What happens after: turning event guests into donors

Jess Cronk Brandt: Hello, everyone, good afternoon. We’re going to give folks just a couple more minutes to roll in, and we’ll get started right at the top of the hour. While we’re waiting, I’d love if you introduce yourself in the chat — maybe where you’re joining from, and something you’d like to take away from today.

My name is Jess, I’m the VP of customer marketing, events, and partnerships here at Bloomerang. I’m joining from sunny Florida right now, though if you catch me in three hours it might be a very rainy Florida. Maryanne, where are you calling in from?

Maryanne Dersch: I’m in St. Louis, and it is very hot — going to be hot all week, so we’ll see how it goes.

Jess Cronk Brandt: That’s tough weather for you right now. We’ve got someone in from Columbia — amazing. Tallahassee, yay Florida! Woonsocket, Rhode Island — love this, people from all over. Calgary, Canada, amazing. Lakeland, love it. Indy. The Czech Republic — oh, how cool, we’ve gone global. Birmingham, Alabama. So great to see so many people logging in from all over the world.

Alright, let’s go ahead and get started. I know this is probably the most burning question of any webinar: yes, everyone will get the recording and the slides after we wrap up today. While Maryanne is presenting, if you have any questions, please put them in the Q&A box or the chat — we’ll try to grab those as we go, and if we miss any, we’ll cover them at the end or follow up with you afterward.

If you’re not familiar— did you say something?

Maryanne Dersch: No, go ahead, go ahead.

Jess Cronk Brandt: Okay, perfect. If you’re not familiar with Bloomerang, we’re a giving platform built for purpose — created to help nonprofits build stronger relationships and grow their impact. Our tools, like donor and volunteer management, online fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, and custom forms, are all designed to help organizations like yours thrive. We believe that when fundraisers have the time and insights they need, they can focus on what truly matters — making a difference in their communities. If this resonates with you, let’s connect — I’d love to help you achieve your mission and show you around the platform.

And with that, it brings me to introducing our lovely guest for today, the wonderful Maryanne Dersch. Maryanne, welcome — such a delight to have you with us, and I can’t wait to hear more about turning event guests into donors.

Maryanne Dersch: Thank you, Jess. Okay, let me share my screen — alright, hi everybody, let me pop myself out — okay, I’m all settled. Hi, everybody! So glad you made the decision to join me for an hour or so.

I’ll just let you know, please ask questions as you have them — I like to do Q&A as we go, no reason to sit on a question for thirty minutes. We’re going to walk through this content together, and I’m so excited you’re here. Before we get into it, what I’d love for you to tell me in the chat is: what made you choose this topic? What’s the problem — are your events just not turning into donors? Are you doing a lot, because events are so expensive and time-consuming? Tell me what the problem is.

Let’s see what’s coming in — “retaining event donors,” thank you. “Our annual fundraiser is after October 1st, and I’m just here to learn it all” — good. “We have an event September 30th” — okay, so a lot of you have events coming up. “My team struggles with follow-up” — that’s so good, I’m going to help with that a lot. “Biggest annual event.” “Events are treated like the end instead of the beginning” — you’re already in the right spot, you get it. “Follow-up is critical, and we don’t do it” — so much to do, so little help, that’s true, and we’re going to talk about systems, because systems help us, even if you’re a single person running things. “Events are fun, but there needs to be an ROI” — okay. “Converting event donors into annual support” — you guys are good. “We had our twentieth anniversary and are wondering how to approach the next one” — this is great, thank you all for sharing that.

The reason I ask is I want a sense of what’s going on with you, so I can make sure I’m teaching things that are actually helpful. Also, I want to say I’m wearing my tiger stripes today because I live in Missouri, and it’s Mizzou’s first football game of the season tonight, so my symbolic tiger stripes are on. M-I-Z!

