Hybrid fundraising events offer a way for nonprofits to connect with both live and virtual audiences. These gatherings allow you to build relationships with your broader supporter groups no matter their location, keeping them engaged and soliciting the donations necessary to power your mission.
Plenty of fundraising events can be converted to a hybrid format fairly easily, and chief among them is the gala. In this guide, we’ll cover the steps to planning a successful hybrid nonprofit gala. You’ll learn everything you must do to create a seamless experience that inspires generosity from both in-person and remote attendees.
1. Consider Your Options and Capabilities
Before jumping into planning your event, take the time to work through the pros and cons of taking your event hybrid. Ask yourself these questions to help you make a decision:
- What’s the focus of the event: fundraising, cultivation, education, stewardship, or something else?
- What are your goals for the virtual and online experiences?
- Who is your primary audience?
- Which supporters are most likely to attend?
- What will the programming look like?
- How long do you have before your event?
- What is your technical experience with fundraising technology?
Your nonprofit’s circumstances and needs will determine whether or not a hybrid fundraiser is the right move for your fundraising strategy. For instance, if most of your organization’s supporters live in the immediate area, it may be unnecessary to plan a hybrid gala. On the other hand, if many major donors live nearby and you have lower-tier supporters scattered across the country, then a hybrid gala may provide the perfect avenue to offer a glamorous experience to your top donors while keeping your other supporters in the loop.
2. Determine Your Event Budget and Tech Shopping List
Start by reviewing your past events and identifying all the expected expenses of a typical gala. Then, list new hybrid-specific expenses.
In particular, you need technology to engage your remote guests and facilitate fundraising for all attendees. So be sure to research event fundraising software options early and include them in your budget!
If you’re not sure what to look for, OneCause suggests a versatile fundraising platform that:
- Supports any event type.
- Offers seamless giving with auctions, donations, raffles, and more.
- Empowers supporters to connect with your mission and engage with your cause anytime, anywhere.
Picking the right software that supports your hybrid needs is critical to your fundraising success. Be thorough with your research, read reviews, check out testimonials, and book demos with providers to ensure you pick one that fits your nonprofit.
3. Recruit a Complete Event Team
Your hybrid fundraising team, which can include volunteers, should include the following roles:
- Event Co-Chairs: These individuals oversee the entire event and help lead it to success.
- Fundraising Site Master: A staff member or volunteer in charge of setting up and managing your fundraising website.
- Social Media and Communications Lead: A person in charge of promoting the fundraiser via email, print, social media, and more.
- Item Procurement: A team of staff and volunteers in charge of soliciting items and donations.
- Sponsorship Management: A team dedicated to securing event sponsors and event advertising opportunities.
- Event Day Support: You’ll need a team to assist in-person and virtual attendees on event day.
- Event Day Logistics: Find someone organized and leverage their talents to build timelines, oversee volunteers, and manage event day details.
We recommend recruiting your team well in advance and clearly defining their roles to maximize success. If your nonprofit doesn’t have enough staff members or budget to hire individuals to fulfill these roles, that’s when you can look to volunteers for help. Double the Donation recommends taking a skills-based approach to volunteering — have individuals use their specialized skills and professional knowledge to assist with planning and running your hybrid gala.
For example, a volunteer who works in marketing may be best suited to work as your social media and communications lead.
4. Build an Event Website
Now, you’re ready to move on to your event site. We recommend these best practices to get everything up and running:
- Clear event information: Clearly outline the details of your event, including the date, time, and location on your event’s website or page. For a hybrid gala, this means including both the physical location and how virtual attendees will log on.
- Engagement opportunities: Your event site will be your main hub for tickets, registration, fundraising, donations, auction items and bidding, sponsor promotion, and more! Add various engagement opportunities to keep guests hooked even before your event starts.
- Mission focus: Tie your event back to your mission by emphasizing the event’s purpose and the impact it will help you make. Include mission messaging and images to humanize your brand. Share impact statements and host videos about your mission to bring your event and cause to life.
Additionally, follow web design best practices and guidelines to create a visually appealing site that anyone can use. In particular, take a look at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to create a site that can be accessed by everyone.
