6 Ways To Sell More Tickets For Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Event

When your nonprofit holds a fundraising event, you’re competing with everything else potential donors have on their calendars. That includes their kids’ baseball games, their weekend parties, and their vacations. It’s important to find ways to spread the news of your event early so people can arrange their other priorities around it.

But nonprofits can often face challenges when trying to get ticket sales for their events. Here are six tips that can help you boost your event attendance.

Make Registration Easy

Before you even get started, make sure an interested supporter can get event tickets easily. You can sell tickets through your own website, as long as you work out any bugs before you start sending people there. You’ll also find useful services that can handle online ticket sales for you.

Promote It

Once you have your ticketing solution in place, it’s time to get the word out. Make sure you notify your existing mailing list with an appealing fundraising invitation, but also reach out on social media. In addition to letting everyone know that the event is upcoming, also communicate the “why.” What about this event makes it important? How will it further your cause? Of course, mention any big-name attendees or fun activities that will be a part of the event to make it as compelling as possible.

Get Supporters to Help

Your biggest advocates are the people who already support your organization. Ask them to spread the word about your event. You can even give them an incentive to share by offering a discount or gift to those who generate a certain number of sales.

Make It Urgent

It’s an age-old trick, but urgency compels action. If your event message comes across on a busy workday, it can be easy for someone to procrastinate. Subsequent messages may equally be shoved aside. Create a sense of urgency by letting invitees know that there is only a limited number of tickets available. You don’t have to specify how many. Simply saying that there’s a limit will encourage some to take action.

Offer Early Bird Discounts

Another way to prevent procrastination is to incentivize supporters to buy early. Consider a tiered pricing structure that gradually scales the price up for those who haven’t ordered by each deadline. You can also offer discounts for groups or give a percentage off for multiple ticket purchases at the same time.

Promote the Event

Your ticket sales don’t stop once the event is underway. In fact, the information you post about your current event can go a long way toward convincing people to participate the next time. Create a hashtag for the event and encourage attendees to share photos and posts directly from the event. At least a few people will remember the event the next time you’re selling tickets.

The key to having a successful nonprofit event is planning. If you have an upcoming event, sit down and create a strategy to spread the word as far as possible. ArcStone specializes in nonprofit marketing. Contact us to talk to one of our specialists and find out how we can help you with your next event.