When you're trying to increase fundraising event attendance, it can feel like a lot of work without a lot of reward. That may be due to your strategy! In this blog, we'll walk you through six effective ways to boost your event attendance so you can raise more money and connect with more supporters. We'll also show you how Donorbox Events can help you bring in more event attendees. Read on!
You did it! It’s the night of your fundraising event. Only…attendance isn’t anywhere near your goal. The good news is there are ways you can reliably and effectively increase attendance at your fundraising events so you don’t end up missing out.
In this article, we’re going to look at the six effective tips to increase fundraising event attendance.
Bonus – Donorbox Events to Boost Your Fundraising Event Success
In this section, we’ll review tips to increase fundraising event attendance that won’t break the bank or require too much work. For more event planning assistance, download our free event planning checklist.
The right event ticketing solution will let you build stunning event pages, easily share them with your audience, and sell more tickets.
Buying tickets online is a convenient experience for your supporters and takes some of the load of planning an event off your shoulders. Plus, an online events page is easy to share with your audience via email, social media, and QR codes.
A solid event ticketing solution will also help you collect important information from your ticket buyers like contact information to help you build those relationships and any additional information needed for the event, like dietary restrictions.
Donorbox Events lets you do all this and much more! You can create beautiful, customized event pages with unlimited ticket tiers. You’ll be able to add the deadline to buy tickets, tax-deductible information under ticket tiers, set ticket quantity, ask people for their preferences, accept additional donations, and more. Our ticketing forms are also embeddable on your website.
Donorbox also lets you refund ticket amounts in full and send out automatic receipts after each purchase. All this makes your potential ticket buyers comfortable and confident about buying tickets to your fundraising event. Check out this stunning event page example to see this robust software in action.
Create a Nonprofit Event on Donorbox
If tickets to an event are too expensive, you might not have as much attendance as you’d like. If tickets to an event are too inexpensive, you might not reach your fundraising goals for the event – which is the whole point.
That’s where offering multiple ticket types that fit your pricing strategy comes in to help increase fundraising event attendance.
That way, people who can afford higher-priced tickets can balance out people who only want to purchase individual tickets at the lowest level.
The more financially accessible your event is, the more people can attend.
With Donorbox, you have the ability to add unlimited ticket levels to your event ticketing form. What’s even better is you can add the fair market value of each ticket tier to easily calculate and highlight the tax deductibility of each level.
Here’s how Televerde Foundation achieves this through their event ticketing form on Donorbox.
Someone might feel like they’ve “been there, done that” if you’re throwing the same event each year. Instead, try something new! Exciting, new events will both reenergize lapsed event attendees and encourage new supporters to join in on the fun.
Reach out to past attendees of your fundraising event with an incentivized survey to get their feedback. This can help you shape what your new event might look like.
It also makes your target audience feel included and more involved in the event planning process. They’ll be eager to know how the whole thing pans out.
A promo code is a type of coupon code that allows certain buyers to purchase your tickets for free or at a discounted price. This is an excellent way to increase your event attendance, especially if you believe your tickets may be cost-prohibitive.
The best promo code strategy includes setting a discount code for a short amount of time, like a week. You can also use promo codes to target certain groups through your segmented emails. Someone may be eyeing your event and a great promo code may be just the thing to get them to buy their ticket!
It’s easy to create unlimited promo codes using Donorbox Events. Simply create your code and choose your discount as either a percentage or dollar amount. You can edit unused promo codes and deactivate/activate your promo codes at any time, making it easy to run a promotion for as long or as short as you would like.
Setting a ticket sales deadline and limiting your ticket numbers can help you tackle the ticket sales cycle. According to Line-Up, the ticket sales cycle usually looks like this:
Setting a deadline can help you manage phase three by allowing you to create urgency in your ticket buyers. This will help you sell more tickets and increase fundraising event attendance across the board.
Getting the word out involves coming up with a solid strategy to target both existing supporters and new supporters through all channels available to your nonprofit.
To target your existing donors, use your donor management tool to create segments for more personalized event invitations. This personalized attention can help increase fundraising event attendance and build lasting donor relationships.
Donorbox Donor Management lets you securely store all supporter data in one place – your donors, members, and event ticket purchasers. Use advanced filters to sort this data and segment your supporters effectively. This will help you know your audience better and personalize your communications.
Getting the message to the right people in the right way will increase your ticket sales and result in more attendance at your event.
These tips can only work if you have a powerful event ticketing solution to back you up. That’s where Donorbox Events comes in. Robust features designed with nonprofits in mind streamline your event planning process, make the ticketing experience smooth for your supporters, and boost your event attendance.
