Micro-volunteering Spotlight: Events

Last time I discussed some micro-volunteering ideas Boris Mann left an insightful comment regarding events as a micro-volunteering opportunity. It’s true that many non-profits allow event promotion to fall between the cracks, especially when their focus is on something more critical like feeding the city’s homeless. However, that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be events and celebrations held by these organizations - in fact, they’re my favourite social activity! Few parties are more thrilling than those that rally people around a common cause, and few dollars are better spent than entertainment directing funds to charities. With micro-volunteering, any event can be as spectacular as the people supporting the cause.

Here are some ideas how micro-volunteering can improve your NPO’s next event:

Brainstorming: Very soon through Urbantastic you can ask questions and take polls. Quite often staff have to brainstorm the most creative ideas in isolation and try to imagine their attendees desires. No more! With the power of the crowd, even ideas can be delegated. 

Searching Venues: Often a major task by the event organizer is choosing the right location. For first-time event organizers it can be a severe headache. Searching out possible venues on behalf of an organization can be a task unto itself, and quite possibly one of your supporters might be well versed in locations already.

Guest Speakers & Musicians: Aren’t well connected in the community? Maybe your supporters know that big name speaker/musician personally and would love to contribute to the event by lending you some of their social capital.

Donations-in-kind: Similar to the previous example, often the event organizer doesn’t have the personal connections in the community to solicit for gift certificates and merchandise from local businesses. Many of your supporters do and might also be a potential donor themselves.

Promotion: Flyers, tickets, and other promo materials, distribution and cross promotion on sites like http://upcoming.org (Thanks Boris) are the little extras that often get overlooked (and underachieved) that can really make or break an event’s success.

Thank-you’s: At the local charity I work with, we have one person dedicated to thank-you’s. In the past, thank you letters didn’t get sent because the staff didn’t have time -what a wasted opportunity!

Post-mordem: Want quality feedback from the event from another’s perspective? Go back to the crowd that provided the brainstorming.

To sum up, I like to think of an NPO’s approach to using micro-volunteering as a way to create an ad-hoc fundraising committee, one that is much more dynamic than a traditional meeting by meeting group.  Any other ideas for micro-volunteering and events?