summer fundraiser

We raised $6,171 from 96 donors

We hosted 2 in person events and got around 175 people out to them.

Started planning campaign late June and held the fundraiser from 7/19-7/29/21

DEBRIEF

Notes

• I did NOT include monthly membership payments in this fundraising figure

  • But we did during NewsMatch

• Sponsorships line are not actual cash donation

  • They are estimated values of goods and services donated

• Sponsor keys for “notes section”

  • Seventh Son, The U, Half Baked, YellowBrick, MadLab, New Flava

Takeaways

• General fundraiser (workload, execution, outcome)

  • Workload (how manageable did it feel?)

    • Overall

      • Cass - I think especially with how little time we planned this in, the pace and workload felt like a lot still, but better than the past. I think it may have been perfect had we had longer to plan!

    • Marketing

      • Marisa - Think it would have been more manageable if i hadn’t been doing marketing for another org right before this. Was very helpful to have folks jump in and support with writing copy/graphics. Would recommend a second person to support while with either social media or editorial during this time. Jae was very helpful!

    • Engagement

      • Cass - I did a lot and it paid off, but had a lot I didn’t have capacity for (could have contacted 300 more ppl personally and 300 targeted Matter supporters) if I had time or a volunteer for the latter. I am interested to get an honest accounting of how much others on the team put into it:

      • Marisa - did personal targeted outreach to ~100 people and a few organizations. I wish I had time to contact more folks, but I also wish I had time to engage with folks before asking for money.

    • Events

      • Events do take a lot of time and planning

    • Cass

      • The board was hugely helpful and supportive to this effort! The MD felt less stressed with their support compared to the past.

      • I still felt more burnt out by this fundraiser and lost out on income from my side jobs because I was bogged down with working over my paid Matter hours. That would have been the case without the final week’s issues, but was even moreso then.

      • I would not have been able to do all I needed to do without Isaiah’s help - generally, and especially w/ what happened in the final week. So, there is room for getting others in on logistical things.

      • The first event was mostly great in that I was able to talk to the ~50 people I invited who showed, but I was still managing volunteers and such and think it would be ideal to have someone else doing that if possible.

      • The second event was so smooth because of Ruthie and Phil’s assistance on set up and taking on a bit of a “runner/volunteer manager” role, but I was still ultimately the main logistics person for many event aspects which would have been more difficult had it been a larger event.

      • The volunteers for both events did a phenomenal job and there was very little confusion/mishaps on their part, which made everything smoother for me

    • Marisa

      • First off, thanks everyone so much for your support this week. I’m so grateful for everyone who was able to step in and support Cass last week in my absence.

      • Overall, the campaign is a success, especially thanks to our large donor and the hard work of everyone here. Of course we were racing time between finalizing the budget and NewsMatch, but a month feels like a more doable amount of time to execute a $5k campaign, and marketing something tangible to fund like our investigations seemed to get us some more support too. From what I’ve learned from NewsMatch and other nonprofit newsroom funding campaigns, being honest about your needs can be really rewarding.

      • Thank you to everyone on the board for your support in executing this fundraiser! We could not have done this without you.

    • Isaiah

    • Board

  • Execution

    • Overall

      • Even with all of the speedbumps we hit, especially during week 2, we did well at keeping our cool and adjusting. The board and Jae were very supportive in overcoming those hurdles and Cass took on extra work to do what needed to be done. Our strength always proves to be in our team, teamwork, and flexibility.

    • Marketing

      • The new airtable system is extremely helpful for executing the marketing calendar and coordinating it with events. Like i said previously, a second person to help balance editorial and social media roles would be helpful during this time.

    • Engagement

      • I would have liked to see more engagement online

        • Wanted to have a “submit your questions” ahead of time social post

    • Fundraising

      • We exceed our overall goal!

      • We got our first large donation (over $500, that wasn’t from Jae) - $3,000 from the owner of Fox in the Snow! And there’s more! They said the want to be an annual source of our funding!

  • Outcome

    • Overall (see stats above)

      • The average donation for us generally is $13 including monthly memberships. When counting only one-time donations, our average in FY20 was $51. This campaign, we pulled an average of a $35/donation.

      • We got 1 new member during this campaign, which makes sense because we didn’t push that.

    • Marketing

      • Have a much better workflow for event marketing with new event planning AT base. Not only that, but also a more clear list of what marketing is needed for each event, such as parking, livestream links, etc.

