Two vital assets power the mission of every nonprofit: volunteers and donations. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers became reluctant to work with the elderly and the infirm or with anyone in an enclosed group setting. Just as many nonprofits needed more assistance to care for their clients during the pandemic, their volunteer list began to shrink. Paid personnel were needed to fill the gap, and nonprofit expenses began to soar.
At the same time, donors began to avoid annual fund-raising events where large groups would gather, and donations began a steady decline. The nonprofit community quickly responded to this double-edged dilemma with creative twenty-first century digital solutions; virtual volunteering and virtual and hybrid fund raising events.
Nonprofit management recognized that specific populations of their volunteers were happy to stay active and engaged as long as they could do so at a reduced risk and, often, that meant remotely. They realized they could shift their paid office and management personnel to hands on tasks in the field while using remote volunteers to take up the slack in administrative tasks. With an array of user-friendly technology available, virtual volunteering was entirely achievable.
In addition, as virtual volunteer programs got up and running, nonprofit management began to better understand how volunteers wanted to interact with their organizations. In a virtual-first world, supporters expected to interact with nonprofit organizations online first before committing to volunteer in person. For most of the new virtual volunteer programs, this meant upping their tech presence with streamlined registration and a well-functioning volunteer site.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual and hybrid events have become important aspects of the nonprofit fundraising process. Nonprofits quickly realized that making their fundraising event available online would inevitably and significantly increase their audience. A larger outreach meant more prospects to make their hybrid events as lucrative as possible. But, as these events gained popularity, many nonprofit and charitable organizations realized that event quality for remote attendees was just as vital as a quality experience for in-person guests. While events with an online component almost always reduce overall event costs, nonprofits decided that high-quality, well-executed hybrid events require investments in areas that may not be usually considered. Elements such as volunteer recruitment and training, audio/video production, virtual event producers, and online hosting platform fees are areas they needed to consider when hosting a virtual and/or hybrid event.
In a virtual event, your volunteers and staff can play a crucial role in collecting bids and payments and facilitating check-in/checkout. Your staff will have to be trained on how to manage your virtual event backend from their mobile devices, necessitating extra time and resources to be spent on volunteer training, management, and scheduling.
Professional, high-quality video and sound are vital components of a successful online event. Hiring a professional videographer to be present at your physical event will allow you to bring that experience to your online attendees in a far more engaging way.
In addition to ensuring that your event is fully accessible and enjoyable for your digital participants, great video footage can also serve as excellent marketing material for your organization. Well-shot and edited portions of your fundraising gala may be used in the future to win over possible contributors.
A production team is vital for ensuring that both components of your event run in tandem and according to plan. A professional team will be able to help you successfully and functionally organize the different aspects of your fundraiser, leading to the quality of both the physical and digital parts of your event.
For fundraisers, it’s important to ensure that your chosen virtual platform can easily accept donations, market ticket sales, and work well with other popular social media platforms for promotional purposes. If your hybrid gala has an auction component to it, for example, your digital platform and any apps you may use to that end must be able to host that feature effectively between your physical and digital attendees.
Many virtual events raise 30% to 50% above their initial objective. The added profit can be attributed both to the reduced cost of hybrid events and to the contributors themselves. Keep in mind that giving donors the option to attend your events virtually translates to no travel-associated expenses on their end. In addition, online participation also caters to donors with full schedules, who can’t afford to be present for the entirety of the gala.