and keeps the budget, manages payment disbursement, and oversees funding. Because the budget should dictate the event, make sure your treasurer is involved in the planning process from the beginning.

Save the date

Now that you’ve defined your goals, set your budget, and gathered your team of superstar event organizers, it’s time to start doing the fun work. Choose a date for your event. This is more complicated than it might seem.

Make sure you give your team enough time to make all the arrangements. Depending on the size and complexity of the event, you should give yourself at least 4 to 6 months to plan.

Before you make any reservations, check the calendar! Avoid major conflicting holidays and activities in the area. Ask everyone on your planning team to help check for potential competing events. It would be a shame to plan your Holiday Gala on the same night as the popular, annual city-wide Christmas lights event.

If you would like to have a specific speaker or entertainment, check with them before finalizing any dates. And, don’t forget to take the weather and school schedules into account.

Make a master plan

Even if you are the most organized person in the world, you need an event paster plan. As planning gets more detailed, you need an easy way to make sure everything stays on track, and you can coordinate with people working on various details of the event.

Having an excellent event management software is key to making event planning easy and low-stress. Your event master plan should cover all the major aspects of the gathering.

• Event venue, catering, insurance, parking, contracts, permits, etc.
• All the logistics around the entertainment, speakers, presenters, and activities
• Publicity and promoting the event
• Event registration
• Coordinating with sponsors and financial partners
• Organizing volunteers

As you make your master plan, create a timeline for when things should be accomplished and include everything on the day of the event. This ensures things run more smoothly, and you don’t miss any critical deadlines. Add details like vendor timelines, registration, RSVP deadlines, and permit application dates.

Share your timeline with vendors, event sponsors, and other key people to ensure everyone is on the same page, and you don’t miss any critical details.

Keeping a detailed master plan and event timeline will help ensure the success of your current event and help you plan future events more efficiently. Instead of having to recreate the process for every occasion, you can review plans and schedules from previous years and improve the process!

Branding is key

Now that event planning is in full swing and (hopefully) the venue is booked, caterers are arranged, and your team of event planners is hard at work, it’s time to brand your event. The name of your event and all the messaging should fit your organization and communicate the goal of the event.

Branding is critical for nonprofits because people are often prompted to give in response to an emotional connection with the cause or vision. Events are the perfect place to build that connection. Create messaging and branding for your event that leads to a relationship with your audience that lasts long after the event is over.

Don’t be stingy on the graphic design and event materials. Quality logos and designs are always worth the investment. Use everyday language that your audience will connect with.

Use the event to tell the story of your organization and create easy opportunities for guests to get involved as quickly as possible--even at the event itself! Inviting attendees to take an easy, non-financial action at your event is unique, memorable, and helps them develop a relationship with your organization.

If your nonprofit provides school supplies for at-risk children, have your guests write encouraging notes to the children who will receive the supplies. Create a graffiti wall where guests can write or draw answers to a question. The options are endless. Let your imagination and creativity run wild!

Remember to keep the branding simple, consistent, and easy to understand. If you are planning multiple events, maintain similar styles and themes. Keeping consistent branding between events ties them together and helps build your brand identity.

Set up your online registration

Whether you plan to sell tickets or have free registration, using an online event registration app like Soapbox Engage makes event registration, check-in, and follow-up a breeze for your planning team.

Collect payments and donations online and send invoices, event reminders, and opportunities for your guests to invite their friends. You’ll also be able to collect valuable contact information for new contacts and potential donors.

Don’t overlook the benefit of having a branded registration page with your event logo and theme colors. The function and appearance of your registration page impacts ticket sales. Soapbox Engage helps you create a beautiful registration page that is customizable, easy to use, and allows your guests to share it on social media to invite their friends.

Bring in sponsors and partners

Involving other organizations and businesses helps offset costs and increases potential participation. It also helps you spread the word about your organization.

If you plan to bring in corporate sponsors, make sure you can communicate how they will benefit from sponsoring your event. Most businesses consider sponsorships as part of their marketing strategies; they want exposure to your guests. Share your SMART goals for the event with potential sponsors, so they understand the objective of the event, your audience, and your platform.

Go public

You’re nearly there! It’s time to go public and invite the masses to your fantastic event. Start as early as possible by putting “upcoming events” and “save the date” information on your website, social media, newsletters, and emails. As the event gets closer, add more online and offline publicity and outreach to invite people to register. Remember, people’s calendars fill quickly.

Soapbox Engage’s event app makes it easy to use all your great branding on the event information and registration page, so people are drawn into the story right away. You can even begin accepting donations as part of your advertising with an event-specific donation page! Many organizations add a line to their RSVP to invite financial contributions, whether the guest can attend or not. “Can’t make it? We’ll miss you, but you can still join the movement!”

Your publicity plan should help you connect with your audience before, during, and after the event is over. No good publicity plan is complete until thank-you notes and sponsors acknowledgments are sent after the event is over. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to publish a blog or article about the event to share highlights and successes!

Celebrate and review

Now that your event is over (and was a smashing success), take time to celebrate your team’s hard work and accomplishments together. Then, revisit your SMART goals. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? What went well? What can you improve going forward? Be as specific as possible in your assessments. Get feedback from your planning team and collect information that will help make planning future events more manageable.

Congratulations! You planned a fantastic event for your nonprofit! Are you ready to take your event planning to the next level? Here are three excellent resources to get you started.

• Easily Accept Stripe Online Payments with Soapbox Engage: Whether you are selling tickets to your event or accepting online donations, it is important to have the right tools for easy, elegant, mobile-friendly online payments.
• 5 Ways To Boost Your Wording When Asking For Donations: How you ask for donations is just as important as who you ask! Learn about the right words to use to inspire your supporters to donate.
• Creating The Best Fundraising Event For Your Nonprofit: Choosing the right fundraising event for your nonprofit is essential to accomplishing your goals. Learn about how to select the best event based on your goals and resources.