Top 10 Tools for Hybrid Event Planning
We might be back in person, but hybrid events are here to stay. Hybrid events can raise more money, expand your community and increase giving due to their accessible nature. When more people can participate in your event, your organization will benefit too.
With hybrid, donors can join in-person or virtually. Then after your event ends, you can share an event recording with anyone, which will continue to advance your mission.
With greater accessibility comes greater rewards for everyone involved. But you might be wondering where to start. How do you begin planning a hybrid event? Which tools can help? We have answers.
In this blog, you’ll find 10 of our favorite tried-and-true tools for planning hybrid events.
Top 10 Tools for Hybrid Event Planning
1. Greater Giving
About Greater Giving: Greater Giving is an all-in-one fundraising software that we use for any event with an auction.
Greater Giving offers resources like:
- Fundraising event software
- Auctionpay software that allows you to you to process donations and payments from anywhere
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tools including an email manager, social networking tools and customizable web pages
- Online payment and registration
- Data security
Greater Giving has the tools you need to get your attendees set up and ready to enjoy your event before it event begins.
Why we love it: Greater Giving is our go-to auction platform. It’s been around for 20 years and it’s so easy to use.
2. Give Lively
About Give Lively: Give Lively is a free fundraising platform for nonprofits with the tools you need to make a powerful appeal at your hybrid event.
Give Lively offers resources like:
Digital Fundraising Tools
- Launch fundraising campaigns with customizable campaign pages (no programming experience needed!)
- Imbed customizable donations widgets on your website
- Text-to-donate with custom codes that never expire
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
Give Lively’s giving thermometer and leaderboard play into the psychology of giving by displaying donations in real time. Because of this, their thermometer is our favorite for hybrid events.
Why we love it: We love Give Lively for their user friendly and free text-to-give interface. It’s intuitive for donors to use and includes a thermometer that makes it easy to see the impact of giving through live donor recognition. And when donors can see their own impact, giving increases.
3. OneCause
About OneCause: OneCause’s mission is to put your cause at the center of everything they do. Their platform has several tools to help you fundraise with ease.
OneCause offers resources like:
Event fundraising tools
- Event management software
- Sell and manage tickets online
- Virtual streaming
- Mobile bidding and auctions
- Online donations
- Text-to-give tools
- Launch a microsite
Peer-to-peer fundraising tools
- Easy registration for runs, walks and rides
- Personalized virtual campaigns
- Ambassador fundraising with social and mobile tools
- Virtual tributes and memorials
OneCause is made by and created for fundraisers, so you know you’re in good hands with this platform.
Why we love it: We love One Cause because it’s a robust tool with an auction platform, streaming capabilities and a thermometer all in one place.
4. Network for Good
About Network for Good: Network for Good is a fundraising software that brings your donor data, communication tools, event pages and performance tracking together.
Network for Good offers resources like:
- Donor management tools
- Filters that allow you to quickly find contacts
- Appeal templates and editing tools that help you create personalized emails, texts and video messages
- Build branded fundraising pages (no programming experience needed!)
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tools
- Event ticketing that’s optimized for mobile
- Data management tools
Network for Good is a great option for organizations who’re looking for ways to simplify their workflow.
Why we love it: Network for Good is an easy-to-use platform built for grassroots organizations. It also has the capability to donate and stream on the same site.
5. Vimeo
About Vimeo: Vimeo isn’t just a place to post videos. It has interactive, live streaming and caption tools that make it an incredible resource for anyone using video as a marketing tool or as a virtual viewing option at their event.
Vimeo offers resources like:
- Interactive video
- Accessible automatic closed captioning
- Webinar hosting
- Virtual event tools
- Imbedding capabilities
- Customizable contact forms
- Video library
- Polished video templates
- Live streaming platform
- Screen recorder that allows you to share messages quickly
- Viewer permissions
- Time-coded notes, allowing collaboration on videos in progress
- Analytics
Before, during and after your hybrid event, Vimeo is the place to share, imbed and livestream your videos.
Why we love it: Vimeo is our main streaming platform. It allows us to embed a livestream into an event website, host a chat and repost so people can rewatch events on demand.
