The Vortex of Special Events

Websters dictionary defines a vortex as a “whirling mass forming a vacuum at its center, into which anything caught in the motion is drawn; any activity, situation, or state of affairs that resembles a whirl absorbing effect”. Such a definition can be applied to many types of fundraising special events .. they are a whirling mass of volunteers investing energy into which anything in the organization is caught up and drawn; it’s a state of affairs that sucks the time and energy into organizing a single time-specific fundraising event.

When designing an integrated fund development operation, one must always guard against the vortex of special events. This is not to say that there is no place for fundraising special events, … on the contrary, they can occupy an important place in a diverse fundraising program. While this is true, we must guard carefully against absorbing all the energy from volunteers for special event fundraising, when the return-on-investment (ROI) is relatively small compared to what we might achieve if we had channeled that same amout of volunteer energy into major gift fundraising. Where is the balance?

I am reminded of an incident in late 1999 when I moved to Edmonton to take up my role as Director of Development at the University of Alberta. I had just moved into the community and was listening to the radio one Saturday morning when the local news interviewed a prominent woman from the community, who was severely criticizing the community for not attending a special event she was volunteering for to raise money for the Edmonton Public Library. She spoke passionately about how she had just spend 8 hours of her time sitting behind a table at the library hoping to accept walk up donations from local citizens to the Library fund. She said that she had never been so embarassed to be a citizen of Edmonton as she was that day, because so few citizens chose to make donations. I wondered who this woman was that she could aim such criticism at the city. If her goal was really to raise money for the library, would it not have made more sense for her to use her considerable influence in the community and work with the Library to conduct major gift approaches for the cause, rather than sit behind a table for 8 hours at a special fundraising event?

Some Chief Development Officers and organizations do not think twice about a senior community volunteer investing dozens of hours into an event that might, if it’s lucky, generate ten’s of thousands of dollars in charitable income for the organization. But what kind of ROI might we they have realized if they had used that same volunteers time and energy in helping identify and qualify major gift prospects, and helped open doors to major gift solicitation? Could we have seen hundred’s of thousands of dollars in charitable income for the organization if that same senior community volunteer had invested energy into major gift activity?

Yes, special events can be very helpful to an organization, and are more than just raising money, they help organizations communicate their mission, and promote key activities to help build community support, both critical activities in building a strong fund development program. But careful thought should be given as to how to maximize the effectiveness of some volunteers time and talents.

One of the chief challenges facing any major gift program is how to keep the team focused on the job of ‘asking for money’ (including the identification, qualification, cultivation and stewardship issues that are related to asking). Systems like ‘moves management’ and other methodologies for managing the efficiencies of major gifts programs constantly guard against the competeting pressures which rob a major gifts program of its time focused on asking for money. The ‘vortex of special events’ is chief among these threats.

Ultimately, there is a place for special events in an integrated fund development program. The challenge for leadership is how to find the balance of time to invest in special events for the ROI that is delivered, when comparing that investment of time and energy against what you could achieve if invested into a major gifts program.