Your nonprofit wants to create an impactful event to connect with your community and grow your reach. However, the event-planning process can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started. After all, there are many tasks you have to manage, such as your budget, getting volunteers, securing a venue, promoting it, and more. Having a strong event planning team and event management software in place can make all the difference.
We’re here to help you with each step of the process. In this guide, we’ll detail a complete step-by-step event planning process for nonprofits so you know everything you must consider along the way. Plus, we’ll provide information about technology that can help in the process, such as event management software. Read on for all the event details.
What Are The 5 P’s Of Event Planning?
Being mindful of the 5 P’s of event planning can help as you’re strategizing and bringing your nonprofit’s major event to life:
- Purpose: What do you want to achieve with your event? For example, if your nonprofit promotes sustainability, your goal may be to educate your local community on easy ways they can make more environmentally friendly choices.
- People: Who is your target audience? Define characteristics like their age, location, income level, industry, job title, etc., to determine who you’d like to attend your event. In the example of the sustainability nonprofit, you may want to connect with local business owners or managers seeking ways to reduce their company’s environmental footprint.
- Place: Determine the right venue for your event. Consider how many guests you’ll have and the event's purpose to select the right location. If you’ll have many guests, reserving a big banquet hall could be a good option. On the other hand, a conference room may be better for a smaller group of business professionals.
- Plan: You need to develop a detailed plan to ensure you achieve your goals. That includes your budget, the number of staff members required, who’s responsible for each task, the equipment you’ll need, and a timeline.
- Promotion: Marketing and advertising will ensure your target audience knows about your event. You’ll need to determine where you want to advertise. Then, create promotional materials like flyers, emails, or social media content to attract event attendees.
How To Plan An Event For A Nonprofit
Nonprofit event planning requires a detailed process, so let’s cover a complete checklist of everything you need to consider at each stage.
Set Clear Goals
Remembering the “purpose” portion of the 5 P’s of event planning, it’s time to set clear goals for what you want to achieve.
A good way to begin this process is by setting SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for:
- Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve, the people involved, and the resources required to make it happen.
- Measurable: Attach a number to the goal so you can use data to track your progress. Some examples are the amount of donations you need to generate or how many volunteers you want to sign up for a new community project.
- Achievable: Make sure your goal is realistic and within your capabilities. While it’s good for your organization to always push to improve, you want to make sure your goals are realistic for your team.
- Relevant: The goal should make sense for your organization. Consider your overall cause and what your nonprofit represents to ensure your event furthers what you’re working toward.
- Time-bound: Set a deadline for when you’ll complete the goal. You can also set smaller timelines for each phase as you set up the event.
An example of a SMART goal for a nonprofit event could be:
“Generate 20 new leads from local community members interested in participating in our tree replanting program by the end of our annual gala on May 8th. We’ll provide interactive educational resources about its impact on habitats, wildlife, and air quality, and explain how our organization has improved biodiversity in the last 4 years to present why it’s a worthwhile cause.”
Prepare A Budget
It’s important to prepare a detailed budget to know what materials and type of venue you can afford. Since nonprofits often rely on donors and sponsors, you may also want to set donation or sponsorship goals for the necessary funds to make the event happen.
An event management system (EMS) can help with this. Cadmium’s Eventscribe platform is built to meet the specific event needs of nonprofits and associations. It can help you manage donations and sponsorships and track funding goals each step of the way.
Assemble A Solid Team
You need a great team of staff members and volunteers to bring your event to life. Since nonprofits often rely on volunteer support, it’s important to start reaching out early enough to ensure your event will be well-staffed. Engaging board members early in the planning process can also help secure additional resources and sponsorships.
An EMS like Eventscribe can help with this process. It makes it easy to manage your staff and volunteers all in one place. You can have new staff members and volunteers register an account, communicate back and forth right in the software, and assign and check off tasks as you go.
Manage Logistics
Event planning involves several logistical elements. You need to:
- Reserve a venue
- Register guests
- Purchase, receive, and set up any materials needed
- Manage transportation
- Provide any accommodations required for attendees
Eventscribe can make logistics planning a lot easier. Our software can streamline tasks like room allocation, session planning, and resource distribution. It’ll free up a lot of time for nonprofits and associations that have limited staff juggling many tasks at once.
