How a Script Can Elevate Your Fundraising Event
It has taken you 400 hours of planning to get to your fundraising event! With all of that effort, you want to be sure your program creates impact. The best way to do this is to create a script for your event.
Your fundraising event script is an opportunity for you to build emotional connections with your donors and show the impact of your work together.
Start with the WHY of your work. The why is your inspiration for the work you do and should align with your organization’s mission statement. An easy way to isolate the why is to finish the sentence, “We believe…” This gives you the chance to pull your audience in from the start with a shared belief.
Ideally, everything spoken on stage is written in advance. Each piece should fit together to create one story arc for your program. Your why should drive every speech, like the thread holding all of the pieces together.
Your emcee (a great way to keep the program moving and consistent!) and executive director both give you opportunities to do this from the stage. Your emcee can introduce each speaker and video, explaining how these pieces fit into the motivation of your work. Then your ED can be positioned strongly to deliver their vision for the work. The more consistently and repeatedly your belief is discussed, the stronger the program is likely to be.
Here’s a sample program arc of how you could sequence your event elements to create a larger story arc in your program:
When building the sequence of your script and looking at how to arrange all of the elements of your program, here are some dos and don’ts to consider:
DO:
- Consider your entire event as a story arc. Every speaker should help build the case for your work and move with the natural arc of energy in the room. The goal is to create one consistent story for your audience to follow. You want them to stay with you throughout the program.
- Emotionally connect your donors to the heart of your work. The emotional and the decision-making centers of the brain live in the same place, this is where you want your donors to be for impactful fundraising.
- Hire a benefit auctioneer. Benefit auctioneers are trained to sell your mission, not just stuff. By selling your mission, they will continue to emotionally engage your donors.
- Engage an emcee who knows your work to be the glue that holds your program together and moves it forward. Think of this role like a narrator in a story, guiding your donors through the event.
- Identify one organizational speaker who can best tell your story and connect to your audience from the stage. Sometimes this is your ED, sometimes it is someone from your Board. But it should be someone who can speak to the emotional drive and impact of your work.
- Script every speaker at the event in advance. This allows you to craft an impactful event, control the story you’re telling donors, minimize surprises on stage and make everything feel like it is part of a cohesive story.
DON’T:
- Don’t allow speakers to bring their own talking points without your review. While they mean well, this runs the risk of your program not staying on message and also takes away your ability to control the speaking timeline. Working with each speaker to craft their talking points before the event leads to a stronger program.
- Don’t rely on a keynote speaker who is unrelated to your organization. Keynotes are often subject matter experts, but they’re not experts on your organization and mission. If you are going to use a keynote, put them after all of the fundraising so that they don’t impact your event arc.
- Don’t wait until the end to ask for money. Instead, put the business of the event first. This signals to your audience that you’re taking their time and support seriously. Create an efficient and emotionally engaging program and ask for their support at the height of their attention.
Once you have a written and approved script, share it with all of your speakers so they have time with it to practice and feel comfortable on stage. This will help everyone feel confident going into the event.
Creating a script for your fundraising event helps you deliver the most impactful stories and information to your donors. And together, you’ll continue to make great things happen for your mission.
Do you need help writing a script for your event? Let us help you! We’ll work with you to identify the stories that will shape your event, create an impactful program sequence and write a word-for-word script for your event, including an AV script for your team to execute the production on site—leaving you with more time to cultivate donors and sponsors.
Reach out at hello@swaimstrategies.com or contact us here.