So, the biggest mistake in events is that we look at them in isolation. We look at events as these things we do to raise money, and what I see — tell me if you see this too, or something different — is people stirring up a lot of energy and excitement, and then it just dissipates. I’m going to talk a lot about the energetics of things, because there’s a phrase I use: the energy by which we create guides and determines the creation. If we stir up a lot of excitement and energy and then it just goes out into the ether, it doesn’t come back into our organization as donors, as contacts, or even as people in our community. We tend to do a lot and not get much back for it, and that’s what we want to move away from, because your time is important, and your budget is important.

So what are we doing? I’m going to share things you can adjust. This isn’t about dismissing your events, it’s about understanding their purpose. I’m not going to give you a huge new to-do list — you’re probably already at max capacity — it’s about refining what you already do to make it work for you.

Jody, I love you already, since we’re both Missourians, but I want to tell you something, and I want to stop and say this before we go any further: we can’t make people do anything. If I had a wand — I have my Bloomy right here, I got it from Bloomerang at a conference last week — if I could wave it and make people love you, I would, and none of us would need to be sitting here. But I can’t do that, and I wish I could.

Our job is not to make people love us. Our job is to find like-minded people and invite them into a community, because why people care about a cause has much more to do with who they are as a person than with our marketing, our message, or the perfect tagline. People fall in love because of their own individual needs. So I want us to move away from “how can I get somebody to do something” and toward “what is the next logical step in a relationship?” I’ve gotten a little ahead, but I wanted to plant that seed now.

More coming in — “we have people purchase tickets that are donations because we have a capital sponsor that covers the cost of food” — okay. “We have an event attendee who donates, but then they don’t donate again” — okay, yes, we’re going to get into that, I’m so glad you’re here.

So the idea we want to move away from is treating events as if they live in isolation. We ask, did we sell out, did we hit our revenue, did people have fun — but the better question is, what is this event supposed to do in our donor relationship? An event should take people somewhere — not necessarily all the way to a gift or an action, but somewhere in the relationship. I think this is where we get confused, because we have people at an event who know us really well, and people who don’t know us at all.

So what I’m going to introduce today, and this is the core of this teaching — I’ll tell you a bit about me in a minute — is a framework called the Donor Flow Framework. I’ve been doing nonprofit work since the early nineties, and this system has developed over decades of working in, with, and for nonprofits. As Mark Twain said, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time” — it doesn’t take long to get convoluted, but it takes a long time to get simple. This framework looks very simple, but it’s actually years of working with donors behind it. I’m going to walk you through the overview, then we’ll break it down as we go, because the point is that your event needs to be doing something to move people along this framework.

Before I get into it, I want to share an example of something I see organizations doing that really messes with their events, and once I show you the framework, you’ll understand why. Say you have a gala with sponsors, and one of the perks you give sponsors is a table. Your sponsor — the grocery store, the car dealership, the contractor, whoever — wants to fill that table, because you’ve said, “here’s a table, bring people.” So they wind up bringing people to the event who don’t really know you or care about you — they’re just thinking, sure, I’ll get dressed up, there’s free food and a bar. I’ve said yes to that myself.

So we wind up giving away the most valuable thing we have — the space in the room — to people who may not be committed to our cause. I’m not saying don’t give away tables, I’m saying think about what other assets you could offer instead. Maybe they don’t even really want the table — maybe they’d rather get up and share a story, or have an ad placement. There are a lot of assets you can offer; just be careful with who’s in the room. You may not need to give a sponsor a whole table — give them a couple of tickets instead.

I’ll give you an example from my own experience: I get asked to sponsor events all the time. I don’t care where my logo goes — I love my logo, it’s right behind me — but I don’t really care about that. What I like is being on stage. So if we can make a deal where I sponsor and get stage time, I’ll do that — I don’t need a table. So talk to your sponsors and ask: what’s in it for you? What would you like?

Okay, let me pause there and move into the framework, but I want you thinking about what’s actually happening at these events. So: Aware, Interest, Connect, Act. Aware means “I know you exist” — someone knows your organization exists, even if you don’t know who they are. This is word-of-mouth, broad-based publicity, social media where someone might stumble across your content without you knowing who they are.

