The Big Bang

(Boston, MA)

I was coordinating an event to raise money to build a children's playroom at a major Boston Hospital. Sounds easy right? Think again.

First you need the permission to use the name of the hospital in your fundraising pitches. Sounds like that's a given, but it's not. You have to deal with the legal department and the public relations office, both of who are going to want to see the final product before it goes out to potential corporate and business donors as well as the general public. It's a frustrating process that, at times, makes you want to pull your hair out of your head, but when you calm down and count to 10 (sometimes 100), you realize it's all for a worthy cause and the abovementioned offices are just trying to protect the name of the hospital, not make your job more difficult.

A couple of tips that have always worked out for me when trying to get donors.

* Most importantly, make sure it's ok with them to use thier name in your pitches to other companies.

* When you cold call a company this line is a good opener. "So and so has become one of our most loyal supporters over the years and we were hoping you would come on board too" (never say what the donation is, just that they're a sponsor and if they want, give them the name of someone they can talk to at that company) It hooks them and everyone wants to join the bandwagon.

* Have a copy of last year's event information as well as a draft of what you hope to accomplish this year, ready to mail to them when they ask (and they will ask) for more information.

* In your letter to them, something along the lines of "in order to expedite matters, I'll give you a call next week". This way they know to expect your call. Or even better, when you talk to them before you mail out the information brochure, try and set up a specific time to have a conference call.

You have to spend money to make money, plain and simple. Everyone wants to be recognized for their good deeds. Have a brochure made up, thanking all the sponsors for their contribution and donations for making the event possible. It's tacky to mention who gave what, you can have the ones that gave more have a bigger space in the brochure. Just don't make it obvious. I also had a video crew to tape the event, so we could make a video to be shown at the next years event, to show our progress and this way I could send that out with the pitches for the next year.

* Keep copies of the brochure!!!!!!! This way, after the event, you can write a personalized thank you to each and every corporate donor, including the brochure, to let them know how much they're appreciated. Do this within a month of the event, so that they don't think you're thinking of them as an afterthought. (an additional copy of the brochure and the video, you send the next year) Plus this is something they can keep in their records and go back to next year when you hit them up again.

* How about sending them a holiday card. Not to hit them up for money, just to let them know how much they're appreciated and reminding them of all the good that their money is doing and how much you've grown thanks in part to them. Also it's a little hint that you're doing this event next year.

Strange as it sounds, the personal touches do make a difference.

I made my event a buffet style dinner with a sports theme. Almost everything that was auctioned or raffled off was sports related (which you can imagine went over big in Boston). Signed jerseys and other sports memorabelia, tickets to major sporting events, round trip tickets to Cooperstown (baseball hall of fame) including hotel (all donated, like I said, get the first one and they all want to hop on the bandwagon), free hotel stays, tickets to a major theme park, weekends away at inns, four round trip tickets to anywhere in the world from a major airline. Everything was donated, all I had to do was put them in the brochure.

For decorations in the hall (by the way, over 2500 people were there) I had full sized signed posters of players, that got auctioned off (with a note underneath each stating that more items to bid on could be found in a different place). I was able to convince the hospital to let me put a banner on their web site that publicized the event and link to it. I haunted the local sports writers until they wrote about it (and as a bonus, I gave them free tickets, so this way they could write about it,. as well as the next year say that they went and had a great time) Food was donated, so was the DJ. A local sports figure was the host and gave a great speech, I had local comedian do the MC honors, as well as live auction, hosted by him that turned out to be a bonus comedy show.

Make sure you check with the local police and fire departments to follow thier code (the last thing you want is people showing up and you have to close down, doesn't look good!) Also ask them if they'd like to be a sponsor (they don't have to pay, but if their name is in the brochure, they're more likely to let you get away with more) and make sure you're nice to the police detail, that they get something to eat, etc.... they're the ones that can see that this is a roaring success by looking the other way at some of the things that are iffy, or being a hardass.

Over the course of 5 years, we raised more than 3 million dollars and built the children's playroom that now bears this woman's name. Knowing what I know and how frustrating it was sometimes, I'd do it all again tomorrow.