Two Online Event Marketing Tools Nonprofits Should Use

I hear from many nonprofits who struggle with marketing their fundraising events. Even the hustlers who manage to send out save the dates, email reminders, and postcards all over town often struggle to effectively capture their audience and get more people to attend their fundraising events.

If this sounds all too familiar for you, then I’ve got a couple tips and tools to share that might just make promoting and managing your upcoming fundraising event a whole lot easier, and more successful!  

Some donor management programs include event management systems as well. If it’s a seamless process that provides what you need to sell tickets, tables and manage sponsorships then you’re all set.

If however, you don’t have an efficient and effective way to manage and promote your fundraising events to get the results you want and need, then the following information is just for you.

Eventbrite and Facebook are my top two online event listing tools to marketing and promoting fundraising events.

And here’s why.

#1. They are easy to set-up and manage - honestly, it takes only a few minutes

#2. They are low to no-cost

#3. They are convenient and easy to use (a highly important factor in getting registrations and ticket sales)

#4. They provide insights and analytics that help to strategically adjust as needed so you can make the most of your efforts

#5 They are safe and secure

#6. They sync with other outreach tools (like your email system) to help streamline the marketing process and make it super easy to keep communications flowing

#7. They work well!! I know this first-hand through the promotion and management of many successful nonprofit events that simply would have fallen flat or even failed without them.

Nonprofits big and small use these two online tools.

I’ve set up events for nonprofits that collected thousands in ticket and table sales, as well as sponsorships and donations that were collected prior to their events through the use of Eventbrite.

Social media event listings, that are part of Eventbrites integration make promoting your event that much easier too. With a click to promote on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and many other social channels you can broaden your reach to a much wider audience.

Plus, Eventbrite has a special offering just for nonprofits. You can find the details HERE.

As a quick recap to help decide if Eventbrite is a tool you should use:

Eventbrite is a free online event management tool that allows you to easily sell tickets and manage sponsorships for your fundraising events.

It provides a professionally branded registration page where you can collect RSVPs, sell tickets and tables, manage sponsorships and even collect donations.

This platform allows your audience to purchase tickets from any computer or mobile device, is mobile optimized, and tracks all the info you need to know about your event. Plus, as an online event page it’s easy to share. Eventbrite takes only a small percentage of ticket sales; free events can be advertised at no charge. And when using an online platform you’re providing security and convenience for your donors, which will certainly increase support.

My other go-to online tool is Facebook. You can use it directly to promote fundraising events or through Eventbrites integration.

There are some obvious reasons why using Facebook, the world’s number one social media platform, can and should be used for event and fundraising marketing. But your strategy should go beyond posting statuses or sharing photos on your timeline to promote your event. Facebook has a tool to “host” and share event pages on your nonprofits business page. For info on how to create or edit a Facebook event, check out this article.

Once you’ve created your event, go the extra mile by inviting others, sharing your event, and asking sponsors and partners to add the event to their page. You can link to the Facebook events page in your e-newsletters to give readers more information other than the quick blurb. If you have an ad budget for your event, some of it can be allocated to Facebook ads. You can also boost awareness to your targeted audience with Facebook Ads or simply promote the event page.

I highly recommend nonprofits use these two online tools to effectively and efficiently manage any and all events intended to increase awareness about the programs, services or support needed to fulfill your mission.  

For more nonprofit marketing insights, tips, tools and resources listen to the Cindy May Marketing podcast here.