Watch this short video for a quick look at all Donorbox Events has to offer. We’ll dive deeper into each feature below!
Get Started With Donorbox Events
Creating a nonprofit event on Donorbox is easy. Simply create and name your new event. Then add a description of the event, any images or videos, and other details. Format the text of your description to make it pop and match your branding. Here’s a great example –
You can add as many ticket tiers as you like to your Donorbox event ticketing form to get the most out of your fundraising. This helps you target all levels of your audience and increase overall sales. Look at this event ticketing form for inspiration. We love how they included a less expensive virtual ticket option for attendees who may not want to spend $150 for an in-person ticket.
People buy tickets to nonprofit events for three reasons: they want the experience, they want to support you, and they want a tax benefit. So, another way to make sure many people want to buy your tickets is to show them exactly how much of each ticket price is tax deductible.
Donorbox helps you calculate the tax-deductible amount based on the fair market value of each ticket. Then, this amount is highlighted under each ticket tier so your potential attendees will know how much they can claim on their taxes if they buy the ticket.
Check out this example to see it in action –
Pro tip: Take these tax-deductible amounts and highlight them on marketing materials about your event. This is a great way to sell more tickets as a tax deduction is a big benefit for some donors!
Your supporters will receive their tickets immediately, along with a receipt with the tax-deductible amount listed.
This establishes donor trust and makes it easy on your end as well. You or your team won’t have to check payments and send out tickets, saving you some much-needed time to go toward your event planning.
This is how an automated receipt from Donorbox looks. Your attendees can click the link at the bottom to check and download the ticket.
Deadlines aren’t only great for creating a sense of urgency among potential buyers but they can also help you plan smarter. When you know how many people you’ll have in attendance, you’re able to make some crucial decisions about your event and finalize your budget.
Donorbox lets you add an automated deadline that will show up right at the top of the event page, just before the event description.
Use this deadline to promote your event as the date approaches.
Another feature that helps you plan your event smarter is setting ticket limits so you and your buyers know the maximum number of tickets you will sell. This will help you stay organized and further push that sense of urgency, helping you increase fundraising event attendance.
This is how it shows up right above the ticket tier on Donorbox.
Sometimes you need to collect additional information from your event attendees, such as dietary restrictions and other accomodations. This fully customizable field allows you to get exactly the info you need, ensuring a legendary guest experience. Here’s how it looks for your supporters –
The Donorbox ticketing form also lets you collect buyer information and store it securely in the tool. This information will be available in the Supporters section on your Donorbox account. You’ll be able to see the personal details they’ve provided as well as the event transaction details. Collecting contact information like this helps you turn one-time event attendees into longterm supporters!
Consumers expect to be able to use many different types of payment methods these days. This makes checking out not only more convenient for your supporters, but it also helps them feel more secure – which can help you sell more tickets.
In addition to card and Apple Pay, ticket purchasers in certain markets can choose the following payment methods:
All you have to do to add these options to your event is enable them through your Stripe dashboard.
Adding promo codes is a fantastic way to increase your fundraising event attendance – and Donorbox makes it easy. Simply go into your event and add your promo code with a dollar amount or percentage discount. Then share your code with your audience!
Here’s how it looks for your ticket purchasers upon checkout –
When your supporters check out, they can choose to add an additional donation to support your organization. This is great for pushing past that fundraising goal you’re struggling to meet!
Be sure to let people know of this option and encourage them to make a donation. Here’s what it looks like on a Donorbox event ticketing form.
Donorbox lets you embed your ticketing form into your website easily and neatly, offering your ticket purchasers a seamless experience.
This also makes for a great option if you don’t want people to navigate away from your website to buy tickets. Just copy the ticketing form code you get on Donorbox and paste it into your website editor. That’s how simple it is!
Check out how the PPAS PTA embedded their Donorbox event form for their winter concert into their website.
Create Embeddable Ticketing Forms
Next time you have an event, use these six effective tips to increase fundraising event attendance – along with the right tools for handling it effectively. With Donorbox by your side, every step of the event planning process is a breeze for you. These robust features help increase your fundraising event attendance so you can experience more success with your fundraising goals.
Learn about Donorbox’s other simple and powerful tools including recurring donations, text-to-give, fundraising pages, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, memberships, donor management, and more on the website. Our team of experts would love to help take your fundraising to the next level – check out Donorbox Premium! It also lets you create a custom success package including proven tools and high-priority support.
Want more tips and tricks for your next event? Go to our Nonprofit Blog and subscribe to our newsletter. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive curated blog content delivered to your inbox every month.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower