From Rob Hard,
Your Guide to Event Planning.
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Special event planners – especially those in the nonprofit world – know that organizing an outdoor fundraising event is a great idea. Nearly every weekend there’s another community walk fundraiser being organized in the community. And this, like other fundraising ideas, means that planning for next year’s event usually begins immediately after this year’s fundraising event concludes.

That’s because it’s important to debrief about what went well this year so that those features may be included or enhanced for next year. It also adds value for the sponsors. And, inevitably, all successful community walks hope to grow and expand. That’s a good thing for the organizations behind the event.

But it’s important to stay focused on the primary objective for holding such events – fundraising, operations and logistics support that objective. So for those event planners who have previously held an community walk, one of the most important times for planning actually happens after the walk ends.

Walk to Fundraise

Hosting a community walk or similar event requires bringing together several different constituent objectives, but the cause hosting the event is doing so in order to raise money. Therefore, the first step in planning the next event happens when the current event ends.

“We look closely at the numbers after the event concludes,” explains Liz Klug, director of special events for Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization in Chicago. “We compare how we did this year vs. the previous. We look at the participant experience. We evaluate our categories of sponsorship. We respond to any immediate e-mails about the events.” And event planners will take immediate steps to assure all those involved in this year’s event will continue next year.

Klug also considers digs down to the details: in her evaluations, she looks at the number of volunteers participating, volume of t-shirts distributed, how much signage, etc. And she asks whether she needed more or less for the next year.

Y-ME organizes an annual walk each year on Mother’s Day and funds raised go to support programs and services such as the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Hotline, the country’s only 24-hour toll-free hotline staffed entirely by breast cancer survivors who are trained peer counselors.

Y-ME began its Mother’s Day events 17 years ago in Chicago. In 2007 Y-ME raised more than $7 million with nearly 43,000 walkers from 12 cities. In 2008, 15 cities will participate.

Klug attributes much of Y-ME’s success to an organized approach to planning, keeping an eye on the most important objectives first. “We have a plan for various points in time during the planning process. So, we will take steps to promote those most critical points in time to make sure we’re successful. For example, in a city where we may be hosting an event for the first time, we must focus on making sure we have a great venue and location where people will want to come back. Down the road we can focus on where coffee shops we’ll drop off brochures.”

Planning Timeline

For those organizing a community walk, it’s important to know what steps should be handled at various times.

Most nonprofits don’t have the luxury of an extensive number of staff and volunteer committee members to drive the event’s success – that’s why the staff exist. But planners recognize that they must make sure that they work closely with a city’s mayor’s office and public works department to get the event on the public calendar

Klug suggests that the first step is to focus on corporate recruitment. If the event isn’t a new program, it’s important to gain the corporate support for next year’s event immediately after this year’s event concludes.

“We focus on renewing sponsorships when we deliver the event wrap up report,” Klug says. She offer the following highlights for planners interested in organizing a community walk as a fundraising event.

• Identify corporate sponsors.
• Develop walking team programs.
• Determine event activities.
• Begin walking recruitment.
• Finalize event logistics.
• Hold the event.
• Hold a “thank you” event.
• Evaluate and begin subsequent event.

Y-ME hires an outside logistics firm to handle many of its logistical requirements. But additional suggestions for logistics when organizing a community walk may also include the following steps for on-site preparations:

Online Registration System

Y-ME learned a few years ago about the importance of using the web for online registration, and strongly advocates use of the technology for online registration and fundraising.

They invested in an online constituent relationship management system to serve as our 2003 race web site. This type of system serves as a personal web site for volunteers to make personalized appeals for donations and other involvement. It captures information into a single database and serves as a tool for walking team captains to encourage their members.”

The results: online participants increased from 4,000 to 11,594; online donations increased from 5,000 to 19,650; it contributed to reaching a $2.35 million goal; and it reduced administrative costs by about $20.000.

The system is also an important communications tool that allows an organizations to follow up and continue to involve constituents beyond the race day itself.

Race day timeline and tips for planning a fundraising community walk, next page.