The success of any fundraising event relies on its guests. Perhaps more than any other kind of event, the ability to effectively manage your guest list is crucial for a fundraiser.

You’ll want to ensure that the flow of invitations and responses, as well as your communication with attendees, goes smoothly or else you’ll risk losing out on donations. The easiest way to do so is by organizing your event with an event management application.

Let’s start with creating your guest list. You probably have a resource of people to pull from to invite to your event, whether it’s from previous donors that you’re keeping track of in a donor management system or from marketing lists like social media followers or newsletter subscribers.

With an event management application, you can easily import donors’ contact information into one central place. This makes sending out invitations a breeze, especially if you’re sending invitations digitally.

If you’re fundraising an exclusive event for a highly curated guest list, paper invitations are the way to go. However, if you’re looking to reach a wide audience, online invitations are a great option. Online invitations allow your original guests to spread the word through other online channels.

Make it simple for your guests to forward the invite along to their friends or share it on social media. You can also use your digital invite to introduce the social media campaign for your event right from the start, if you have one.

Look for an event management application that handles both guest list management and invitation management because the process becomes even more streamlined. As your guests RSVP, you can easily update and manage the official guest list for your event.

When it comes to a fundraising an event, you’ll also need to organize your guest list in a more in-depth way than simply “attending” versus “not attending.” You might have different levels of donors or ticket sales that will involve different access points and privileges for guests. Or there may be particularly important guests that you’ll need to ensure the staff working the door can identify and know how to greet properly.

Using an app makes this kind of guest management so much easier and lets you run your event smoothly so that guests feel they’ve chosen the recipient of their generous donation wisely!

For a fundraising event, communication with your guests doesn’t stop once the event ends. Sending out thank-you letters and follow-ups is very important for building relationships with your donors.

They should feel appreciated and ideally gracious. Strategic communication like this will lead to more donations in the future. Exporting the information from your guest list will help you easily transition to your acknowledgment process.

This article was written by zkipster. With zkipster, you can have your guest list and invitations effectively organized every step of the way. Send out invites, manage your list, and create guest profiles before your fundraiser and then easily keep in touch with your donors afterward by exporting your event data. It’s a streamlined way to lower your stress and ensure success!