According to this report, in 2023, Americans gave $557.16 billion to charity and the majority of charitable dollars went to the following sectors: religion (27%), human services (14%), education (13%), grantmaking foundations (11%), and health (10%).
Such initiatives draw potential donors’ attention to the cause that an organization supports. It serves as a platform to educate the audience about important issues, clearly explain the organization’s mission.
In this guide, we will learn what a fundraising event is, why organizations host one, the types of fundraising programs that occur, how you can plan one, and how Airmeet can help you host one successfully.
What is a Fundraising Event?
A fundraising event is an organized campaign aimed at raising funds or donations to support the organization’s mission, such as a charity or a specific cause. These events take various forms, such as galas, silent auctions, or concerts, and are often designed to raise awareness for the cause while also collecting donations from individuals, corporations, and organizations.
A fundraising event serves as a platform to raise awareness about the cause, encourage participation, engage the community, and establish a foundation for continued support of the organization’s objectives. These programs are vital for nonprofits, charities, schools, and groups, because they often rely on external funding and financial support to operate and achieve their goals.
Why Do Organizations Host Fundraising Events?
1. To Boost Donations for Their Mission
Hosting fundraising events not only allows organizations to raise money but also boosts their donations. When an organization hosts such an event, they are able to educate the audience about its work through compelling stories, videos, and testimonials, which help build an emotional connection with the community.
Plus, it creates an opportunity to build a strong relationship with donors and supporters. When a personal connection is made and they feel more passionate about the work you do, people are often more willing to donate, which leads to higher donations.
2. To Raise Awareness About Their Cause
Nonprofits often struggle to attract new donors. By hosting a fundraising events, they create buzz about their event and their cause, which helps the organization attract new potential supporters and even engage existing supporters.
With the help of social media, organizations reach people of all ages and generate interest in their initiative. They also go door-to-door to spread the word about their cause, purpose, and mission. They let people know who they are and what they have done so far, which leaves a lasting impression on the potential audience.
3. To Build and Engage the Community
Fundraising events allow organizations to reach and educate as many people as possible about their message, creating a strong sense of community around their work. When people with a shared purpose come together, they form stronger bonds, learn more about the cause, and develop a sense of collective action that not only helps financially support the cause, but also strengthens their commitment to social good.
Examples of Fundraising Events
Here are a few examples of popular fundraising events:
1. Galas
Galas are a type of fundraising event that is held to raise funds for a non-profit organization or a charitable project. It often features food, drink, entertainment, and a dress code, aiming to create an elegant and memorable experience for attendees.
Guests generally purchase tickets or tables to attend these elite gatherings. A fundraising gala not only allows you to engage with donors & build relationships, and raise awareness for the cause, but also highlights your non-profit’s accomplishments and boosts fundraising efforts.
2. Silent Actions
A “Silent Auction” is the kind of fundraising event where the auctioneer displays items for bidding instead of describing and verbally calling them out. Participants silently write their bids on a bid sheet next to the item they wish to purchase. The person who writes down the highest bid for an item finally wins.
3. Concerts
Fundraising concerts, often referred to as charity concerts, feature live musical performances aimed at securing funds and raising awareness for a charitable cause or non-profit organization. The primary goal here is to generate financial support through ticket sales, donations, merchandise sales, and other fundraising avenues during the event.
Beyond the funds raised, fundraising concerts build community around shared people and also generate media attention and coverage, to amplify the event message and reach.
How to Plan a Fundraising Event in 2025
1. Set Event Goal and Objective
Set your fundraising event goal and objective first, such as raising a specific amount of funds, increasing awareness for the cause, expanding the donor base, and so on.
While defining the fundraising event goal, ask yourself some questions that will help you achieve your goal faster, like:
- What problem do you need to address through this event?
- How much funding do you really need to raise for your initiative?
- Who is your target audience, such as current donors, corporations, the general public, etc.
- What is the approximate number of registrations needed for your program?
- What type of event would be best to host that matches the event goal, like a charity gala, silent auction, concert, or any other?
Thoroughly knowing the answers to these questions, you will be well-equipped to set a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal for your fundraising program.
2. Build Your Event Team
Next, assemble a team for your event that will contribute to its success. In order to handle event logistics, technology, marketing, catering, entertainment, event operations, attendee engagement, and more, you will need a team of volunteers.
Once you identify the team members, you can assign them their roles so that they can carry out their responsibilities efficiently before, during, and after the program.
3. Determine the Event Type
With your fundraising goals in mind, decide what kind of event would be the best fit – a gala, silent auction, concert, or any other.
For instance, a formal gala is ideal for attracting high-net-worth donors and showcasing your organization’s prestige, often including live speeches and auctions.