Interest means “I like what you’re doing” — and at this stage, they’re known to you. They’re a known entity, you have their name and contact information. I call this reliable reach, versus social media, which is unreliable reach — those algorithms can tank you at any time. We want to get people off social media and into our orbit, and for most of you that looks like your email list. Your email list at the interest stage is where you keep people warm and engaged, where you create community. People come for the cause, they stay for the community — write that one down.

That’s where you build community and keep people interested, so they go from knowing you, to liking you, to loving you — and that’s Connect, where it becomes personal: “this matters to me personally, I feel personally connected to this cause.” This is more direct — one-on-one, small group. You could have a big event that’s still a connect event, if the people there already know you well and are there to deepen their emotional connection.

And then there’s Act: “I’m ready to do something.” What often happens is we ask people who don’t know us very well to come to a gala — they’re not ready to act. Every stage exists so our event can be designed to move people through it.

Now let me tell you a bit about me. My company is Courageous Communication. I work with nonprofits all over the country to help them build stronger relationships. We don’t push, we don’t chase, we don’t convince, we don’t pitch, we don’t sell — we attract like-minded people to us. We become a magnet instead of having to go crawl and find people, because that’s exhausting, and honestly it doesn’t work. We were taught to chase, pitch, sell, close, close, close, follow up, follow up, follow up — but the more we push, the more people push back or drift away. So instead, we create authentic, aligned, honest connections.

Again, we can’t make people like us — trust me, I wish I could wave my Bloomy and make it happen, but I can’t. What we can do is be strong in our mission and message to attract like-minded people, and let the rest go. If you’re trying to convince someone to care, you’re wasting your energy.

So for you today, I have a free resource — grab the QR code, or Jess will drop the link in the chat. It’s a Donor Flow event planner. I’ll walk you through it, but it’s yours to grab, take, and use. Fair warning, it’s a little clicky since the link downloads it automatically, but it’s all yours — I’ll make it prettier later.

If you don’t know me, I do a weekly podcast called The Influential Nonprofit, with tons of content on building aligned, authentic, honest relationships and systems that bring people to you. Speaking of systems — if I asked you, do you have a system by which you enroll new donors? What’s the path to becoming part of this community? Well, every event has a job.

Every event is part of this path — the link’s in the chat if you want the planner. At the end of this, if you like what you’re hearing and want more help adapting this into your organization, I’ll drop a link to book a call with me. I always meet the best people on Bloomerang webinars — I do zero vetting, so if you want to book a time, I’m here for you.

We’ll talk about that later, but here’s what I want to focus on: every job has an event — it’s either building awareness, building interest, building connection, or creating action. If your event isn’t moving people through those stages, what are we actually doing with it? My podcast is called The Influential Nonprofit, by the way — I put out great content every week; I did one recently on why every fundraiser should sing karaoke, because I love karaoke. I do a lot of fun stuff like that.

So now that we understand every job has an event, and every event has a job to do — events can serve different stages. Awareness events help people discover your organization. Interest events create curiosity and spark engagement. Connection events deepen a relationship.

Someone asked if an event can have multiple jobs — my short answer is no, I don’t think so, though I’d want to know more about the specific situation. My first thought is that people who are at the interest stage aren’t ready to act, and people who are at the connection stage want an emotional connection, getting to know you further. You don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date — I mean, you could, and maybe that works sometimes, but for most of us it’s a get-to-know-you path. I have to know you to like you, like you to love you, love you to invest in you. That’s why when we send emails with a donate button on them, not many people donate — because they’re still at interest.

Laura says they don’t do karaoke, but they do a huge lip sync battle — I did one a couple years ago with a colleague who wanted to put herself out there, it was really fun.

So, events can serve different stages, and I’d look at any event and ask: who is in the room, or who do we want in the room? Let me give you some examples. One of my clients is the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition, based here in St. Louis — I have kids adopted out of foster care, so we have a very symbiotic relationship; I was on their board for a while too. They run two events. One is called Hope in a Handbag — really fun, they do it every other year, where they auction off gently used designer handbags, with bars, music, people shopping around.

Most of the people there are there because they like handbags — they want to buy handbags. The organization knows very few of those attendees will become donors, and that’s okay. They’ve done the work and realized the event is enough on its own for many attendees, but it does spark some interest. They also know if they decided to will that event to a different charity, the same people would still show up, because they want to support a charity and shop. They may not always be as committed to the cause as you’d think, but it still creates interest.

A walk, a trivia night — here in St. Louis, trivia nights are huge, and it’s trivia season, spring and fall — is a great interest-generating event, because people might just be coming for the low-dollar, easy-access experience. Interest events are usually lower dollar and easy access, a get-to-know-you kind of thing.

Then you have connection events. Once we find people who are interested, we want to move them into connection — that could be a small behind-the-scenes group, a VIP lunch and learn, [inaudible] anything that helps deepen the relationship. Most interest events are low dollar, or there’s not a huge ask, because people aren’t ready — they don’t know you that well yet. A connection event deepens the relationship and often involves emotion. Then an action event is: these are our donors, they come to the gala every year, they know they’re going to give — we’re just giving them the occasion to do it.

There’s no single event that has to do it all — different events, different goals, different audiences, but they’re all on one journey. If you understand where an event sits on the donor journey, you can look at what’s going to happen before, during, and after, and build that into the plan. What I’m hearing is that a lot of you aren’t following up, mostly because you’re exhausted by the time the event is over — and I get that, pulling off a production is huge, so by the end you’re thinking, “I don’t want to think about that golf tournament or conference anymore.” But your attendees just experienced something, and if you let that momentum go, you’re letting it pass you by.

Let me give you an example of what planning before, during, and after can look like. I worked with a leadership organization in Illinois that ran a big graduation every year — similar to Focus St. Louis here. Four hundred people would come to this graduation, definitely an interest event, since most attendees are there to support the people graduating — each graduate might invite ten guests, family, friends. It’s a big deal.

The question was, how do we leverage this? All these people would come, think “oh my god, this organization is so great,” and then go home — and the organization might not even know who they were. So part of it is understanding who’s in the room, what we know about them, what we want them to do while they’re there, and what we want to happen afterward.

We trained their board to be dispatched throughout the event to say, “thank you so much for coming, what brought you here today?” Someone might say, “I’ve always been interested in this, and my friend was graduating.” The board member could then say, “would you be interested in applying for next time?” and point them to a table in the back to follow up right there in the room — for people interested in applying, or in possibly becoming a donor. We also scheduled a lunch and learn for the month after the event, so afterward someone could say, “I’m so glad you had fun and were impressed with our work — we’re doing a lunch and learn next month, would you like to join? No pressure, it’s not a solicitation, just an opportunity to connect with us more deeply if that feels meaningful to you.”

So I already had this interest event with connection events lined up behind it, understanding that I’m moving people through a journey. Before, everyone would come, have a great day, and go home — maybe you’d send a follow-up email a week later. But now, we’ve got them in the room, we have their attention, they’re feeling good — what can we invite them into to keep that going? Does that make sense?

Good, good — I like the thumbs up. Do you see how we’re moving people along a journey, and how, if you only focus on the event itself, you’re wasting your time and energy?

Abby, lunch and learns cost you nothing — you don’t even have to call it a “lunch and learn,” you could just call it a learning session, and it can be very cheap, like ordering Jimmy John’s for people in your office. It’s not about the expense, it’s about giving people opportunities. If you’re a theater, do a behind-the-scenes tour; if you’re a museum, same thing — whatever you can invite people into.

