What to do after your event

The event may be over, but you’re not done yet. It’s time to cement relationships, take stock… and start making sure next year is even better.

The essential 6: after your signature event:

It’s almost time to reboot your event planning cycle. But first, there are six things you must do.

1. Thank your donors, sponsors, attendees, volunteers, vendors…etc. EVERYONE.

2. Settle up vendors and expenses. Reconcile any pending donations and pledges.

3. Review the data and compare to goals.

4. Compile an impact story and report.

5. Take a mental and physical break.

6. Build your plan to capture the goodwill from the event to drive more year-round donations.

Click the image to download our donor experience research study and learn more about how donors want to give.

Our customers are telling us that they’ve been able to drive 3-5 more successful micro-events through the year. Out-performing their year-round giving and expanding their donor base. Our donor survey even told us most donors give approximately 4 times per year.

Brandy Keller, Director of Product Marketing and Management, GiveSmart by Community Brands

Saying "thank you"...what donors really want.

We surveyed 1,000 charity donors about what kind of acknowledgment they prefer. The results were pretty surprising.

Following Up With The Different Generations of Donors: We know it’s important to thank our donors after they give and guests after an event…but what’s the protocol? Should follow-up techniques be based on donors’ generation?

How do you thank donors after your signature event?

Impact report
Handwritten thank-you note
Text confirmation
Generic thank you
Impact stories

Use this year’s data to improve next year’s event.

Your event data isn’t just about this year’s performance. You can use it to guide you for next year—everything from your budgets and ticketing to identifying the most important items from your auction.

Event data can help you predict the future:

Which auction items will give you the best return
Which dates and locations will work best
How different donor types will respond
When to open and close your auction
What size venue do you need

For example: say you can get tickets for Hamilton. Will that generate ROI?

Hamilton tickets are a hot item—they appear in thousands of GiveSmart auctions. And you might think they’re a sure bet.

Data from past events can tell you whether the location of the show makes a difference (in this case, it does) and whether the date of the performance matters (not so much).

“It’s a lot of work for our volunteers to procure a bunch of different items—so the data is great because it gives us a bird’s eye view of what went well, and what to look for next year.”

Tia Senour, Development Manager, Our Lady of Lourdes Classical Catholic School and Parish

Hamilton: Smart Analytics Case Study

Look Back to Look Ahead