5. Develop Your Event Program
Generate momentum and energy for both in-person and virtual audiences during your hybrid event by having a fully fleshed-out program and timeline. Here are a few top tips when creating yours:
- Keep supporters fully engaged throughout your hybrid event. Make sure your attendees, especially virtual attendees, stay engaged by incorporating interactive elements, using compelling multimedia, and fostering plenty of communication in your event program.
- Use gamification tools. Speaking of boosting engagement, gamification is an extremely effective way to ensure donors stay excited throughout the event. Fundraising thermometers, auction leaderboards, ambassador contests, matching gifts, and award ceremonies can all boost your event’s energy and drive stronger fundraising results.
- Send updates and share progress. Be sure to give donors updates on high-value items, progress toward your goals, and reminders about when the fundraising will close. Use live-streamed and text message communication to keep them in the loop.
Most of all, remember you will be speaking to two audiences: in-person attendees and virtual supporters. While some experiences at your hybrid gala will be shared between both audiences, such as your main program or virtual auction, some experiences may be different.
For example, an in-person program may include a cocktail hour, on-site games, a raffle, entertainment, or dancing. On the other hand, a virtual program may include mailed swag or delivered dinner options and virtual-only program pieces such as “How to make our signature cocktail at home.”
6. Begin Promoting Your Hybrid Nonprofit Gala
Hybrid fundraising provides a great opportunity for nonprofits to open their fundraising to supporters across the country or those who are local and can’t make it to the event. Maximize the number of individuals you reach by marketing through multiple channels, such as:
- Your website
- Email newsletters
- Text messages
- Social media
- Direct mail
Don’t forget to explain that your event is hybrid and how your audience can participate. Share links to your fundraising site so supporters can immediately register and even make a donation on top of paying for their tickets.
If there are any technological components your audience might be unfamiliar with, provide instructions for those, too. For example, if you’re taking your auction online, let people know that they can bid during the event using the same software they use for your onsite auctions.
7. Build in Pre-Fundraising Opportunities
Boost the excitement and extend the impact of your event by building pre-fundraising opportunities! Starting your event with money already raised kicks things off on a high note — but it won’t happen without planning.
Get started with these steps:
- Publish your event site early and promote it often. Start with basic event details and your pages for registering and donating. Once the site is live, you can start promoting it and generating interest in your hybrid gala. Don’t be scared to make updates before the big event day, such as creating a page featuring popular auction items and even accepting pre-bids.
- Offer online-only opportunities. This is a great way to drive traffic to your event site. Whether it’s online-only raffles or sneak peeks of event programming, encouraging supporters to access your site early increases engagement before your hybrid gala.
- Create an ambassador program. With ambassador fundraising, you take your most loyal supporters and turn them into vocal fundraisers for your cause! Create a friendly competition between ambassadors and have them compete to secure the most event ticket sales, sponsors, and donations from their social networks!
By building in pre-event fundraising opportunities, you’ll already have momentum leading up to your event. This makes it much easier for you to reach your fundraising goal and keep your audience interested before your event even begins.
8. Conduct Multiple Test Runs
If you’re hosting a hybrid nonprofit gala, you’ll have some sort of livestream component designed to keep your virtual attendees engaged and included in the event. Make sure you run at least one test before event day to familiarize yourself with the technology and troubleshoot any issues ahead of time.
Bring together your team to test:
- Microphones
- Internet bandwidth
- Video quality
- Livestream platform features
- Virtual backgrounds
- Fundraising capabilities
It’s also a good idea to have someone who’s not connected to your mission or event review your run-of-show to provide an objective opinion on how smoothly it runs and how connected they feel to event proceedings.
Wrapping Up
At this point, you’ve completed your planning efforts and are ready for the big event day. During the event, you’ll focus on running programming and dealing with any obstacles that arise.
Afterward, drive deeper engagement by immediately following up with attendees and sponsors and expressing your gratitude for their generosity. Talk specifically about the impact of their gifts and offer additional ways to stay engaged with your cause to secure long-term support that will power your mission.