Utopia Entertainment was proud to partner with the Association of Fundraising Professionals St. Louis to help produce the AFP St. Louis Chapter’s 2021 Virtual Gateway Conference on Philanthropy. The event, ‘Making Lemonade’, focused on giving nonprofits the tools they need to strengthen their organizations.
AFP St. Louis featured several guest speakers throughout the event - many simultaneously, thus giving participants the option of viewing the program that best applied to their respective nonprofit. In all, there were 14 sessions with attendees tuning into the live stream from across the country.
The Utopia team provided the live stream and created virtual breakout rooms for each of the speakers, utilizing a proprietary all-in-one event platform. This platform, customized by the Utopia team, gave AFP St. Louis the opportunity to offer exhibitor booths where attendees could interact with sponsors in real-time as if they were physically at the event. The event was flawless as attendees were able to easily access the program of their choice from their respective homes and businesses. In the past, the event was held in a banquet center - but providing a live stream enhanced the accessibility for attendees. The live stream also opened the doors to participants from other parts of the country that otherwise would not have been able to attend.
Over the past 18 months, Utopia’s production team has produced many live and virtual streaming events. But ‘Making Lemonade’ presented new challenges to have multiple breakout rooms taking place simultaneously as well as a central virtual location where all attendees could be brought together to offer feedback, ask questions and collectively exchange information.
Utopia’s director of production, Roe White said, “Seeing so many attendees come together for a virtual event and then allowing them to select from a menu of gifted speakers really maximized the opportunity. We’re grateful that we were able to offer our experience in production to help AFP create a unique and enlightening experience for its attendees.”
Among the presenters were Utopia’s very own President Joey Goone and Marketing Director Gina Passante. Joey and Gina walked their attendees through 3 major steps in putting on an event - the pre-planning phase, during event phase and post-event follow-up.
- Pre-Planning Phase: Setting goals for your nonprofit and your event; what outcomes that matter most and why?
- Meet with your donors, give them a voice. Find out what type of experiences they want to have and build an event around that feedback.
- Treat every donor the same. A $50 donor can become a $1000 donor over time.
- Gather your team offsite to inspire creativity.
- Small e-events outside of the gala can provide an opportunity for donors to fall in love with WHO you are and WHY you matter.
- Your online presence will determine whether or not the digital generation finds you. Digital marketing strategies will get you seen.
- During-Event Phase: Create a deep connection with your donors and your cause. Doing so will maximize the amount of generosity.
- Personal concierges connect with your attendees on a personal level and collect data for future marketing.
- Include recipients, get them and their stories in front of your attendees.
- Move your donors from passive to active by getting them involved with the recipients and engaged in your experiences.
- Involve technology to create interactive events.
- Surveys during the event will help collect data. You can also show real-time answers. Check out mentimeter.com.
- Video creates a storytelling experience and captures your attendee's attention.
57% of people who watch effective nonprofit videos go on to donate.
- Post-Event Phase: Efforts don't end with the event. Be sure to follow up.
- Use collected data for future promotion and content creation.
- Send post-event surveys to find out what attendees loved or how to improve.
- Find unique and fun ways to reach out to donors to make them feel appreciated.
- Personal thank-you’s. No generic form letters.
In addition, Joey and Gina addressed the characteristics of millennials - the new age donors and what entices that demographic to attach to a cause and donate. Utopia has produced
drive-in, virtual and hybrid events, which combine the elements of both online attendance with a live event.
Afterwards Utopia’s President, Joey Goone said, “I was energized by being able to field so many questions from the participants in our session and doing it live. Based on the response I believe we helped attendees look at new ways to address and garner donors and think out of the box.”
Joey and Gina were honored to be selected by AFP St. Louis to present during one of the 14 sessions, passing on the lessons learned from working with some 130+ nonprofit organizations and helping those organizations raise more than 30 million dollars in generosity over the past 18 months. Throughout that time, Utopia has offered guidance to nonprofits all over the country, encouraging nonprofits to think about the future of bringing people together differently. Most organizations aspire to build larger and more meaningful communities of support. Now, more than ever, we may thoughtfully utilize events and video stories as a conduit to build intellectual, social and communal capital. By intentionally sprinkling in donor connection time at events, communities of supporters more deeply connect with the joy of why they contribute.
When thinking about the AFP St. Louis conference overall, it demonstrates how you can make lemonade when circumstances give you lemons.
Fundraising can be equally successful through hybrid and virtual streaming platforms and in fact, in many cases give donors greater accessibility to contribute and be included.
Utopia Marketing Director Gina Passante commented, “It’s an honor to build our partnership with the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I was delighted that so many organizations were represented and able to glean ideas and guidance from the presenters. The online format effectively brought so many together to exchange information.”
We look forward to working closely with the Association of Fundraising Professionals St. Louis on future events designed to help nonprofits navigate new territory and build upon their successes.
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