Post-Event Management
After the event, you’ll want to evaluate how it went and get answers to questions like: How many people attended? How many donations did you receive? Did you reach your overall goal? Reviewing past events can also help you refine strategies for future events.
Eventscribe can help you track your event data so you know how you performed in every essential aspect.
Additionally, it’s important to follow up with your attendees, thank them for coming, and offer ways that they can stay involved with your organization. Our EMS can help with post-event engagement as well, such as distributing extra event content or managing credit certifications.
What Are The 7 Stages Of Event Planning?
Now that you understand the core aspects of event management, you still need to start planning and coordinating everything. You can break it down into 7 stages that go as follows:
- Initial idea: Start by brainstorming some ideas. What would your ideal event look like? Consider the purpose, theme, people involved, and activities to conceptualize it.
- Feasibility: Once you have the big idea in mind, make sure it’s practical. Check to see if you can reserve a venue on your proposed event date if you can generate enough funds to set it up, and if you can get enough staff, volunteers, and speakers to manage everything.
- Design: Begin designing and structuring the event. Plan decorations and a layout for the venue. You must consider aspects like the venue’s overall space, how many booths you’ll have, and the activities involved.
- Coordination: Organize resources, tasks, and timelines for everyone involved. That can even involve coordinating guest speakers and managing presentations for the event. Eventscribe can help ensure your event’s content is unified and cohesive.
- Implementation: When you get all the resources and timelines in place, it’s time to execute the plan. You can use your EMS to check off tasks as you go, and it can help you adjust your plan as needed to accommodate any last-minute changes.
- Evaluation: An EMS can help you track data from the event. It’s important to evaluate the numbers you achieved so you know what went well and what your team can do better for the next one.
- Closure: Wrap up the event and manage any final details, like assessing costs or returning equipment you rented. Always follow up with your attendees to show your appreciation and let them know how they can stay involved.
What Are The 5 Phases Of Event Planning?
The 5 phases of event planning and project management are similar to the 7 stages in the previous section but in a more condensed step-by-step system. It can be worthwhile to test both to see which works better for your organization and event planning needs. The 5 phases are as follows:
- Initiation: Start the planning process. You’ll want to brainstorm ideas, overarching goals, and what you want the event to look like.
- Planning: Create a detailed plan with everything you need to make the event a success. This includes schedules, budgets, staff, materials, and tasks.
- Execution: Carry out the event plan you set. You can use your EMS to track everything throughout each step so your team stays on the same page and knows what they have to do.
- Monitoring: Track how things are going and adjust as needed. There will likely be some bumps in the road or unexpected changes, so it’s important to have some fallback plans and be able to adjust to make the event successful.
- Closure: After the event, conclude with evaluations and reports on how everything went. Using data tracked through an EMS will help you determine if you reached your goals and if there is anything your team can improve upon the next time.
Conclusion: Keys To Successful Nonprofit Event Planning
Following the steps in this guide, you can plan nonprofit events that are a success. The keys to remember are:
- Your event should align with your organization’s purpose and work toward achieving specific and actionable goals.
- Team members play a big role in managing and executing all required tasks.
- Plan your budget, fundraising goals, and sponsorship needs to ensure you have enough funds to bring your vision to life.
- Use the right software, like an EMS, to help your team manage tasks, create a smooth registration experience, and track data.
Level Up Your Nonprofit Events with Eventscribe
Our Eventscribe EMS at Cadmium can help you achieve your event goals. It’s built to provide everything nonprofits and associations need to bring memorable experiences to life in a single place. That includes:
- Automating logistics management
- Creating a streamlined event registration process
- Facilitating pre and post-event engagement
- Coordinating speakers and presentations
- Managing volunteers and staff members
- Tracking data and analytics
- Hosting virtual events for greater accessibility
- And more
Click here to learn more about how Eventscribe can provide a better solution for nonprofit and association event planning.
