Unwrap the Data! Holiday Event Analysis Leads to Smarter Fundraising

Summary: Holiday events are important to a small nonprofit’s end-of-year fundraising, but they can also provide valuable insights for improving the return on investment from your fundraising, event planning, and engagement strategies. In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Event metrics to analyze.
• Three groups that should receive post-event surveys.
• Moving from insights to an action plan for improvement.

Holiday events are critical to a nonprofit’s annual fundraising strategy because they support the end-of-year push when a large percentage of donations are made.

These events are also opportunities for nonprofits to learn from their event data. By looking beyond dollars raised, nonprofits can create a window into thoughts and perceptions of attendees and donors.

The insights gained can be applied to fundraising, event planning, and engagement strategies – based on actual data, not intuition or gut instinct – to build stronger relationships and increase ROI the following year!

Fortunately, donor management software makes it easy to generate different types of event and gift reports that provide insights into what’s working and how you can improve. Let’s discuss key data to analyze, how to turn insights into an actionable plan, and how your donor management software can support this process.

What Data from Nonprofit Holiday Events Should be Analyzed?

The key is to look beyond the most basic metrics to define and evaluate the success of your holiday events.

• Measure RSVPs vs. actual attendance so you can see who did not attend so you can follow up. Identify marketing channels that were most successful in driving ticket sales. For annual events, you can also analyze repeat and lapsed attendance to determine if it’s time to change things up.
• Measure total funds raised, average gift size, and new vs. repeat donors. You can also create a list of top donors who gave above a certain threshold.
• New donor acquisition. Who are your first-time donors? Why and how much did they give? What’s their potential lifetime value to your nonprofit?
• Review engagement before, during, and after the event, including volunteer hours, email opens and click-thru rates, social media shares and comments, etc. Look for mentions, tags, and conversations in group and community pages. Identify which donor segments were most engaged and customize your outreach strategies.
• Net revenue. By analyzing event costs vs. gross revenue, you can calculate net revenue and quantify ROI for your holiday events and/or event categories.
• Post-event activity. After the event, was there an increase in donations, newsletter signups, volunteer applications, social media followers, QR code scans, merchandise sales, or sponsorship inquiries?
• Observational insights. Not all forms of engagement have data behind them, but they can still shed light on the success of your event. For example, did people actively engage during the event? Did they linger after the event? Did they ask about your programs or the next event? Did they thank your team or offer unsolicited positive feedback? Which speakers and activities generated the most buzz?

Post-Event Surveys: Who Should Receive Them and Why?

Use your donor management software to generate and distribute post-event surveys to gather specific feedback about everything from the check-in process to entertainment to food!

There are three groups of people, segmented in your database, who should receive different surveys that encourage them to share their unique perspectives in key areas.

1. Attendees. How did they engage during the event? What did they like the most? How can the event be improved? What type of activity or amenity would they like to see next year? Did they feel communication was too frequent or infrequent? What would make them more likely or less likely to attend?
2. Volunteers. Was the event adequately staffed? Which event functions would benefit from additional volunteers? What did they observe from attendees during the event? Were there any common complaints or compliments? Would they volunteer again?
3. Sponsors. Did their sponsorship and the event meet their expectations? For businesses, how did their sponsorship benefit your company? Do they feel that their sponsorship enhanced their brand and reputation? Would they sponsor the event again? What would make them more or less likely to sponsor next year’s event?

How Do You Turn Insights from Post-Event Analysis into Action?

Once you’ve gathered valuable insights from your data and observations, it’s time to create an action plan that lays the foundation for growth and improvement with future fundraising and events!

Here are seven ideas to consider when developing your action plan:

1. Build your event calendar around your most successful events, and build each event’s agenda around the most popular activities and themes.
2. Customize your outreach and appeals for different donor segments based on the events they’ve attended, engagement level, and giving.
3. Take customization a step further for major donors and sponsors, personalizing your approach based on their giving/sponsorship history, engagement history, interests, and communication preferences.
4. Give first-time donors a little extra attention – a phone call, personal tour, lunch meeting, personal invitation to events, etc.
5. Set realistic fundraising goals – not too high, not too low. Use insights from your post-event analysis to set a baseline and determine how much growth is realistic with strategic improvements.
6. Perform A/B testing on your outreach messaging (email, direct mail, etc.) to see what type of approach resonates with donors and apply what you learn throughout the year.
7. Explore your donor management software features so you can take full advantage of its capabilities, automate repetitive tasks, and reduce errors.

Your Unwrapped Data Wrap Up

You’re probably sitting on far more data than you realize. Don’t let it go to waste! Organize your data, identify metrics to analyze, and see what your data tells you. Small insights can lead to big improvements!

To learn how to use Eleo Donor Management Software to generate reports that provide valuable insights about your holiday events, schedule a live demo with a member of the Eleo team!