I agree with Rachel 110%. The dinners that I have been involved with, never
met the unrealistic and inflated income goals that were created. The people
that wanted to do the dinners were never involved with operations and had
no concept of how much the dinner took away from the day to day operations
of the organization, and sucked much needed operating income away from the
core mission. I would never look at a dinner as "the messiah" that will be
the financial savior of your organization. Having said that, our
organization does do a dinner in France, where I understand that
culturally, it is important to do a dinner there.
On Tue, Dec 26, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Rachelbeth Canar <rachelcanar@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Generating income is one of the lower goals from a dinner.
Fancy dinners/ Galas are very costly (event hall rental, catering, tables,
chairs, tablecoths, plates and silverware, flowers, etc all cost, not to
mention the invitation and program book printing, possibly making a short
film to other presentation to show, and more. Just the time involve din
planning, managing invites, RSVPs, seating arrangements, printing the
program book - it normally requires hiring an outside event planner which
also takes money. Even if you do something not as fancy (which could mean a
breakfast instead of dinner), then it will still take many more hours of
planning, logistics, and more than you can imagine.
The reason to do a dinner or similar event is more about cultivating new
donors who meet you for the first time at the event and stewarding/honoring
your current donors who will hopefully attend and be recognized in some
way.
As a pure income generator, it is simply the least efficient way to raise
funds.
Rachel Canar
NGO Catalyst
On Tue, Dec 26, 2017 at 11:20 AM, Yehudit Dolgin <ydolginster@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Please can I have your input/comment on the pros and cons of Dinners. WE
are considering doing one for our organization, and want to assess whether
it will be a money maker or not.
Is there another advantage to a Dinner besides generating income? (e.g.
Getting your community of donors together, etc)
Thanks in advance