A silent auction, on the other hand, can be a great way to engage a broader audience with various price points for items like gift baskets, artwork, or more.
Concerts are a great option for attracting a young crowd through entertainment.
4. Set Budget
First, estimate your potential revenue by considering ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations. List down all your potential expenses, including venue rental, catering, decoration, entertainment, marketing, staff & volunteers’ fees, speaker charges, and more.
Then, categorize your expenses for each factor. Create a contingency fund (usually 10-15% of the total budget) that will help you cover unexpected expenses.
5. Craft an Event Agenda
When it comes to hosting any event, the agenda matters a lot as it allows you to effectively organize and execute the event, from beginning to end. If you plan a fundraising event agenda around what the attendees would like, your event will be a smashing success.
Whether you are hosting an event in virtual, in-person, or hybrid style, include entertainment, games, a guest speaker’s speech, and more in your agenda to excite and motivate your audience.
6. Choose Event Venue
When choosing a venue, choose a place that can easily accommodate your audience size and make everyone feel comfortable. Ensure the venue has enough amenities, so that even if the audience turnout increases, you won’t have a problem accommodating them.
Also, check whether the venue has an ample parking area. Verify to determine if all public transportation options, such as bus, rail, and metro, are available to the event location.
7. Promote Your Fundraising Program
To meet your fundraising goals, promote your event to multiple channels. Spread the word about your event on popular social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, and more. Share visually appealing and engaging content on these channels to create a buzz around your event.
Leverage email marketing to promote your fundraising program, since direct email is a superb idea to boost your outreach efforts. Send out a tailored email to your existing donors & supporters. To encourage their participation and contribution, show to them why their support is needed and how that will make a big difference.
In addition, promote the event through traditional marketing such as flyers, posters, newspapers, TV channels, press releases to local media, radio ads, and more. Encourage committee members and supporters to create awareness about the initiative.
8. Recruit Volunteers
Recruit volunteers for your fundraising event, as they often have a positive impact on event attendees with their words and actions, and help create a more engaging fundraising environment.
Volunteers expertly handle a variety of tasks such as managing event registration, guiding attendees, assisting with activities, and more.
Moreover, they effectively communicate the organization’s mission to the public, inspiring potential donors to donate.
How Airmeet Can Help Host a Virtual Fundraising Event?
Airmeet is a versatile video hosting platform, allowing you to host virtual and hybrid fundraising events. It offers a comprehensive set of tools, features, and functionalities that won’t present your cause effectively but also facilitate donations.
Airmeet easily accommodates up to 10,000 attendees per event without compromising the quality and performance. Since Airmeet focuses on creating interactive experiences, your fundraising event will definitely be a hit.
Let’s see how Airmeet can elevate your non-profit’s fundraising events, to make them truly memorable in the digital landscape:
1. Branding & Customization
Airmeet offers a wealth of branding and customization features to reinforce your brand identity at your virtual fundraising event. You can incorporate your brand logo, color, font, and theme in a variety of places such as the virtual stage, registration page, virtual lobby, reception area, breakout room & networking space to ensure consistent branding of your organization across all communication stages.
Moreover, you can add a welcome video to welcome donors to your charity gala. You may customize the stage background using solid colors, gradients, patterns, or by uploading your own visuals. Airmeets’ branding and customization features truly make your online fundraising event visually appealing, which strengthens your brand identity during the live session.
2. Live HD Streaming Capabilities
Airmeet supports high-definition video for hosting live virtual events, meetings, and conferences, allowing you to stream your virtual fundraising event in superb clarity and quality.
We ensure that your message, presentation, and performances are delivered clearly and professionally. Donors will be able to see and hear speakers clearly, allowing you to better explain your goals and build effective relationships with them.
With Airmeet, you can stream your fundraising program on multiple social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more, expanding your global reach to more potential donors.
We automatically record sessions in HD quality so that you can repurpose them for future marketing, outreach campaigns, and extend your fundraising event content.
3. Easy Event Setup and Management
Since Airmeet is known for its user-friendly interface, setting up an event, managing attendee registration, and hosting a session are super easy. Event organizers can easily customize pages and tailor the landing pages with drag-and-drop and easily brand their virtual spaces.
However, speakers and attendees can also easily navigate the session, join the conversation, and use interactive tools without any help.
4. Backstage Area
Airmeet provides a private backstage space, known as a green room, where the host, co-host, speaker, and presenter can gather before stepping onto the main stage.
Your fundraising event organizer, speakers, and presenter can gather in a virtual backstage space, discuss the agenda, practice their pitches, review presentations, familiarize themself with platform features, test the audio & video, and make themself fully prepared before facing the audience on the live stage.