If you all could put your questions in the Q&A, I don’t want to miss them since the chat is moving fast, and Jess will monitor the Q&A for me. Yes, you can do a lunch and learn nationally too — I’ve done this before, over Zoom, giving people new information about what’s going on. I love that your wheels are turning — thinking, “how could we connect with people?” This could also just be a one-on-one: at the event, you say, “let me reach out next week, I’d love to grab a coffee,” virtual or otherwise.

The point is understanding what happens before, during, and after the event — this isn’t just an isolated gala, trivia night, or golf tournament. We know what’s going to happen afterward, and we’ve already built a plan for it into the event plan.

Let me pause and answer a few questions, then we’ll go deeper on each piece. Let me explain one more thing first: sometimes people come for the cause, and sometimes they’re more committed to the people in the room than to your cause. Case in point — a trivia night my nephew and niece’s school held. Of course I went, I love trivia, I love my family. Was I committed to that school? Not really. Was it a lovely time? Sure. Did I feel an emotional connection? No, it just wasn’t me — and that’s okay, no amount of convincing would have made me support that school. I went because I was committed to my nephew and niece.

So sometimes people come because they’re committed to the person who invited them, not the cause — and that’s especially common at interest events, and that’s fine. Not everyone is going to come along the whole journey with us. They might sit at interest for a while, or not even want to move past it, and we can still invite them in. Say you run an interest-generating event: you’ll get those email signups, and you should follow up right away — wouldn’t it be wonderful if attendees woke up the next day to an inbox that said, “thank you for coming, thank you for supporting us, here’s the impact you helped make”? Maybe that’s an invitation to a connection event, or an individual follow-up depending on the size. Most of the time, though, we just get tired, look at these events in isolation, and think, “oh yeah, I need to get that follow-up email out.”

When we have a plan and understand the donor journey, we recognize: they’re interested, they’re probably in this category, what can we do to move them into connection? That’s part of the journey — we’re moving them toward something.

Someone asked how to categorize volunteer events — could they be any of these? Yes, it’s the same journey. If you’re recruiting volunteers, maybe you run an event anyone interested in volunteering can attend, and your next event is a smaller orientation or a chance to meet current volunteers, depending on how complex the work is. Volunteers are usually at interest — they’re showing interest, or they’re connected — and they may just need a reason to act if you want to move them toward becoming donors.

Someone asked if there’s a difference in approach for nonprofits with a national audience — no, this isn’t bound by geography at all. I work with organizations that have national audiences. One example rolls right into a regional giving day right after their big fundraiser — many organizations do something similar around year-end giving. Giving makes us feel good, and why deny someone the opportunity to feel good? So you could look at an event as a “prime” for a giving day — organizations that do giving days well already have their gifts lined up in advance, so there’s no surprise, just happy surprises. Maybe your event becomes that prime, or maybe you’re running two connect-to-act events close together — or you treat a giving day as a lower-dollar, interest-generating moment where your board and top donors go out and promote it to get people interested at a smaller gift level.

Most galas are connect-to-act events — those are people who are already connected, and we’re giving them a reason to act in the room. If you’re doing a live matched-donor ask — say, “who will give $25,000?” — you’ll want those gifts secured in advance before you’re in the room. I used to attend the big November gala for the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition — very emotional, major donors in the room — and the development director would tell certain guests, “when I call out $10,000, raise this paddle, because the actual donor couldn’t be here, and you’ll be their proxy.” My husband was very confused by that the first time.

Jess Cronk Brandt: Is it possible for you to answer questions at the end?

Maryanne Dersch: I will, Jess — I hear what you’re saying. I like to answer as we go, though, because I don’t want anyone sitting on a question for too long — but I hear you, let’s get back into it. Keep the questions coming, Shannon. And Martha, could you put your question in the Q&A so I don’t lose track of it?

So, back to interest events — I mentioned people may come for the person, not the cause, and that’s fine, that’s just where they entered the donor flow. Not everyone who enters will stay, and it’s not a failure on anyone’s part if they don’t. I gave a talk last week where I brought my Bloomy, and a woman told me, “I keep following up and following up and getting nothing back.” I told her, their non-response is a response — it’s okay to move on, it’s not a failure, it’s just not a fit.

