The Most Important Factor in Having a Successful Pledge Event

Give your fundraisers at least 3 months to raise money.

This applies to walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, marathons and any other type of athon or pledge event.

Let's face it.  The economy is a little scary and many nonprofits are scrambling to find new revenue sources.

Saddled with cash flow problems and reduced credit lines, orgs are looking for money quickly. 

But be careful.  Your need for speed might torpedo your chances for success.

I recently spoke with two organizations that organized pledge event walkathons.  Both were planned within a span of 1.5 months and one had online registration open for 10 days. 10 whole days.  Needless to say both events were failures.

If you are organizing a pledge event you need to give your participants at least 3 months to do their fundraising.

In a typical $100,000 pledge event, we've found the following trend.

Month 1:  15% of funds raised

Month 2:  32% of funds raised

Month 3:  49% of funds raised

Post event: 4% of funds raised

Almost half of the revenue, in this case $50,000, was raised in the third month.  And it's not just because it was the final month.  We've seen that if the second month was the last month, the fundraising totals were lower.

People who are voluntarily fundraising for you need time to craft their message and make the ask.  The people that are being asked need time to sit down and respond.

When you are asking volunteers to raise money for you, remember that it is not their job to do so.  They have real jobs and responsibilities that take precedence over your non-profit.  So give them time.

If you're going to spend the time and resources to organize a walkathon or other pledge event, you might as well give yourself a chance to succeed by giving your fundraisers at least 3 months to raise money for you.

Comments

[Jordan1]

It is nice one, the pic is very cool, i just wonder if the real matter also cool enough. I have got a watch which have nice photo but do not really good before, it is so bad...

[Nursing tank]

i could see from the chart that form month 1 to month 3 it has an increase of percent, or the money is increasing. thanks for sharing this