Soapbox Engage Blog

We get it. Development professionals are expected to somehow accomplish spectacular fundraising feats, plan unique events on a shoestring budget, create heartfelt, compelling content, and find time to stay up to date on the industry trends and best practices. It's a Herculean task, even for the best, most experienced fundraisers.

We might not be able to take anything off your to-do list, but we can help you work more efficiently and effectively and perhaps streamline some of the tasks.

With the big year-end fundraising season coming up, many nonprofits are looking forward to hosting their biggest fundraising events of the year. Planning and executing major events is quite an undertaking. So, we gathered some great tools, tips, and resources to help save you time and make event planning just a little easier.

Table of Contents

1. 4 things your event planning checklist should include
2. 5 tools to make event planning easier for nonprofits

4 Things Your Event Planning Checklist Should Include

Every seasoned event planner knows that the event planning checklist is one of the most valuable tools in a development professional's arsenal. With a comprehensive event planning checklist, you can be confident you won't overlook any vital details along the way.

Even if you're a super-organized person who already relies on a checklist, you've probably been in a situation where you realized that an important detail fell through the cracks. Every event is unique and requires a different checklist tailored to the individual event. Whether you're planning a small gathering of top donors or a large gala, there are five things you should consider adding to every event planning checklist.

1. Start with a confirmed date and time--and re-confirm

Have you ever been halfway through planning an event only to realize there's a mixup on the date or time? Vendors often have multiple events on the same day. Key donors may agree to a date and time for a small gathering then forget to tell you if something changes.

Be sure to double-check the date and time periodically to ensure everyone stays on the same page. It's also good to get dates and times for major events in writing to avoid any miscommunications or misunderstandings.

2. Sign event contracts on time and get appropriate permits

This one might sound painfully obvious, but a shocking number of events never get off the ground each year because of unsigned contracts, failing to provide necessary information to authorities, or missing permits.

The Blue Ridge Country Festival, for example, was forced to postpone from October 2021 to May 2022 when festival planners failed to provide essential information and plans for things like traffic, parking, and security.

A firm handshake might be a nice way to do business, but that's not sufficient when it comes to planning an event. Make sure you get (and provide) signed contracts for everything from caterers to noise permits from the county. Get everything in writing, and don't continue planning your event until all the paperwork is signed, sealed, and delivered.

3. Plan site walk-throughs for in-person events and "dry-runs" for virtual events

Conducting a site walk-through or "dry-run" for your fundraising events is a critical step that shouldn't be overlooked. It's an opportunity to iron out "kinks," ask questions, raise concerns, and finalize things like order of events, room set-up, and other details that directly impact the flow of the event.

Take a walk-through of the physical space or do a "dry-run" of your virtual event during the planning stage so there are no surprises on event day and you can feel confident everyone's on the same page.

4. Add follow-up reminders to your event planning checklist

In a perfect world, you would only need to tell someone to do something once, and the job will get done to your exact specifications. Unfortunately, things happen, and the real world isn't always ideal--at least not when it comes to event planning. With so many details and layers to manage, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. That's why it's critical to add reminders for follow-ups to your event-planning checklist.

For example, if you assign one of your teammates to book the entertainment for your fundraising event, add a reminder to follow up in your event planning checklist or calendar.

5 Tools To Make Event Planning Easier for Nonprofits

Now that you've boosted your event planning checklist, here are four tools to make the actually planning a bit easier for you and your team.

1. Hootsuite makes social media event advertising easier

Social media marketing is a critical part of advertising your upcoming fundraising event. Hootsuite lets you control all your social media platforms from one central location. Coordinate and schedule your posts on all your pages and monitor everything that's happening. Hootsuite will streamline your social media advertising and save your team valuable time!

2. Use event planning tags on Instagram and Twitter

This isn't a specific tool, and Twitter or Instagram might not be the first event planning resource that comes to mind. However, if you're looking for some inspiration or want to keep up with the latest trends, these two social media platforms can offer surprisingly helpful content!

Try searching some hashtags like #EventPlanner, #EventThemes, #EventTips, #EventPlanning, #EventTrends, #EventTechnology. These will bring up many current trends and topics of conversation among event planning professionals. You'll be able to discover new tools and get your creative juices flowing as you plan your next event.

3. Grab your free subscription to BizBash

You might be eligible to take advantage of a free subscription to BizBash. While this magazine isn't specifically geared toward nonprofits, it covers many aspects of the event planning process and offers many articles about the latest trends, resources, and more.

4. Check out the Endless Entertainment blog

Endless Entertainment is an event production agency with a high-quality blog that offers insights, tips, and tricks for excellent event planning and hosting. Check out their blog for new perspectives and inspiring content as you're planning your fundraising events.

5. The Soapbox Engage Events app makes your life easy

This events management tool will take the headache out of planning your next fundraiser. Reservations save directly to Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, saving your staff loads of time and energy and simplifying the reporting and registration process.

Whether you're giving away free tickets, offering price "tiers," or wanting to use discount codes, there's a pricing option for everyone with the Events app!

And great news! You can create an unlimited number of events and drive traffic to individual events or your calendar of upcoming events. Sell tickets individually or for multiple events at once. Customize the information fields for registration forms, so you gather all the information you need (and nothing extra). You can even customize the event details and confirmation experience with text, videos, images, and more.

The bottom line is event planning is challenging and time-consuming. Still, you can minimize the stress and streamline the process for greater overall fundraising success with the right tools and resources!

Now that you're a nonprofit event planning pro, here are three more resources to help you plan your next fundraising event.

• 8 Creative Ideas and Strategies for Your Next Gala Fundraiser: The gala is a classic fundraiser that's typically geared toward corporate sponsors, major donors, board members, community leaders, and other "high-value" supporters. Just because galas are a more traditional fundraising strategy doesn't mean they need to be stuffy or outdated! This blog offers some great ideas, tips, and insights to help you plan a fresh, fun, successful gala fundraiser!
• 6 Easy Strategies to Boost Your Nonprofit Virtual Event Attendance: Virtual events are low-cost, convenient, and effective. Yet, they offer new opportunities and challenges for development professionals, event planners, and attendees. You can take some practice steps to create and promote an effective virtual event that your target audience wants to attend. We rounded up some of these tips and strategies to help you fill your next virtual event.
• How to Write Event Descriptions for Your Fundraisers and Nonprofit Events: A good event description is critical to attracting people to your fundraisers and other events. People want to know what to expect and whether it will be worth their time and energy--even if it's for a great cause! With a bit of understanding of your ideal audience and what details to highlight, you'll be able to write an event description that has people lined up out the door for your next fundraiser!