5 Ways to Improve Your Fundraising Event Invitation

Your fundraising event invitation is often an over-looked method for promoting your nonprofit organization. Consider this: If you mail out 2,000 invitations and expect to get 200 people to attend your event, then you are doing a mailing to 1,800 people you are know are not going to attend (you just don’t know which ones).

Don’t waste that opportunity to promote your organization to 80% of the people on your event list. Take advantage of your event invitation mailing to engage these potential donors in your organization.

Here are 5 things that an effective event invitation can do for your nonprofit organization.

1. Create awareness for your organization.

Tell people what your organization is all about. Believe or not, not everyone on your mailing list really knows what your organization is about. They may have given a donation once or be on your mailing list for many reasons, or may have last heard from you last year, and may have forgotten. If your invitation only mentions your event, but not much about your organization, you are missing out on creating awareness about your organization to many people who will not be attending your event.

2. Present a professional face to the world.

For some organizations, this is the only printed mailing they do (or one of very few), so why waste this opportunity to create a positive impression on your donors? The overall look of the design of the invitation, the quality of the printing and the paper, reflects the professionally-run people perceive your organization to be and how seriously they should take your organization. If a staff person who is not a designer creates your invitation, is it really going to have a level of professionalism that stands up to all the other professionally-designed mail that your donor is receiving that day and create the positive impression that you want to convey?

3. Convey your impact.

Donors are more likely to attend your event when they understand the impact that your organization has on people’s lives, so use your invitation as an opportunity to let them know. The fact that you are honoring a specific person at you gala, might interest a few people, but showing how you help lift thousands of kids out of poverty will appeal to a much wider audience.

4. Arouse curiosity about your organization.

If your invitation looks mundane, then unless they have a strong affinity for your organization to begin with, they probably won’t give it a second glance. Every opportunity to catch a potential donor’s interest should not be wasted. Since you are going through the expense of printing and mailing, why not create something dramatic to intrigue those who don’t know much about your organization to learn more about it.

5. Connect with your donors.

Your invitation is not a stand alone mailing. It is part of an ongoing communication you have with your donors. Instead of just seeing the invitation as a way to promote the event, you can use this mailing to deepen your relationship with your donors. If they can’t attend the event, provide other ways to engage them with your organization. Ask them if they would like to see photos from the event, sign up for your email newsletter, become a fan on Facebook, or refer someone they know to your organization.

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As you can see, your event invitation can accomplish much more than simply collecting money from a small percent of people on your list. With some foresight, it can be a strategic tool in your overall marketing communications tool box. Don’t waste the opportunity – use a professional designer to maximize this opportunity to build your brand, connect with your donors, and drive results.

FUNDRAISING INVITATIONS

Pioneers Fundraising Invitation

Inside the First Marriage Fundraising InvitationLatin Rhythm Fundraising Invitation

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Event Invitation for High Level Donors Conveys Organization’s Themes

CLIENT: Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, NJ

Challenge

You might think that your high level donors know about your organization, after all they are giving substantial amounts of money. However, donors come to organizations in many ways, including others that bring them in, and donors might not know as much about your organization as you think.

We found that this was so for the Jewish Federation serving Greater Middlesex County, NJ. A survey among donors found that many were unfamiliar with all of the ways in which the organization builds value in the community.

So when we were tasked with creating the invitation for this group of influential donors, we saw it as an opportunity to help them understand more about the organization.

Solution

We used the theme of Transformation to ties together the speaker (A German who converted to Judaism), and the venue (an historic barn that had been relocated and restored) as well as convey the Federation’s work in transforming lives through the humanitarian aid that it provides. We included a paragraph about what the Federation is doing so that even those who may not attend the event can learn more about the organization’s work (notice the bottom photo and paragraph on the right hand panel of the invitation).

We have been using this tactic of “advertising” to the donors at every opportunity, to deepen ties with the organization.

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Award-Winning Promotional Campaign for a Fundraising Event

CLIENT: Jewish Community Center, Deal, NJ

Using the Safari theme, we created materials that attracted attention and increased attendance for this organization’s annual fundraising auction. The campaign consisted of a postcard, invitation, poster and auction program guide.

Each item in the campaign featured a different animal with a different pattern. The type was designed to look like it was stenciled on crates, and the items were printed on a recycled craft stock. The award-winning campaign resulted in the JCC’s most successful fundraising event to date.

American Graphic Design Award

  • Published in the book Direct Response
  • Published in the book Postcard Graphics

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