Free · Certificate included
Event Fundraising
Plan, promote, and profit from fundraising events that supporters love.
What you’ll learn
- Choose the right event type for your goal and capacity
- Build a realistic event budget and net revenue goal
- Recruit sponsors and underwriters to cover costs
- Measure true event ROI, including staff time
- Convert one-night attendees into repeat donors
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
What a fundraising event is actually for
Events are the most visible thing a nonprofit does — and often the most misunderstood.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 2
The menu: types of fundraising events
There are dozens of event formats, but most fall into a few families.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 3
Gross vs. net: the number that actually matters
Here is the single most expensive misunderstanding in event fundraising: confusing gross with net.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 4
Building the budget
A good event budget is not a guess written after the fact — it is a plan written before you commit a dollar.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 5
Sponsorships: covering the cost before the doors open
Sponsorships and underwriting are the closest thing event fundraising has to a cheat code.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 6
Day-of logistics & the run of show
Months of planning succeed or fail in a few hours.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 7
After the event: turning attendees into donors
The event ends and most organizations exhale, file the photos, and move on.
5 min Quiz Interactive
Sources & further reading
- Classy (GoFundMe) — How to Calculate Fundraising Event ROI
- OneCause — How to Plan a Fundraising Event: Steps to Raise More
- Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) — Donor Cultivation Events: A Practical Guide for Fundraising
- Bloomerang — Special Event Follow-Up to Convert Guests to Loyal Donors
- Double the Donation — Corporate Giving and Matching Gift Statistics
- GiveSmart — How to Calculate Net Gain for a Nonprofit Event
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