No, it’s not just you when it comes to fundraising events.

In the past, we’ve talked about Seth Godin’s dislike of fundraising events.  More recently, we’ve seen UK participation event revenue declines; in North America, participation rates dropped 5 to 11% in 2016 from 2015, which was down from previous years.

Now, as even stalwart UK events are seeing declines, UKFundraising has some cutting analysis about why:

“One, because many charities are so determined to minimise risk they’ll only do what others have done before. Let’s be honest, a flood of copycat event formats was only going to turn a fresh idea tired. The wheels are falling off bandwagons faster than ever these days.

And two, because while we called it ‘mass participation’, what we really meant was ‘mass fundraising’. Once again the trustees turned the thumbscrews and demanded short-term ROI as the only measure of success. And event after event was found lacking.

All of which means millions of people won’t hear about us through their friends, colleagues and families. And those friends, colleagues and families won’t get the chance to turn up to our events, wear our colours, bake, shave heads, play games or get together.”

At the same time, I don’t share Seth Godin’s jaundiced view of events if they are used as a relationship’s beginning, not its substitute.  As such, we shouldn’t measure events by whether they return people to the event but whether they return people to the organization.

We’ve talked about capturing and measuring satisfaction and commitment at point of acquisition in Face-2-Face; it’s true for events too.  An event that is attracting people who are not and will not be committed to the organization should be treated like any other means of acquisition and cultivation that isn’t doing its job: invited to take a long walk off a short pier.

Likewise, an event that is bringing in committed donors and those of the right identities but is creating an unsatisfying or dissatisfying experience should be fixed as rapidly as the beautiful donation page with the great image that doesn’t convert because it takes too long to load.

Netflix has famously said its competition is sleep.  Your competition is Netflix – a customized, satisfying experience that requires neither running shows nor high heels (I almost had a typo here that read “high hells” – I’m still on the fence as to whether I should have left it).  To get people to your event and keep them once the finish line tape has been broken or the silent auction concluded, you have to beat that: fitting your donors’ identities with a customized experience and creating a level of satisfaction that makes them want more experiences with you.

Otherwise, it’s just crappy rubber chicken.

Nick