      • Gained insights into who some of our core supporters are — see repeat donors, folks who post about us on social media

        • Would like to record this information on AT somehow

    • Events (see stats above)

      • We exceeded our goal for event 1

      • We fell short for event 2, due to a technical error

• Event 1

  • Could have made more donations if:

    • We had PayPal card readers up and running for this event

    • Venmo truly up and running - didn’t lose donations that did go to Venmo

    • If we had pulled more people

  • Good ROI due to lack of planning and execution that goes into that event compared w/ programmed event

  • We wouldn’t have done nearly as well if SS hadn’t allowed us to table out front. In the future, we might want to consider trying to lock down venues that allow some sort of front tabling, or else it’s harder to catch people and solicit donation/raffle

  • Should have started set up ~30 mins earlier (1.5 hours instead of 1)

  • Seventh Son was a good venue/space, things flowed well, they were supportive +1 they allowed us to table out front and that made a big difference even tho it wasn’t allowed

    • Being able to have a table at the entrance is key in the future!

  • Went smooth, we had good material out there for people

  • Board members were active and hanging out

  • Space in back and outside was nice especially since we could table outside

  • Photo/video

    • Some photos taken, don’t think we got video

  • Ruthie: difficulty getting folks to come out to events two weeks in a row

    • Good too have two different kinds of events

    • Cass experienced confusion with folks also, events too close, difficult to do outreach that is clear and not competing

    • Maybe do month long campaign, one event in the beginning, one @ end

  • Isaiah: wants to be a part of marketing, canvassing in future, help reach new people — could have tried more to reach new folks

  • Track record of solid storytelling-ish events, more footage to market them with to reach new audiences, etc.

• Event 2

  • Could have made more donations if:

    • Eventbrite hadn’t fkd us over

    • Bigger venue

    • Sold alcohol/pizza instead of gave away (issue w/ dry property)

    • Made suggested door donation $20 (i think enough gave $15 to warrant raising it, as well as quality of programming and offerings)

  • We fell almost $900 short of our goal, but could have easily hit it if not for the Eventbrite mishap.

  • We had an issue with Eventbrite, where it tacked on a free reg to each person who got a donate registration.

  • Because of that, I can’t tell how many came for sure (Ruthie thinks ~60+) because I think some who had a secondary ticket didn’t bring someone but they all show “checked in” for both regs under each person’s name who showed.

  • We would have made more @ the door and bar if not for that.

    • But perhaps this wasn’t the worst thing with ongoing COVID concerns

  • Many of those who registered donated $15, a handful gave between $20-50

  • We had really good engagement, volunteer stuff ran smoothly, and the programming did too!

  • It was slightly difficult to find enough volunteers, so I worry that for a bigger event, we need more hands on deck/to recruit some more volunteers

    • Will we be able to use the point app now? Still not worth it? Maybe advertise on social for free dinner + 2 drinks for volunteers?

  • Troubleshoot suggestion: have board register to determine any bugs w/ registration, etc

  • Adam suggestion: have a board member take on event logistics so Cassie doesn’t have to deal with those logistics — Adam would love to help!

  • Ruthie: pre-volunteer management, peer-to-peer support

  • Balance of hanging out / networking to programming was good, helpful that there was separate space for food/drink

  • Heard from folks how impressive the lineup was at the event, people amazed/excited by what we put together

  • Matt Reber runs wexner center book center, could potentially rent a room out in the future!

  • Kristina received some feedback: combining fundraiser / event took away from each individual thing

    • Some folks would like to see more tangible ways their money will be spent

    • How much programming are we capable of doing throughout the year

    • Up until this last campaign done 1 event, always been a hybrid here’s programming + how to support our needs

  • Alanna: break down the events even further

• $3,000 donor should be top priority for cultivation — and cass is already on it!

Jae feedback emailed:

• I don't have much feedback to add to this. The only thing I'd really say is that I think Ruthie's point about it being hard to get folks to show up to two separate events in back-to-back weeks makes sense. I don't know what it was like from the inside this time around, but with the Fox in the Snow donation really being what got us over the line, I wonder if it'd be a better approach to just have one low-effort event and otherwise work at cultivating donors.

• For example, maybe next year's summer fundraiser could have a kick-off or final event that's the brews with local news setup. Or even that set up with just a panel and that's the only programming. Then the rest of the time is spent doing more personal outreach and one-on-one (or close to it) meetings with folks who may support.

• On a separate note from fundraising, I would love to do more panels like that. Assuming we can get folks to agree (which doesn't seem to be a problem lol), I don't think it'd be that much work and I think there's definitely a desire for it. And personally, that panel gave me so much to think about, but also just made me want to dig even deeper. If that's something we'd be interested in doing more often, I could take the lead on it.

• All of this is just food for thought. Overall, the events were fantastic and the fundraiser a success! As always, feeling proud ❤