Connection is where people feel important — big events create energy, smaller events create connection. One of my colleagues, Joey Goone, runs a company called Utopia Events, and their expertise is creating emotional connection. He ran a gala for a Children’s Hospital Foundation where they had people who’d been donating the longest stand up — using some simple technology to ask the room how long they’d been giving. Anyone giving more than twenty years stood up, then more than ten, then five, two, one, and then first-time donors stood up — and the longest-tenured donors went and hugged them, welcoming them into the family. A guy stood on his chair and said “thank you for being part of our family,” and people were crying, because they felt so loved and connected. That was big and grand, but connection can also happen one-on-one, in a lunch and learn, on a tour — small experiences create connection too. So after a big event, consider creating smaller events afterward to extend that connection, especially for people you don’t know well yet — you’re not necessarily asking for money yet, because they don’t love you enough for that, but you’re on the path.

Action events are about putting the right people in the room. If your goal is to connect and act, make sure your audience is actually ready to act — that’s part of why I push back on giving away sponsor tables. First, that perk may not even be that valuable to the sponsor, and second, you end up seating people who aren’t ready to raise a paddle or make a big gift. A good development person lines up enough people in the room they know will act, in advance, so that when you’re doing a fund-a-need or paddle raise starting at $20,000, the room is primed and ready — because the people there love you enough to act. That’s an action event.

What frustrates us is having a room full of interested people and expecting them to act — “why didn’t they give, they were here” — because they simply weren’t ready. Here’s the deal: you don’t get to say who or when. I wish I could, but the timing isn’t up to us. Some people are Instapots, ready right away; some are slow cookers, and that’s why your email list matters — it keeps them warm until they’re ready.

Another benefit of connection events: this is how you get your board engaged in fundraising. When I was on a board, I committed to attending two lunch and learns a year and bringing someone with me — that was part of my commitment. These smaller activities don’t have to follow a big event; you can do a lunch and learn, tour, or small-group activity once a month or once a quarter, and it gives board members something low-stakes to invite people into. It helps them understand the donor journey — sometimes boards aren’t engaged because they don’t understand the process, and you’re asking them to solicit people who don’t even know the organization yet.

And if people don’t come along with you, that’s okay too — we all have our own autonomy. It’s not a failure if someone says “that’s not for me” — I’d honestly rather they say that than have me keep chasing what I call the “fantasy relationship,” sending one more email hoping they’ll give. Let them go if they’re not for you — we release what no longer serves us to make room for what does. If we’re too busy chasing people who aren’t responding, we miss the people who are.

One of my clients runs the Imagination Library in Louisville — she told me, “I’m reaching out to people and they’re not getting back to me, but there’s all these other people reaching out to me.” I told her: don’t worry about the people not responding, follow the free energy — all these people already want to help, so tap into them, and you can follow up with the others another time.

We don’t have to chase every person — we can just offer up a relationship: if this is for you, join us, and if not, that’s totally okay. I don’t need to convince you, change you, or make you love me — who wants to operate that way in real life? You either like me or you don’t, and honestly it took a lot of therapy to get to that place. It’s not a failure if someone doesn’t come with you, as long as they had a great experience and think fondly of you — but yes, some people will say yes.

I’ll tell you a near-miss story from a trivia night. A friend invited me to one for an organization I really love, and my husband and I went. I purposefully found the executive director and introduced myself: “I love you guys, I’m so excited to be here, I’ve written about you, I love your work.” He said, “great,” and that was it — and I was so sad, because he had no idea I was interested. Whatever he’d said next, I would have said yes to — “would you like a tour of the office,” “we do these behind-the-scenes things or advocacy updates, want to meet other people working on this?” But he didn’t, so I never followed up again, and that was a near miss.

