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Event planning and marketing for fundraisers and private events
I plan events and I fill them. At What If Media Group I ran the monthly engagement events, the all-hands meetings and the annual retreat. At a Boston youth nonprofit I worked on fundraising campaigns and ran the social media, email and website. The person who books your caterer also writes the invitation and watches the RSVP list, so the headcount the caterer gets is the real one.
When is the event, roughly?
Events I plan
- Fundraisers and galas
- Benefit dinners, auctions and annual galas for nonprofits and foundations.
- Company gatherings
- Offsites, client dinners, holiday parties and anniversaries.
- Private celebrations
- Birthdays, reunions and dinners at home.
What's included
- Budget and timeline
- What the event can spend and when each decision is due, agreed before anything is booked.
- Venue and vendors
- Sourcing and booking the venue, catering, rentals, music and photography, and managing each vendor through to the day.
- Invitations
- Save-the-dates and invitations, printed or digital, written and designed for the event.
- Email and social
- The announcement, reminders and last call, sent when the RSVP count says they're needed.
- Guest list
- RSVPs or ticket sales kept in one list from the first invitation to the check-in table.
- The day
- I run the schedule and the vendors from setup to the last truck out, so the host gets to be a guest.
Sponsors, auctions and the thank-you
For a fundraiser, most of the money is decided before the doors open. Sponsorship levels have to match what local businesses will give. Someone has to write the sponsor ask and make the calls. And the evening needs one clear way to give, whether that's tickets, an auction or a paddle raise.
The follow-up decides next year. Guests who hear within a week what their money paid for are the ones who come back. Because I also write grants, the event can tell the same story, with the same numbers, as the organization's proposals.
Before you book
How far ahead should we book?
For a gala or fundraiser, six months gives time for the venue, sponsors and a proper promotion. A dinner for twenty can come together in a few weeks if the venue is settled.
Can you do day-of coordination only?
Yes. If you've planned it yourself, I take over the last few weeks of details and run the day, so vendor questions come to me instead of you.
We need board or committee approval. Can you work with that?
Yes. I can write the plan and budget up in a form your board can approve, and build their meeting dates into the timeline.
Tell me about the event
What it's for and roughly when. For a fundraiser, the amount you're hoping to raise helps me more than anything else.