6. Whova
About Whova: Whova is a conference management software with an award-winning event app.
Whova offers resources like:
- Mobile event app
- Q+A and polling
- Ability for attendees to rewatch sessions
- Different agendas for different audiences
- Participation moderation capabilities
If you’re looking for a mobile-friendly way to host a hybrid conference, Whova is the platform for you.
Why we love it: We love Whova for their web and mobile interactive interfaces. Whova is the perfect tool for hybrid conferences because their website and mobile app speak to each other; whatever attendees do online on their desktop will be reflected in their mobile app. And for people who want to attend a conference all from their phone, they can do so.
7. Accelevents
About Accelevents: Accelevents is a conference management software with a beautiful, customizable and easy-to-navigate interface.
Accelevents offers hybrid resources like:
- Tailored networking for in-person and virtual attendees
- Integrated on-site and virtual chat rooms
- Immersive live polling
- Integrated Q+A
- Attendee browse, connect and meeting scheduler
- Multiple ticket types for increased ROI
- Tailored sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities
- Lead capture
- Livestreaming of in-person sessions
- Physical and virtual experiences across devices
- Mobile and web apps
Accelevants is a game-changing platform for events like hybrid conferences, seminars and trainings.
Why we love it: We love Accelevents for virtual conferences because of customization features, outstanding customer service and commitment to ensuring their platform is usable for attendees and speakers alike. Plus, the built-in Accelevents Studio allows you to stream from within the platform without having to use a third-party service like Zoom.
8. Grasshopper
About Grasshopper: Grasshopper is a full virtual phone system with features like custom greetings, extensions and call handling, all accessible from your cell phone or desktop.
Grasshopper offers tools like:
- Desktop and mobile apps
- Business texting
- Call forwarding
- VolP and WiFi calling
- Voicemail transcription
- Instant text response to missed calls
Grasshopper is ideal for people with hybrid work schedules who want to keep business and personal calls separate. If your organization needs a way to offer team tech support, Grasshopper helps you do it.
Why we love it: Grasshopper allows our tech team to log in and take calls from anywhere that has WiFi. In fact, we use Grasshopper at every hybrid event we produce to offer tech support.
9. Givebutter
About Givebutter: Givebutter’s platform allows you to access fundraising tools for free. Use Givebutter to raise money, track donor activity and engage your community.
Givebutter offers resources like:
Fundraising tools
- Create a seamless auction experience for a hybrid audience
- Accept donations, scan-to-donate and accept offline donations
- Embed donate buttons, forms and source tracking on your website
- Manage ticketing options for hybrid audiences
- Engage donors with peer-to-peer fundraising
- Livestream your videos
- Text-to-donate
Tracking tools
- Donor timeline and history
- Segment and organize your data
- Import and migrate data
- Track supporter engagement
Engagement tools
- Outbound email blasts, branded emails and Canva integration
- Givebutter native video tool
- Automate donation invites, reminders and receipts, event reminders and email notifications
Givebutter is an outstanding resource for anyone looking for an all-in-one fundraising tool.
Why we love it: We love Givebutter for their free and low-cost giving thermometer that’s easy to use.
10. KindKatch
About KindKatch: KindKatch helps you engage your audience with personalized video content.
Share impactful stories from your audience, record thank yous for your donors or film behind the scenes content. Then use their desktop content collection workflow to store and categorize your photos and videos all in one place.
You can share your video and photo content with your audience from the KindKatch app or desktop portal. Your audience will receive a text or email with the message!
Why we love it: Video messaging is a quick, memorable and impactful way to thank donors, prepare them and connect them. That’s why we love KindKatch’s all-in-one tool to help you send those personalized messages.
In Conclusion
While there’s a learning curve to planning hybrid events, the rewards are great. We hope this list of tools has empowered you to think bigger about event planning. The more inclusive the event, the more everyone wins, and that’s what we love about hybrid.
Swaim Strategies specializes in hybrid event planning. If you need support in planning your next hybrid event, or any event, let’s connect. Click here to reach out and request a proposal.
