Tiptoeing Back to Events
Many nonprofits were pleasantly surprised by the continued support they got from donors who attended and sponsored virtual events last year. But as the country starts to open up, fundraisers have new choices to make, my colleague Emily Haynes reports.
Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, but that share varies a lot from state to state. To make matters even more complicated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released new guidance on mask wearing for fully vaccinated people, freeing up that population to mingle maskless with vaccinated and unvaccinated groups of any size, both indoors and outdoors.
But how to determine who has actually been vaccinated? The nation’s public health agency left that up to states, counties, venues, and organizations to determine on their own.
Fundraisers are caught in a bind. As they tiptoe toward gathering again in person, some wonder whether — and how soon — donors will follow.
Despite the loosened public-health restrictions across the country, fundraising consultant Samantha Swaim advises her clients to stick with virtual events — at least for now. If vaccination rates tick up and case counts stay low, some nonprofits may choose to create small watch parties where supporters can come together to view virtual content.
“I suspect we’re going to see a whole season of gatherings that are house parties and dinner parties and probably not the 500-people-in-a-ballroom-style event for a little while,” she says.
There are social reasons — not just health reasons — to slowly restart in-person events. Schmoozing has become more or less a foreign concept. “People just want good, meaty connections,” Swaim says. Those are easier to come by at a smaller event, where people can hear each other talk.
Donvil Collins — chief executive of VeeKast, a video production company that works primarily with nonprofits — says none of his clients are returning to completely in-person events just yet. Even so, there’s a lot of angst about how to handle events right now. One potential client asked his team to put together three proposals for a single event to game out what it would look like as a virtual, in-person, or hybrid gathering.
Hybrid events — which people can attend either virtually or in person with a small group — are an attractive option for organizations that don’t want to leave out cautious supporters in favor of those who are ready to be together in person. But Collins says hybrid events can run as much as twice the cost of a virtual event. The price of an in-person event is already far higher, Swaim says. She tells clients to expect to pay an additional $5,000 to $8,000 to cover video production costs to bring an in-person event to an at-home audience.
That could cause sticker shock for some fundraisers, who got used to the lower cost of virtual events last year. Since March 2020, VeeKast has planned virtual events for almost 150 clients, and most of them brought in more net revenue than they typically got from in-person events before the pandemic. “Even if their gross was less, their net was more than usual,” Collins wrote in an email.
In certain cases, fundraisers are choosing to limit in-person attendance of a hybrid event to their biggest donors. This year, New York Road Runners plans to hold a hybrid gala, which typically happens the night before its November marathon — but that may change if Covid cases spike. About 1,000 people usually attend the gala, with individuals and companies buying tables and bringing guests to support the nonprofit’s free physical activity programs for kids, teens, and older people. This year, however, the charity plans to pare it down — with in-person invitations mostly going to major donors and people it hopes will become donors. If that plan goes forward, an audiovisual team will professionally stream the event for those at home and play recorded content for those at the venue.
High-quality video production is essential to a hybrid event’s success, says Thomas Moore, director of individual giving at New York Road Runners. “Now the expectation is that you’re really investing the time, that you care about the donors who aren’t there in person.”
For those organizations planning in-person events in the coming months, flexibility is the name of the game. Jewish Family Services, a social-service nonprofit in St. Louis, is planning its November in-person gala around the theme of masquerade. With shifting health and safety guidelines, the charity hasn’t yet decided whether it will require guests to wear face coverings to its fall event.
“If we decide that people have to wear them at the time, we have a theme that’s conducive to that,” says Miriam Seidenfeld, the group’s chief executive. If masks are not required, the theme will also help guests who choose to wear them feel less conspicuous, she says.
Take some time to read Emily’s story for more on how fundraisers are thinking through these questions. And if you’re curious how some fundraisers are thinking about return-to-office plans and in-person meetings with donors, scroll on down.