5. Interactive Tools
To facilitate communication in a virtual environment, Airmeet offers a suite of interactive tools such as live chat, real-time polls, and Q&A. Through the chat feature, event organizers can interact with donors, clarify any doubts they may have asked and share the donation page link, and effectively engage with them throughout the event.
With the poll, event hosts can actively involve attendees and quickly collect real-time feedback from them. Through a Q&A session, the speaker can address donors’ concerns and build trust by answering their questions so they feel confident about making their contributions.
Airmeet offers interactive breakout rooms that are specifically designed to engage the virtual attendees in a group discussion. This feature allows you to create multiple breakout rooms with a maximum of 30 participants per room. With the breakout rooms feature, you can allow potential donors to engage in a group conversation, enabling deeper engagement with your cause and maximizing the chances of getting their support.
In addition, Airmeet provides two additional elements that encourage participation: an “emoji reaction” and a “raise hand”. If donors have any queries or doubts, they can use the raise their hand feature and let the speaker know without cutting them off in the middle of their speech. Using emojis like thumbs up, hearts, clapping hands, and more, donors can share their responses and feedback on the content presented.
6. Networking Features
Networking is essential, especially in a virtual environment, not only to engage the audience but also to foster meaningful connections among them. Speed networking, social lounge, and flexible space are some of the networking elements that Airmeet offers to let participants engage meaningfully with others and build genuine connections in a virtual setting.
Using speed networking, donors can connect with many organizational members or other donors in a short amount of time, maximizing their engagement and connections. Through the social lounge, you can allow your participants to mingle with your staff/volunteers and have an engaging talk.
Your audience can set up their own discussion table and invite anyone to join them and have an in-depth discussion about the cause, their involvement, as well as inspire others to donate. Moreover, Airmeet allows creating detailed attendee profiles with their bios, interests, and social links, helping attendees connect with more relevant people.
7. Gamification
Airmeet offers a set of gamification features like leaderboards, point systems, badges, and interactive challenges to boost audience engagement in virtual and hybrid events.
Using all these game-like components, you can bring a bit of fun and enjoyment to your fundraising event. You can form a group and have friendly competition between participants, which will draw their excitement and double their enthusiasm.
8. Mobile Event App Capabilities
With the Airmeet mobile event app, your attendees can effortlessly join the fundraising event from their tablet or smartphone. Thanks to its availability on both the App Store and Android, it’s easy for participants to attend the live donation program, engage with organization members, access the material, network with other participants, donate funds, and more.
Whether your attendees are at a cafe, in the metro, or working in an office, they can access the fundraising program from their mobile device.
9. Event Analytics and Reporting
For virtual and hybrid fundraising events, Airmeet offers robust analytics and reporting features that provide real-time insight into your event. You can track various metrics to gauge the success of your fundraising program, such as attendance, donors’ demographics, their involvement in live chat, polls, & Q&A, top sessions, material downloads, networking activity, and more.
In addition, you can download various reports such as master report, Q&A report, chat report, lounge report & speed networking report to assess the effectiveness of the fundraising event. With Airmeet’s analytics and reporting tool, you’ll gain insightful data about your event that reveals its success.
10. 24/7 Customer Assistance
Airmeet offers 24/7 customer assistance through chat, email, and a customer support lounge to help you make your fundraising event a success. If your audience, presenter, or speaker encounters any technical difficulties during the live session, you can contact [email protected] and ask for help, and our technicians will know the problem and assist you within minutes.
Airmeet’s “AirCare Services” include comprehensive assistance with event setup, stage management, in-event technical support, in-depth platform training, hybrid event consultation, and more. With this comprehensive support, you can focus on delivering the content and engaging the audience rather than setting up and handling the event.
Moreover, Airmeet offers a vast online knowledge base featuring articles, FAQs, and tutorial videos that address a variety of topics, such as the organizer guide, attendee guide, speaker guide, and more. This resource enables event hosts, speakers, and audiences to easily familiarize themselves with the platform, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience while using it.
Final Thoughts
Fundraising events are not just about raising money for a specific cause; it is about building a community of shared purpose and strengthening the connection with supporters so that you can create a positive change within society.
These events are a great way to engage with donors on an emotional level and spread greater awareness of your mission within a community.
From gala dinners and silent auctions to concerts, these gatherings significantly raise awareness for the cause, secure essential funds, and cultivate long-term relationships with potential donors.
FAQ
Donors, sponsors, VIPs, celebrities, industry professionals, and community leaders attend fundraising events. Members of the general public, who want to support the cause and wish to contribute, can also be a part of such events.
