Event Management Software for Nonprofit Fundraising

Hosting events to network with your supporters and granting them opportunities to donate to your programs is an important part of running a successful nonprofit organization. And thanks to the advances in event management software, running fundraising events can now be done in-person, at a completely online gala, or at a hybrid fundraiser that combines aspects of both.

What’s more, event management software helps automate and organize essential parts of a fundraising event, such as ticketing, registration, and guest management. This is important since many nonprofits require financial assistance from multiple donors to continue supporting their target communities. By choosing the right event management software, expanding your support network and funding options becomes much more manageable.

PayBee’s online fundraising platform offers an excellent event management software system that many nonprofits and charities have benefited from. Using our software, you’ll gain access to a number of online fundraising tools that make common tasks like managing RSVPs and building ticketing campaigns extremely easy. In addition, you’ll be able to reach more donors and supporters through our apps, making popular fundraising activities like silent and live auctions even more profitable.

Let’s take a closer look at the most important parts of nonprofit event management and examine how event management software like PayBee’s can help.

What are the essential parts of nonprofit event management?

When your event staff is managing a nonprofit event or fundraiser, they need to make sure certain key elements are handled. These include:

• Selling tickets: Whether you’re offering free or paid admission, building an effective ticketing campaign and keeping track of all your attendees is important to ensure a good turnout to your fundraiser.
• Managing your guest list: This is arguably the most important yet often most overlooked part of event management. Managing your guest list means collecting RSVPs from your guests, keeping records of their contact information, making sure your staff knows where guests need to be seated, understanding their dietary restrictions and preferences, and more.
• Sending updates: Guests need to be informed of any changes to the event through regular emails. Even if nothing changes, sending regular reminders of your event keeps your gala on everyone’s schedule.
• Check-ins/Check-outs: Validating tickets at the start of the event and checking guests out efficiently is important. Having a system in place to make sure guests aren’t stuck in long lines or experience unnecessary delays is even more vital.
• Tracking data: How much money did your event raise? Which activities did your guests enjoy the most? How were most donations collected? All of this information, and more, needs to be tracked throughout your event so it can be reviewed, shared in reports, and used to make your future fundraisers more successful.

In the past, most of these tasks had to be handled manually, requiring a huge investment of time from your staff and volunteers. Thankfully, modern technology not only automates many managerial tasks but also helps your staff service a considerably larger audience.

Benefits of using PayBee event management software

In our current digital age, nonprofit supporters are just as likely to attend a fundraiser by viewing a live streaming event on their laptops or making charity auction bids from their smartphones. This makes having event management software a necessity to both create and manage virtual events.

Even if you choose to host a traditional in-person event, event management software helps your event staff coordinate their tasks and manage complex activities. Common benefits of using event management software include:

• Improved registration: PayBee software helps you collect all the information you need from your guests, including contact information and meal preferences. You can even customize your registration forms to offer guests a more personal touch at your event — such as printing name tags in their favorite color.
• More donation collection options: No longer do guests need to limit themselves to writing checks when donating. Today, PayBee’s online platform can accept any major credit card as well as Apple Pay or PayPal. You can also post customized QR codes anywhere in your event that will take guests to your donation page and make contributing to your nonprofit easier.
• Improved staff and guest communication: PayBee event management software makes managing guest lists, creating seating charts, and communicating with guests via email very easy. In addition, our mobile app can be used by event staff members to coordinate their actions, ensuring everyone is on the same page and can stay in contact with each other.  
• Building websites: Don’t have experience with web design? No problem. PayBee’s system can build your event page while providing you with customization options. You can upload images, from your personal brand logo to the logos of all your sponsors. You can even include special videos and donation buttons to emphasize your mission and encourage more contributions.
• Social media promotion: These days, practically everyone learns about events and activities through social media. PayBee social sharing buttons lets you promote your event on your supporters’ favorite social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
• Easy integration with outside platforms: Many events call for integration with other platforms and software. For instance, if you plan on livestreaming an event, you’ll want to use a popular live streaming platform such as Facebook Live, YouTube Live, or Twitch. PayBee’s platform will work with any video stream provider that allows embedding.
• Mobile-friendly interactions: The PayBee Mobile App lets your staff members and volunteers communicate easier together. In addition, guests can use the app to participate in your event from their smartphones — whether that means making an online donation or placing a bid in your auction. All this just widens your donor options and helps you raise more money.
• Managing guests: Being able to check guests in or out using their mobile phones makes the whole check-in/check-out process much smoother and more convenient for everyone — particularly in an age of social distancing where long lines are to be avoided.
• Access reports: Excellent event management software helps plan and assess events by easily showcasing event reports and sharing them with your committee members. PayBee’s system offers a detailed breakdown of all the donations you received and your attendees’ activities in an easy-to-view format. You’ll even be able to sort through the PayBee system with a comprehensive set of custom parameters, enabling you to report on and track all relevant donor data.

Moving Forward

Although different nonprofits and charities have different needs when choosing their ideal event management software, PayBee’s system regularly shows it provides the essential tools for marketing your event, creating ticketing campaigns, collecting guest information, managing your actual event, and collecting data on your event for your reports.

If you’d like to get a more up-close-and-personal look at how PayBee’s online fundraising platform can help manage your next nonprofit gala, sign up for a free demo of the PayBee system. You’ll be able to interact directly with our online platform, participate in a mock auction, and ask questions to our team of experts. There’s really no better way to assess event management software, so be sure to sign up for a free demo today!