This is a guest post from Jon Douglas, Director of Givergy, who have helped 850 charities to raise over £20million in the last 12 months.

The venue has been sourced, the entertainment has been booked, major donors have confirmed their attendance and all the other vital elements of your fundraising event are being arranged, the makings of a great start!

However, these elements alone are not enough to ensure that a substantial amount of money is for your event, or raised on the night!

Look no further than here to learn a few effective and easy tips to raise more money at your next fundraising event! Take the appropriate measures and follow the advice below and watch how the amount you raise at your next event accelerates.

How to raise money at an event

1. Invite the Right People

This is an obvious one, however it’s so easy to get carried away when creating the guest list.

Understandably it’s vital to get the names down that are going to help you achieve your fundraising target so put yourself in their shoes to help you create the perfect fundraising guest list. Don’t just invite everyone – be strategic about who is most likely to care about your cause and have the right funds to enjoy a night that involves competitive bidding.

The best place to start is previous guests, but you can also look at your newsletter subscribers, regular social media fans / promoters and anyone your team has identified as a high priority.

2. Inform and Excite

Simultaneously build excitement and inform guests through pre-event communications so they’re fully aware of what needs to be achieved on the night.

Further bringing home the fact that even though the event will be enjoyable there is work to be done – to raise as much money as possible to help change lives. This will ensure that guests don’t get sidetracked with entertainment, celebrities etc. and attend with the right intentions.

3. Finish Formal Proceedings Before Entertainment

Guests naturally get carried away as soon as the entertainment starts, so make sure you have prompted and prodded guests to donate as much as you can before you have lost them to alcohol and music. It’s a good idea not to get this the wrong way around!

4. Lot Items

If you can focus only on one thing before your event, spend as much time as possible before the event sourcing fantastic donated lot items. Having desirable, high quality items to bid on will alone be sure to drive up the amount you raise on the night through the roof!

Remember a key element to your event is that you want to tempt guests into outbidding each other and the more amazing the lot item the more competitive guests will get.

5. Good Host

A good host has the natural ability to keep the event on track, create excitement around its fundraising element and also to drum home the emotive message of why the event is being held.

Technology provides platform through which to raise money, but the human element required to go in tandem with it cannot be ignored.

6. Count Down

The last few minutes at the end of the auction is the clincher, really highlighting the fact that there are only a few minutes to go to get your hands on those amazing lot items really will play a huge part in you surpassing your fundraising targets.

Ensure a 10-minute announcement to the silent auction is therefore factored into the running order of the event.

7. Technology

Make technology work for you by implementing the latest fundraising technology to simplify the bidding process which will in turn maximise fundraising efforts.

Good technology should allow you to present your lot items neatly throughout the evening on screens, making it a seamless integration into the event experience. It should also allow guests to bid easily and competitively on the items through tablets, so they can pledge an amount of their choice and much more!

Making the bidding process easy to understand and implement for you and your guests has proven over and over again to be a fundamental part of any successful fundraising event, and will help you to reach and surpass your fundraising targets.

8. Communicate and Delegate

You can’t be in two places at once, so keep everyone in the picture and delegate effectively, this will ensure you have the time to concentrate on implementing the advice above.

To help ensure it all goes smoothly, make sure you have developed a timed schedule of the event which is shared with all your staff and volunteers, so you can relax and focus on the bigger picture while they get all the little details just right for your donors.

9. Scarcity Sells

We have probably all been to events there the live auction goes on far too long, gets awkward and really breaks up the whole momentum of the event. Don’t be afraid to limit the number of items in the live auction to 5 or 6 maximum and enhance the silent auction with high-end items too.

This will have the added benefit of making each lot seem more important and valuable to your audience, helping increase bids by leveraging the power of psychology.

10. Don’t forget about pledging

Becoming more and more common is a ‘Live Pledge’ moment or ‘Fund a Cause’ part to an event.

Similar to a live auction this requires the MC to drum up activity for live donations during a specific point in the proceedings. Placing the actual donation through technology allows the MC to use a live totaliser on screens to encourage others to participate and therefore get closer to the target of the charity. This is best done during the most emotive part of an evening after a video or inspirational talk for example.

About Givergy Events

Givergy Events have made it their mission to help charities all over the globe to maximise fundraising efforts through revolutionary technology no matter the budget. Get in touch for further advice on how they can help you reach and surpass your fundraising targets at your next event!

Have any tips or tricks to add on how to raise more money at fundraising events? Share them below!