Ain't Mission You at All


Have you ever been invited to an event coordinated by a nonprofit organization and thought, "That's strange. Why would they be hosting something like this?" If so, then chances are that the organization didn't think about their mission when they planned the event. There's no alignment there. 

The main concern with events that don’t align with an organization’s mission is that it dilutes the understanding of what that nonprofit was set up to do. It’s Branding 101 – be consistent in your messaging. Always.

I’ve seen private schools who boast instilling education, values, and citizenship for its students and then hosts a Monte Carlo Night with cigars, booze and gambling. I’ve seen historic preservation organizations coordinating Halloween parades for children. I’ve seen community small business support organizations create a haunted forest event out in the middle of nowhere.

The allure for nonprofits is the idea that creating super big, fun events will give their budgets a boost. They envision raking in a lot of cash.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, it takes money to make money. The bigger the event, the larger the initial investment. And at the end of the day, the organization should evaluate how much of their money and other resources were spent on these events.

What is the true ROI (return on investment) once you take into account the staff and volunteer time? I encourage nonprofit leaders to think about it a bit differently: how could the organization have used staff and volunteer time, and other resources, in a better way? This is the Opportunity Cost – realizing what opportunities were sacrificed for the sake of this special event. Perhaps activities that would result in more work being performed toward the organizational mission. It could be actions that facilitate greater connection, awareness, and comprehension among the community. Maybe it's the chance to adopt methods that increase capacity and leverage income streams.

To organizations coordinating special events that don’t align with your mission, I suggest:

·     Conducting a full evaluation of each event, taking into account ALL of the resources that go into the event as well as the opportunity cost. Then making decisions – some of them will be difficult - that are best for the future of the organization.

·     Leveraging the income streams and fundraisers you already have in place. What could you do better? How can you increase the income potential of things you’re already doing?

·     Implementing new methods of fundraising. What income streams are you missing out on? Put your collective heads together and dream up new ways to fundraise that align with your mission and help you move closer to achieving your goals.

·     Consider a new policy. Are all of your board members giving? Are all of your board members directly engaged with fundraising? Do you have a Board ‘Give/Get’ policy? If each board member were tasked with raising $1,000 per year, could that replace the special event you host that takes a significant amount of staff time and organizational resources?

·     Make the ask! Many people feel weird about directly approaching people and asking for money. They may create special events that cost them hundreds of hours of their time in the hopes of developing a ‘softer’ ask. Chances are, however, that if you talk to people about your organization and show passion for your mission and the work your organization does, the enthusiasm will catch on and it won’t feel like begging for money. It will seem more like asking others to support this organization that you love so much so that you can continue making a positive difference in your community. And it will take many less hours, leaving you with more time to do the actual mission-focused work you enjoy doing.


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