6 Effective Ways To Encourage People Attend A Fundraising Event

Planning a fundraiser is half the battle. Getting people to attend the event is the other half. Here is a list of 6 things to keep in mind to successfully encourage people to attend your next fundraiser event.

Plan the event to the target audience.

Encouraging people to attend a fundraising event should begin with a thoughtful brainstorming session to list all possible attendees. After the target audience of the event has been determined, plan the event to the target audience. In other words, look for activities or fundraising ideas that your intended group of attendees and participants will be sure to enjoy thoroughly.

Seek more involvement by your group.

It's a well known fact that those who have taken an active vested interest in helping to plan and put together an event will automatically be more likely to attend. By assigning each member of a group, club, or organization a small task or responsibility for the fundraising event, they'll all be more likely to attend (and hopefully bring along a few guests too).

Come up with a unique spin.

There's certainly nothing wrong with traditional fundraiser events like dinners, auctions, and the like; however, the traditional ideas have been done time and time again. To really reach out and attract serious attention for your event within a community, you'll need to brainstorm and come up with a uniquely creative spin or theme for the event. For example, instead of hosting a standard charity dinner, what about doing something fun and festive like a tiki party or beach themed party?

Spread the word around.

These days, many folks check their social media accounts and cell phones literally hundreds of times per day. Reach out and go viral with your fundraising event's marketing efforts by creating a profile or group with the commonly used internet social networking sites to build interest. When invitees see that their friends are planning to attend, they'll be even more likely to jump on the bandwagon themselves. Another idea would possibly even be using cell phone text messaging to help get the word out if your target audience would be receptive to such efforts.

Personalize your invitations.

Even though it will take a bit more time from your invitation committee, having each member of your group send personalized and singed invitations to their own circle of friends and contacts is one way to help make the event more personal in the mind of the invitation recipients. A friendly handwritten note added to the invitation along the lines of "Really believe in this cause...hope you'll be able to join us for this evening of laughter and fun!" might be just the extra "something" required to convince the potential attendee to make their reservation official.

Give something extra.

Providing a gift, memento, or promotion as a way to encourage attendance is a tried and true effective idea. Many event organizers have successfully used creative gifts at the event to each attendee to help them remember the occasion (and also to hopefully encourage their participation in the next upcoming fundraising event too). Building on our previous example of a beach themed event, the party's planners could give out custom printed flip flop sandals to all attendees to help celebrate the occasion and continue spreading the good word as they wear them time and time again in the future. Be creative and have fun!

By giving serious thought to these 6 ways of encouraging people to attend your fundraising event, additional ideas will also come to mind as you begin the planning process. Don't be afraid to step outside the box and try something new. And lastly, allow us to wish you the very best of luck with your fundraiser-it will surely be a big success!

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