As event registration, online ticketing, and mobile fundraising become more popular among event hosts, we’ve seen fundraising hosts become more adept at using each tool.
While many use event registration and mobile fundraising to improve their donors’ experiences and increase proceeds, very few groups are combining both to create a seamless end-to-end experience.
In today’s post, I am going to tell you exactly how you can integrate event registration with mobile fundraising to make your guests’ experience even easier, resulting in higher proceeds and better donor relationships!
Choosing the best platform
To start, you’ll want to be sure to select a platform that provides you with the proper tools and support to organize and run a successful fundraiser.
- Product Offering / Integration Capabilities
While this may be fairly obvious, the first thing to check is whether the platform offers both, event registration and mobile fundraising!
When we refer to mobile fundraising, we are talking about mobile silent auctions, raffles, or donation pages / text-to-give capabilities. Here, you will want to make sure that the vendor you choose has a strong solution for both event registration and mobile fundraising, regardless of the fundraising type you decide to use.
Once you’ve confirmed that both services are offered, make sure that the two services are integrated! A proper integration will mean that the platform coordinates these functions in two specific places: registration and check-in.
- Registration – An event registration and mobile bidding platform that successfully integrates registration will vastly improve your donors’ experiences when purchasing event tickets and supporting your cause. With an integrated system, your ticket buyers will enter their user and payment information when registering and purchasing their tickets.Then, when they are ready to participate in your mobile fundraiser, all their information will already be stored. Guests will no longer need to register separately when purchasing tickets and bidding in your silent auction or buying raffle tickets! Instead, all user information will be saved. When it is time to check out and pay, all payment information will also be stored, further streamlining event checkout.
- Check-In – The best platforms will also offer a seamlessly connected process for event check-in. For example, when your ticket purchasers check in to your fundraising event, what happens next? If they receive an instant push notification to their phone informing them how they can donate or bid, then you’ve found an effective platform! This small detail can lead to explosive engagement at your fundraising event and will surely lead to increased proceeds.
- Design & Accessibility
Once you’ve confirmed that the platform you are considering can offer the services needed, it will be time to evaluate the design and accessibility of the platform. How exactly does it combine event registration with mobile fundraising? Is it easy to purchase tickets, donate, and submit silent auction bids or raffle tickets in one spot?
Hopefully, the answer is yes to all these questions! One of the major benefits of combining event registration and mobile fundraising is that you can now drive your audience to one location for both ticket purchase and donations. This means your guests can browse your auction / raffle items or submit general donations at the same time they purchase their tickets!
Tips and tricks to successfully integrate event registration with mobile fundraising
At this point, you’ve evaluated the best event registration and mobile fundraising platforms and have made a decision on which to use for your fundraising event. Now it’s time to put your strategy in place so that you can optimize your event, improve the experience, and raise more money. Below, we’ve included our best tips for how to effectively integrate your event registration and mobile fundraising efforts.
- Timing is Everything!
To successfully integrate your event registration / ticketing with your mobile fundraiser (silent auction, raffle, or donation page), we recommend aligning both tools from a timing perspective. This means collecting auction or raffle items early and adding them to your mobile fundraising page.
But don’t worry! If you only have a few items to start, that’s fine – you’ll just want a few items on your page to get buzz going around your fundraiser.
Once you’ve set up your ticketing page and mobile fundraiser, it will be time to promote your event. With everything on the same page and your mobile fundraiser set up, your audience will now be able to purchase their tickets while they support your fundraiser by bidding or donating! Making sure that the timing is aligned is thus a crucial step to setting up a successful fundraising event.
- Coordinate Your Event Promotion Messaging
SImilar to ensuring your timing aligns for event registration and mobile fundraising, it’s important that those who promote and market your event have a unified and cohesive message. While this message must portray your story and the cause you are supporting, your communications are all the perfect place to ensure that your messaging properly informs your audience about your event. Here, you should make sure that every message to your audience clearly communicates that guests can:
- Purchase their tickets
- Browse your silent auction and raffle
- Donate to your cause
And also point out that this can all occur in the same location!
With a consistent communication strategy, emphasizing when tickets are available and your fundraising tools are open, you will be sure to encourage additional support.
- Sell Event Sponsorship
Our final tip to enhance your event and raise additional proceeds is to use your event registration / ticketing page to sell sponsorship to your event. Using the ticketing platform you’ve chosen, you should be able to create separate entries for the different sponsorship levels at your event. Now when people visit your site to buy tickets and donate, they will see that sponsorship opportunities are available. As more awareness forms around your event, you’ll have a much better chance to sell sponsorship!
Conclusion
While the process of combining event registration with mobile fundraising can take some time to research properly, it is definitely worth the effort. Combining the two solutions will streamline the setup process on your end, while it will make ticket purchase, registration, and donation significantly easier for your guests. Good luck!
Author Bio
Zach Hagopian is the co-founder and COO of Accelevents, a mobile fundraising platform that enhances silent auctions and raffles through online and text-message bidding. An active member in the Boston fundraising scene, Zach focuses on improving traditional fundraising methods and increasing fundraiser proceeds.
Facebook: facebook.com/accelevents/
Twitter: twitter.com/accelevents
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