Six Shifts You Can Make Before Your Next Fundraising Event

Sarah Staiger
20m
5 min read

How to align your event with your values and begin incorporating Community-Centric Fundraising principles

Fundraising events are often one of the most visible ways organizations invite people into their mission. They bring together donors, board members, staff, volunteers, and community. They can also be one of the places where tension shows up most clearly between what we believe and how we raise money.

Many organizations are exploring Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) and asking important questions:

How do we raise money in ways that align with our values?

How do we create events that feel good for our community instead of extractive?

How do we move away from transactional tactics without losing critical revenue?

If you are asking those questions, the good news is that you do not have to rebuild your entire event strategy all at once.

You can begin making shifts now, using the power and agency you already have.

Below are six practical actions you can take before your next event. Each one helps move your event closer to alignment with your values and with the principles of Community-Centric Fundraising.

You do not have to do all of them at once. Even one or two can change how your event feels, how it functions, and how it serves your community.

1. Ask Your Top Donors Before the Event

One of the simplest ways to shift an event toward a healthier fundraising model is to ask your most committed donors before the event happens.

Identify your top 10 to 20 donors and invite them into one-to-one conversations ahead of time.

Events are inherently one-to-many asks. That format rarely invites major donors to give their most meaningful gift.

When you speak with them ahead of time, several things happen.

First, the event becomes a celebration of commitments that are already underway rather than the only place money is raised.
Second, you reduce pressure on the event itself.
Third, you strengthen relationships because you are talking with donors directly instead of relying on a public moment to do the work.

Organizations that make this shift often find that it increases their total raised while lowering the stress surrounding the event.

It also creates a pathway away from the pattern where organizations feel dependent on large events to generate revenue.

If you want help structuring those conversations, you can start here with our blog post Ask Your Most Important Donors for a Gift Before Your Event

2. Anchor Your Event in the Real Financial Need

Many fundraising events unintentionally shrink the story of what the mission truly requires.

You might hear language like this:

“Help us reach $25,000 tonight.”

But if your organization needs $1.5 million a year to operate, telling people you only need $25,000 is not actually true.

Community-Centric Fundraising encourages transparency and honesty about what it takes to do the work.

Instead of anchoring your event to the smallest number you think you can reach, anchor it to the real financial need.

For example:

“Every year it takes $1.5 million to fully fund our mission. Today’s event can be a big step in that direction if everyone gives their most personally meaningful gift.”

You can still have internal projections for what the event might raise.

But when you speak publicly, invite people into the real work and the real need.

This approach treats donors as partners in the mission rather than participants in a limited campaign moment.

3. Compensate Speakers and Honor Lived Experience

Many organizations invite people from their community to speak at events, especially when they can share lived experience connected to the mission.

When that happens, it is important to recognize that storytelling is labor.

Community-Centric Fundraising principles encourage organizations to ensure that all people who represent the mission are treated with dignity and fairness and that gifts of time are valued as much as gifts of money.

To us, that includes compensating speakers.

Create a clear policy and budget for it. Offer the honorarium without requiring people to ask.

It is also important to be transparent about expectations.

Clarify things such as:

The time commitment

Rehearsals

Meals

Childcare

Transportation

What will and will not be shared publicly

These details matter. They reflect whether the organization’s values are showing up in practice.

To make this easier, we created a sample Speaker Compensation Policy you can download and adapt.

4. Remove One Extraction-Based Tactic

Many fundraising events include tactics that unintentionally train donors to expect something in return for caring about the mission.

Silent auctions, raffles, and heavily transactional ticket structures can shift the focus away from generosity and toward exchange.

You may not be able to eliminate everything this year. That is okay.

But you can remove one tactic.

Maybe you eliminate the silent auction.

Maybe you shift away from paid ticketing.

Maybe you remove the split-proceeds raffle.

If eliminating something entirely feels too big, you can shrink it instead. For example, you might reduce a large auction to a small set of mission-aligned items.

Then replace that revenue with pre-event major gift conversations.

Over time, this helps donors understand that their giving is about shared values and community impact rather than transactions.

5. Decide the Primary Purpose of the Event

Another common source of tension at events is when the purpose is unclear.

Is the event primarily about fundraising?

Or is it about community connection?

Both are important, but they are not the same thing.

When organizations try to do both without naming the intention, the result can feel confusing or inauthentic.

Take time with your team to decide the primary purpose.

If the event is a fundraiser, design it intentionally as a fundraising moment.

Make a clear invitation to give.

If the event is about community, allow it to focus on relationship building without layering on fundraising pressure that changes the tone. Clarity allows people to participate more fully and builds trust for future invitations to give.

If your primary purpose is fundraising and community connection happens as well because your in line with your values, awesome! If your primary purpose is community connection and some people ask you how to make a gift because they’re inspired to support your mission, great news! But get clear about which thing is the primary focus for your team and which things will be “gravy” because you’re just that good at your job.

6. Plan the Follow-Up Before Invitations Go Out

Community organizers have taught us that if you do not reflect afterwards, it is like the gathering never happened.

Follow-up is where reflection takes place. It is also where relationships deepen.

Without follow-up, events rarely translate into long-term giving.

Instead, the organization becomes dependent on repeating the event again and again to generate revenue.

That pattern is exhausting.

Follow-up is the difference between momentum and the hamster wheel.

Before invitations even go out, decide:

Who will follow up with which attendees

How soon after the event the outreach will happen

What questions will guide the conversation

Those conversations help donors reflect on the experience and strengthen their connection to the mission.

Small Shifts Lead to Bigger Alignment

Aligning fundraising events with your values is a process.

You do not have to change everything all at once.

Even one or two of these shifts can begin moving your event toward a more community-centered approach to fundraising.

Events can become spaces where generosity, transparency, and shared purpose come together in ways that feel good for everyone involved.