Key findings from AFP study of nonprofit fundraising special events

The Association of Fundraising Professionals have just released an extensive study of nonprofit fundraising special events which provide an extremely detailed look at the type, frequency and importance of special events for fundraising purposes. Truly worth examination overall, today I’ll highlight some of the key findings.

The AFP study polled more than 3,700 organizations in February of this year and the collected data aims to review complex information in relation to event planning and management for the industry which in turn can assist nonprofit management in planning their own when comparing the industry standards by type, size and region along with the total number and types of events hosted each year. What is clear from the report is that although event planning can be a costly and time-consuming practice it remains a popular element of a balanced approach to nonprofit fundraising for most organizations.

Respondents represented a thorough cross-section of the sector by both size and type of nonprofit and as importantly almost all (98%) have at least one year of event management experience while 82% had five years or more.

Frequency of Events – Of those surveyed 96% hold at least one special fundraising event during a typical calendar year with the vast majority (73%) holding three of more events per year, thus the activity rate is extremely high. In full the data is as follows:

23% – One or two events per year | 31% – Three or four events per year | 17% – Five to nine events per year | 13% – Ten to fourteen events per year | 13% – Fifteen or more events per year

Those last two sets of numbers may perhaps seem extraordinary until you learn more about the types of events these include as outlined below.

Type of Events – The research allowed for a total of thirteen different types of events to be tracked and as you would expect most nonprofits will typically mix and match from the various options that are associated with fundraising events. Whilst some may be annual, others might be quarterly or even more frequent. The research compiled the total ratio of nonprofits which host specific event types as shown in the graphic below.

As you can see the most frequently seen event types consist of a blend of ‘Stewardship and/or fundraising receptions, dinners’ and ‘Gala with a live and/or silent auction’. Both of these seem to lend themselves quite specifically to normal annual events which are the highlight of a nonprofit’s calendar but the diversity of other events is also quite telling, particularly the keen reliance on auctions.

Event Staffing – I was quite surprised that the majority of nonprofits do not assign a full time employee exclusively to special event coordination with 56% stating that none are assigned permanently, most of the remainder (37%) reported that between one and four staff are devoted to events management. To add perspective to that the number of staff assigned to general fundraising duties (on an FTE basis) ranged quite widely per the data below:

No staff – 5% | one FTE  – 26% | two to four FTE -31% | five to nine FTE – 18% | ten or more FTE – 17%

Revenues – As you would expect the gross nonprofit revenues from special event fundraising varies widely depending on the size of the nonprofit and of course the number of events. The two charts below help to demonstrate these figures by showing the annual special event revenues in addition to what proportion of total revenues this then constitutes.

Next week I’ll look at how nonprofits tend to market their special events based on the report which provides equally interesting data. If you have any special event insider information or tips about special events for nonprofits that you’d like to share I’d love to learn about that via the comments below.

All data reviewed by kind courtesy of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.