Compare that to my client in Louisville, filling her lunch-and-learn rooms with amazing people — and it’s not just the connection they build with the cause, it’s the connection they build with each other, because they’re surrounded by people who care about the same things, whether that’s foster kids, stray dogs, education, or literacy. You can connect them to each other too, which benefits them as well. I coach people in the art of influence, and influence means we both win — what’s valuable to you is valuable to me, and as long as I’m giving value, I know it comes back to me.

Let me pause and check some questions — the comments in the chat are great. Can connection events be virtual? Absolutely — it’s about the emotion, whatever the format, just make sure there’s emotion and time for people to really get to know each other and connect, since it’s not just about the cause, it’s about connecting with other people who care too.

Abby asked what I’d recommend for pledge cards at an event that night — without knowing more context, I can’t really answer that, though it could be a good idea. Someone else asked about a sunset celebration and how to follow up with people who just discovered the organization there — Karen, I think you’re getting the idea already: understanding that you need to follow up, is there another event you could offer afterward, some one-on-ones, small groups, maybe people hosting something in their home? There’s always something you can do.

Let me take one more question — Hannah, I think I’ve already given you some examples. Awareness events are broad, like a festival, where you don’t even know who’s there — most of you probably aren’t doing pure awareness events, so I won’t dwell on that. Interest events are bigger events where people don’t know you well yet, typically lower dollar and easy entry — a trivia night, or maybe your sunset celebration, since people come to celebrate the sunset and hopefully get to know your cause a little better. Connection events are usually smaller — lunch and learns, VIP tours, behind-the-scenes experiences — designed to elicit emotion. Action events are your galas and major fundraisers, because those people are already connected and ready to raise the paddle.

If I don’t get to your question, since we only have so much time, feel free to book a call with me — happy to dig into it with you.

Let’s talk about matching people to purpose — different events, different audiences, different expectations, different results. By now you should be understanding: who is this event for, what’s it designed to do, what part of the journey are they on, and what’s the next logical step — not “how do I get them to give,” but what would feel like a comfortable next step for them.

Now we design that next step before the event even happens — having connection opportunities ready so momentum has somewhere to go, instead of letting it pass you by. That’s the thing that breaks my heart most — a lot of you have said you’re not doing follow-up, maybe just because you don’t know what to do. Connection opportunities can be one-on-ones too — after an event, part of your plan can simply be setting up a bunch of coffees or calls.

So we look at how this fits the journey: what happens before, during, and after? Who am I inviting to that golf tournament, and how am I selling it? Nothing puts more seats and smiles in the room — or on the screen — than a personal invitation. We look at it as a flow: where does this event fit, so we don’t lose momentum, and we build that into the event plan.

We’re not just thinking “we’ll raise money this day” — you can raise money that day and raise even more afterward through follow-up. Maybe someone leaves feeling connected but not quite ready to act, and a smaller connection event later gets them there. If we only think of the three-hour event window as what counts, we’re missing that you can stir up energy and excitement, then actually raise most of the money afterward, through your follow-ups.

Use the event to identify movement — this is a big one. Look for signals, ask questions, notice who leans in. I once sent up a red flare to someone saying I was interested and got nothing back — that might be happening in your events without you realizing it. Ask, “what brought you here today?” Dispatch your board and committee to do this — introduce themselves, ask names, ask what brought people there, and pay attention instead of pitching and selling. You’ll notice, “that person is ready to act, they’re on fire” — I actually have a chart where you can rank people hot, warm, or cold, and then follow up accordingly. We can train others to do this with you too, so they’re dispatched to listen and notice who might want to connect more deeply.

That’s what I do at Hope in a Handbag, since my kids were adopted out of foster care — I’m deeply invested in that cause, and when someone tells me they love the organization or share something personal, I’ll say, “I’d love to introduce you to Debbie, our development person.” I’m listening for what people tell me about their experience — not everyone there is about the cause, but if someone is, I want to know who they are.

