190. Virtual? Hybrid? What's Working Now In Fundraising Events - Rebecca Alfred

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Overview

Meet Rebecca. She's bringing her expertise in building donor experience events to the table for a conversation around virtual and hybrid fundraisers. Her advice: it's all about empowering modern fundraisers. She's breaking down the 4️⃣ different types of events, when to diversify the event and when to allow it to stand firmly on its own. Virtual? Hybrid? In-person events of the future? We're breaking it down here💃🕺(you saw what we did there, right?!)

Today’s Guest

Rebecca Alfred, Charity Relationships Lead, Trellis Social Enterprises

“Think about your organization and your donors. What resonates with them? What elements, and entertainment would they resonate with? Then also build out your event around how you want to encourage people to give to and how do you incorporate that in between?”

— Rebecca Alfred, Charity Relationships Lead, Trellis Social Enterprises

Episode Transcript

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Episode highlights

Rebecca’s story and journey to where she is today (2:20)
The current landscape of events today (5:00)
4 different types of events (7:00)
- 1. In person events
- 2. In person with a live stream audience
- 3. In person VIP experience with your virtual attendees
- 4. Virtual events
Finding the right length for your event (21:00)
Working through fear and intimidation around virtual events (26:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Rebecca’s life (28:00)
Rebecca’s One Good Thing: Try new things, but also watch how you're doing. (30:00)

Powerful quotes

“How can you make sure that you show up, and you still give them experiences or opportunities to give, even though that's looks completely different?” -Rebecca

“But I think even in that demographic, we've seen people shift, we've seen donors move to wanting to give online to seeing the benefits of that and seeing how easy it is, which again, has just opened up more doors for charities.” -Rebecca

“There are charities who are really leveraging it to its fullest potential, because your community is no longer just your geographic community. It is a global community that we can engage by leveraging these techniques and these tactics.” -Becky

“You've now opened the doors across your entire region or nation or even internationally. And the potential for organizations with that alone is so significant.” -Rebecca

“As we think about moving forward, and where do we see charities going next, it is really these four event types that you just mentioned. And what I love about all of them is it appeals to our different donors, regardless of where they are.” -Rebecca

“It's really about diversifying the way that you engage.” -Becky

“How can we include different elements in different ways that everybody can engage?” -Rebecca

“You've got to have some mindset of like, meeting them where they're at, and, and thinking through it that way strategically, because it's kind of a total different experience.“ -Jon

“It's kind of like when you're watching the Oscars at home, like you're eating popcorn, inside at least one blanket on top of you. But you're watching people that are onstage and they're like, fully dressed up.” -Rebecca

“One of the things that we have seen work really well is having one dedicated or a team of dedicated people just there for your virtual attendees.” -Rebecca

“One of the words in the language we we like to use a lot here is magic moments. So what's your magic moment in your event, your events going to have a mix, and we kind of talked about it on a wave of like those really high moments of like, so entertaining, and so fun. But then you'll also have moments where you dropped out and it's more heartfelt or more impactful, and we're encouraging people to give. But on the top of that wave those magic moments, what are you doing to get people really excited.” -Rebecca

“As you're thinking about your event, it's all going to be about engagement and the experience.” -Rebecca

“And then the other thing you'll need to consider is like you just mentioned, Becky, in person events, it doesn't matter if there's a 10 minute break, because I can just go talk to somebody else, or I can engage with other people, when we're talking about purely virtual events, you need to have something planned for every second of that for 90 minutes.” -Rebecca

“There is no time for downtime, there is no time to ask people to like, go grab a drink, right? It's you have to fully engage people and the second you stopped doing it, that is the second you will lose attendees.” -Rebecca

“So think about your organization, think about your donors, what resonates with them, what elements, what entertainment would they resonate with, and then also build out your event around how you want to encourage people to give to and how do you incorporate that in between?” -Rebecca

“But when we think about what the year entailed, and the organizations that had to quickly adapt and move to virtual, or figure out ways to do that, those were the organizations that got really creative, they weren't afraid to jump in. And they saw the benefits of that because their donors were excited to support them along the way.” -Rebecca

“As you think about what you need to do, and how you're going to hit your fundraising goals, this is your chance to throw things at the wall and see what sticks, right, maybe you've never done a raffle. This is the year you're going to give it a shot. It's a definitely a great time to try things as not just in a charity space, but worldwide in all industries, where we're getting creative around how we adapt and how we move forward.” -Rebecca

“Think about what you can do, and how you want to impact your donors to keep giving and find different ways to give. But then with that also tested and watch how you're performing.” -Rebecca

Connect with Rebecca and trellis

LinkedIn / Website

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