It doesn't matter if you still have nightmares of all those group projects when you were in school, the best piece of advice I can give you to grow your organizations events is to find yourself some help.
The picture above isn't great. It's a bit blurry, and the group isn't as diverse as I would have liked, but this picture clearly shows our joy. This is the volunteer #team that financially grew the American Red Cross Hometown Heroes by 125% in only two years. Working with a #volunteer committee is the best way to grow your nonprofits fundraising events and it's a lot of fun too!
We all know that the logistics of a team can be messy. We might have to compromise our best ideas. It can take more time and it may be costly. There’s potential for conflict and political wheeling and dealing. But no matter the disadvantages, the bottom line is that one person, no matter how good, can never raise as much money or gather nearly as large a crowd as a group of motivated team members can.
So, get yourself a committee, train them, put them to work and then get ready to celebrate your success. #Teamwork is the Dreamwork!
There are several advantages to working with a committee:
Further Reach – If one person has 100 contacts, a committee of 10 would have 1000, increasing the reach into your local community 10-fold. It stands to reason that you want to market your nonprofit to as many people as you can. Committee work is one of the best ways to do this.
Increased commitment – Nothing reminds you to get your work done more than a group of people waiting to hear how your meeting went. You won’t cancel or delay meetings with potential donors if you know there are 10 people waiting to hear that you got the sponsorship. And that’s scientifically proven. A 2014 survey of over 200,000 employees showed that the number one motivation for doing a great job wasn’t higher pay or a pat on the back from the boss, but it was the respect of their peers that was the driving force behind extra effort. (1)
Innovation And Creativity– Research shows that innovation and creativity are often fostered by diverse groups of people who have a “greater variety of problem-solving approaches, perspectives, and ideas. Academic research has shown that diverse groups often outperform experts.” In fact, diverse teams perform better financially by up to 35%. (2) So, if you want your event to be more successful than ever, strive to create a team from a variety of different backgrounds. This doesn’t just mean race, ethnicity, and gender. Age, education, income, skills, and beliefs, etc. can all work to improve the makeup of your team and help your event to be the most successful it can. A team this diverse will give a 360 degree look at your event which leads to an increase in creative ideas. In addition, you are much less likely to make mistakes when you have a whole team of people looking at new ideas. Committee deliberations can give a critical viewpoint and waylay faulty ideas before they get off the ground.
We had a team member once suggest that we do an event entirely focused on the children’s game Rock, Paper, Scissors. At first glance, this seemed like a terrible idea. As the team leader I immediately nixed what seemed to be an old fashioned and simplistic idea. The team talked me into it and at the end of the day, this event was one of the highest attended programs the nonprofit had ever had. If we hadn’t had the strength of a very diverse team of individuals, this idea never would have gotten off the ground.
Increased Motivation – I had a meeting recently where circumstances had almost decimated a nonprofit organization I was working with. They had lost their executive director. A large chunk of funding they were counting on had not gone through and COVID had set them back almost two years in an ongoing capital campaign. Things were looking bad, and the organization was starting to founder. But it only took one team and an hour-long meeting to reenergize the core people in the group. After only 20 minutes, ideas were bouncing around like baby goats in a barnyard. We were exploring event ideas that would increase their impact financially and their reach into the community. After just one hour, the energy was back, the team was raring to go, and people were already reaching out to others. Teamwork increases motivation.
Reduces Stress– Let's be honest. It’s more fun to work with people than by yourself. When you work in a team you are sharing the responsibility of the project with a circle of friends who are there to support each other. This helps to ease the burden of having to go it alone.
I've only listed five advantages. I'll bet you can think of more. Leave me a note and let me know the advantages you've found to working with a volunteer team.
Comments