%20(1).webp)
Your association or nonprofit organization is hosting an upcoming nonprofit event and fundraising initiative. While planning, you realized you need an easy way to receive and track donations, sponsorships, and other funds earned throughout the process.
Event management software for associations can help. These comprehensive event management solutions provide an all in one platform to manage tasks at each phase of planning. Whether you need to track and manage funds, register guests, or coordinate logistics, your team will have the tools needed to stay organized.
In this guide, we discuss what you need to know about fundraising event software options and the overall event management process so you can choose the best solution for your needs.
What Is The Best Fundraising Software?
Most associations will find that the best fundraising event software is a platform that lets you quickly create events, manage unlimited events, and sell tickets as part of a full event management system (EMS), also called event management software. The EMS will offer many event planning and management features all in one place and integrate with the other technology you use to make fundraising and tracking progress much easier.
Some top features to look for in an EMS that helps with fundraising are:
- Analytics and reporting: Your team will want to track event data, funds and progress along the way. Plus, detailed analytics can help you determine which fundraising strategies are working best to understand where to focus your efforts.
- Customizable forms: Creating customizable forms that you can tailor to your organization, message, and fundraising needs is essential to ensure everything you send to your audience resonates with who you are and what your organization wants to accomplish.
- Event registration software: An EMS providing event ticketing and registration solutions can help with fundraising. It’ll allow you to sell tickets online, add information about your organization or cause right when attendees register, and let them know how they can donate or participate in your efforts to raise funds.
- Integrations with other tech you use: Your EMS should integrate with other tech you already use, like your association management system (AMS) and support multiple payment methods for donors and attendees. It’ll help you create a cohesive feel across your organization for easier management.
Understanding The 80/20 Rule In Fundraising
As you add software and implement a fundraising events strategy to your organization, it’s important to be aware of best practices that can help. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of a nonprofit’s revenue comes from 20% of its donors. Therefore, focusing on identifying, cultivating, and retaining top donors and maximizing donor engagement is essential to success.
This is why software that helps track data and analytics is crucial. It’ll help you identify your top donors so you can take the extra step to show gratitude to them and reinforce what their donation did to help.
For example, you could reach out to top donors with personalized messages from time to time to share what your organization is doing in the community. Simple efforts like that can keep donors feeling involved and may increase the likelihood of future contributions.
Additionally, it’s important to continuously focus on building positive relationships, such as connecting with prominent organizations or top event promoters in your local area. Over time, it gives you more and more people you can reach out to when you’re seeking sponsors for your next event or those willing to contribute.
Which Platform Is The Best For Fundraising?
Many nonprofits will start their search with free options when looking for fundraising solutions for their next event. Popular options often include crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe, Facebook events, or payment apps like PayPal. However, the data tracking usually isn’t as in-depth on these free options, and they don’t offer specialized capabilities such as mobile auction management or a full merchandise fundraising platform, nor the full set of event planning features that an EMS does.
Alternatively, you may wonder about free event management software for nonprofits. Free software can work when you need basic features, but it has several limitations. For instance, many free EMSs will limit how many guests you can register for events, how much data you can store on servers, and how many events you can manage at one time—some even cap your ticket sales volume.
In the long run, it’s better for nonprofits and associations to opt for paid event management software that offers all the features you need without limitations. That way, it can grow with your organization to avoid having to switch systems later on.
What Is The Best Event Management Software?
Some of the best event management software options include Cvent, Whova, and Eventscribe. Cvent offers enterprise grade event management solutions with robust event ticketing features; Whova adds a sleek mobile event app that shines during hybrid events; yet both can fall short on certain fundraising capabilities nonprofits need.
Cvent and Whova are both good general options. However, they aren’t tailored to the needs of every industry and can fall short on certain needs, like fundraising and donation capabilities at events for nonprofits and associations.
What’s the best event management software for nonprofits and associations? Eventscribe shines in this category with essential features that help with fundraising, sponsor management, attendee registration, data tracking, and more. It’s intuitive and efficiently manages event planning when your organization doesn’t have a large staff.
How Eventscribe Helps With Fundraising Event Management
Eventscribe empowers you to plan, prepare, and execute successful fundraising events at each stage. Whether you’re trying to promote your event, assess data, or manage sponsorship needs, it has features that can help. Those include:
- Adaptable attendee registration options
- Promotional tools to get the word out
- Sponsor and exhibitor management
- Dynamic lead tracking capabilities
- Data tracking and analytics
- Attendee engagement solutions
- Speaker and presentation management
- And more
Click here to learn more about how Eventscribe can make a difference for your organization.
