Give the People What They Want
We’re just two weeks away from our big annual benefit so, of course, I’m eyeball-deep in event planning. To make sure I’ve covered all the bases, I just took a look back at Purple Carpet Event blog from June 8 entitled Event Planning – 8 Common & Costly Mistakes to Avoid. This post is actually directed at meeting and conference planners, but there were a few Common & Costly Mistakes that hit home with me. This one, in particular, got me right where it hurts.
Being Cheap – If people are paying good money and time to show up at your event, make sure they are getting their money’s worth.
It’s oh-so-tempting, when planning our major fundraising events, to squeeze out every dollar assuming that our audiences will tolerate some corner-cutting because they want us to raise as much money as possible. If I didn’t know this was a bad idea before, I surely figured it out at a recent benefit where I felt so underserved that I probably won’t attend future events even though I wholeheartedly support the mission.
The problem was simple. The event was a pricy dinner dance with a lot of costs involved. To maximize their profits, the planners sold reserved tables. So far so good – the problem arose when they sold so many tables that they didn’t have enough places for unattached couples or individuals. When my friends and I walked into the room, all we saw was a sea of RESERVED signs, making us feel like party-crashers – and after we went through the absurdly long buffet line (another cost-cutting measure), we wandered aimlessly as our food grew cold looking for a place to sit and eat. Finally, after asking a committee member, we were directed to an abandoned table (no centerpiece or other decoration) in a back room away from the action where we ultimately connected with a number of other lost souls. All in all, a very unsatisfying experience for us – and since we and our fellow travelers were far removed from the silent and live auctions and other income-generating activities, it actually ended up hurting the bottom line.
So why did this hit me so hard this morning? Because we’re at that crucial point in planning our event, where we’ve sold as many tables as we should for the comfort of our guests and it’s absolutely going to kill me not to take any more table sponsorships. Ouch!
To keep from giving in to temptation, I keep telling myself what I know to be true – people come to our events to have fun. Yes, many come because they believe in the mission, but even they want to have a good experience. And if we’re using events to expand our audiences (and in this case, we definitely are), we have to assume that many of our guests are coming for the event – not the cause. It’s our job to provide them with the best possible experience so they’ll keep coming back – and that means treating each and every guest as if he or she is the most important person in the room.
Heck, if they come back often enough, they may even become wedded to the mission – but even if they don’t, their continuing attendance at our events will go a long way to helping us do our work.
Tags: event planning, Fundraising, special events
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Paula Fitzgerald Says:
I have a senior dog rescue in Florida which does one huge fundraiser event a year and lots of small ones and have a small volunteer committee. I’m sure you made your share of mistakes too. Ours was from inexperience. Your column sounds sour and I hope your supporters keep supporting you even when you make mistakes. We animal lovers have to be kind to each other. Supporting missions but not supporting your events doesn’t save animals. At our dance the food was overcooked and the band played bad country music. But our community forgave and our best supporters helped disappointed people get over it. So I don’t think you should be so mad since you’re one of the ASPCA leaders. Everyone came back the next year and kept supporting our fundraising and events because they love the animals more than they hate bad country music.
Timy Sullivan Says:
Oh dear, I didn’t mean to sound sour. Yes, those of us in animal welfare do have to be kind to each other and our committed supporters will forgive our mistakes. Believe me, I’ve both made and forgiven many over the years. But the truth is, not everyone does love the animals more than they hate bad country music so if we want to bring new folks to the cause, we can’t expect them to be so forgiving. That’s why, when we reach out to the public through our events, we work so hard to make every guest feel well served. To my way of thinking, each person who comes to an event becomes an ambassador for our future events – and for our organization. These new people may even form (and share) opinions about our ability to do our work by the way we put on a party. Since we depend on events for significant income, and we’d love to turn our guests into supporters of the cause in its own right, it behooves us to do everything we can to send them away happy. As for being an ASPCA leader, I would love to have that distinction but actually, I am just a guest blogger on the site speaking only for myself, based on my experience running a shelter and now a mobile spay/neuter clinic….and still wrestling with the dilemma of how many tables to sell for our upcoming event.
Lynn Parsons Says:
As an avid blog reader I have generally learned a lot from these posts. I too felt your most recent was very negative and hostile. After eight years of event planning I have learned many lessons. A major take away for me is to have appreciation for the event volunteers.
When I give talks to local nonprofits about achieving guest satisfaction I always handle the negative examples with a lot of care, avoiding accusing words like “cheap” and emphasizing words that help move their efforts forward like “be sure that there are enough buffet tables to avoid long waits” or “make sure your seating plan works for the occasion.”
I am also always sensitive to the fact that I may not know the details of their process or experience. The last thing we want to do is to discourage or become subjective when advising our clients or collegues. If we fail on this front we will demoralize people and lose our volunteers and be left without a basis to progress. If we approach event committees with encouragement we will be able to help them understand some of your good points about how important guest experience is in achieving success.
Thank you, Lynn
Timy Sullivan Says:
Hi Lynn…I really appreciate your comments. I had no idea this post would come across as such a negative. The word “cheap” actually came from the source I was quoting and telling my own experience at a less than perfect event was just my way of trying to show how cutting corners can be perceived by our guests. If this post discouraged anyone, I apologize. That was certainly not my intent.
Paula Fitzgerald Says:
Something good can come out of this, it feels like. Maybe instead of writing from a “source” it would be friendlier to go to the organization that threw the event and ask questions and make kind, helpful suggestions. At least that’s what I found works real well because then everyone knows we’re rooting for their success. When I care about a group, I stear clear of third party info. The game of telephone is for kids and we all know animal welfare can get awful gossipy. Heck,the food at my event was lousy and too little and cold but not because I was cheap, I just had a bad caterer that I paid a whole lot of money to. A good friend told me that it’s not enough to have a good message. We have to deliver it in a way that makes friends.