We follow up according to where people actually are, not where we want them to be — we love people for who they are, not who we wish they were. Stage-appropriate follow-up turns event energy into real, honest, aligned relationships. So if you ran a gala full of already-connected people, but a few attendees were brand new to you, that’s okay — you’d follow up with them differently: “thank you so much for coming, this was amazing, I’d love to connect with you further.”

Events create moments. Donor flow creates movement. Don’t just plan the event — plan where people go next. That’s my big mic-drop moment: using the donor flow turns your event into sustainable donors — growing your community of support, your interest, your deepened connections, and eventually more givers. They may not be givers in that moment, but that’s okay, because you’ve got a plan and a process.

We’ve got a couple more minutes. If you’re interested in going deeper, I’m happy to look at your specific event, make sure the right people are in the room, talk through the next best step, and help turn your energy into actual revenue. My best friend Jess is going to drop that link on screen. I’ll spend the last couple of minutes answering a few more questions.

Jess Cronk Brandt: I dropped the link in the chat for everyone. Before we get into Q&A, I’m also going to launch a quick poll.

Maryanne Dersch: Oh, that’s right.

Jess Cronk Brandt: It’s another way to book time with Maryanne, and it’s also a great way to let us know if you’d like to learn more about Bloomerang. Even if you’re a current customer, we launch new enhancements and features across the platform almost every other week, so if you’d like to see what’s new, please use the poll and let us know.

Maryanne Dersch: Aubrey wants to learn more about donor flow — I talk about it constantly on my podcast, so head to CourageousCommunication.com, there’s a lot there, I go really deep into it.

Someone asked where a peer-to-peer event falls — it’s really more about interest and connection, though our goal is often to move those participants toward action, and that’s fine, they just may not be ready yet, so we meet them where they are. Peer-to-peer participants often do it because they care about the person asking, not necessarily the cause — I foster dogs myself, everyone who knows me knows that about First Day Rescue of St. Louis, and people might give because they’re loyal to me rather than to the cause itself. That’s not a bad thing, it just means that’s where they’re comfortable in the relationship right now.

Lindsey asked a big question: we’re an NGO planning our first in-person event to raise interest and awareness — what’s the best way to streamline follow-up with major donors we meet there? That depends a lot on the size of the event — it’ll be either individual or small-group follow-up, and thinking that through before you go in is the best approach. If you want to book time with me, I can dig into it further, since I’d need to know a bit more.

Someone asked about using direct beneficiaries of the organization to share their experiences and outcomes, while making sure they don’t feel exploited — I love this question. I went to an event for a women’s shelter’s twenty-fifth anniversary where women who’d left the shelter came and shared testimony — safely, with no risk to them, sharing what the organization had done for them. What I love about testimonials is that our highest need is to give back, and it feels good to give — those women got to give back to the organization that helped them, which felt wonderful for everyone involved, as long as it’s people who genuinely want to share. You don’t need everyone to do it — if a couple of people say “I’d love to share my story,” that’s enough, and it can create real, deeper connection and move people toward action. As long as it’s honest and authentic, it’s a good thing — and it makes the people who received your services feel really good, because they got to give back too.

Martha asked whether there’s an advantage to segmenting invitations for specific groups at something like a gala — I’d actually rather segment the experience within the event than create separate invitations, though I’d hold that opinion loosely without more context. The bigger question is: what do these people need, am I meeting their needs, am I offering value? What I get back, I don’t know — but as long as I’m giving value, I trust it comes back eventually, even if not that same day.

Thank you all so much — I hope you learned a lot today. If you didn’t get your question answered, or want to go deeper, please feel free to book a call — I have time set aside next week, so the sooner you grab it, the better. I’m happy to help.

Jess Cronk Brandt: Thank you, Maryanne, and thank you everyone for joining us. I know we just scratched the surface here, but like Maryanne said, don’t hesitate to reach out — there’s plenty more we can share. Hope everyone has a great rest of your day.

Maryanne Dersch: Thank you.