Fundraising Banquet Boot Camp: A Survival Guide & System For Ordinary People Seeking Extraordinary Results

By Dr. Shane D. Faire

Fundraising Banquet Boot Camp- A Survival Guide and System For Ordinary People Seeking Extraordinary Results is written to provide a user friendly step-by-step guide presented in a conversational manner focusing on the use of efficiency tools and risk management. This guide and system is similar to a Swiss Army Knife filled with unique tools designed specifically to help your team through the process of planning and executing a fundraising Dessert or Banquet with extraordinary proficiency and success. Whether your organization has successfully executed several Desserts or Banquets or seeking guidance for the first time, this guide and system may provide some new fundraising principles, ideas, and tools to help equip your team and improve overall results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9780988234413

Book preview

SECTION 1

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE BANQUET FUNDRAISING

This guide and system has been developed and written based on (5) Fundamental Principles of Effective Banquet Fundraising.

It is essential that each Team Member understand these Principles so the maximum benefit is realized through their personal suggestions, contributions, and dedication to helping ensure the success of your organization’s Banquet.

PRINCIPLE I

Effective Banquet Fundraising starts with a specific fundraising goal adapted to the audience and Banquet Theme.

PRINCIPLE II

Effective Banquet Fundraising requires a high level of quality information.

PRINCIPLE III

Effective Banquet Fundraising occurs when preparation and presentation exceed your guest’s expectations.

PRINCIPLE IV

Effective Banquet Fundraising is the product of encouraging, challenging, and thanking each and every one of your guests.

PRINCIPLE V

Effective Banquet Fundraising is about being grateful for the opportunity to serve others and being personally changed through the process.

SECTION 2

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE AND SYSTEM

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE AND SYSTEM

Fundraising Banquet Boot Camp- A Survival Guide and System For Ordinary People Seeking Extraordinary Results is written to provide a user friendly step-by-step guide presented in a conversational manner focusing on the use of efficiency tools and risk management.

This guide and system are similar to a Swiss Army Knife filled with unique tools designed specifically to help your team through the process of planning and executing a fundraising Dessert or Banquet with extraordinary proficiency and success. The main goal is to provide a source of information that is modular in form allowing the user to obtain the knowledge base necessary for their specific scheduled Banquet, using only the sections and forms that apply. For example: If your organization’s Banquet is scheduled in the month of September, then the SEPTEMBER BANQUET TIMELINE, and SEPTEMBER BANQUET PRAYER sections would provide the foundational guide for your specific Banquet.

Included are several checklist and form templates that help your team organize meetings, tasks, schedules, and provide essential follow-up notes and dates. Review each of the checklist and form templates listed in the CHECKLISTS-YOUR TASKMASTER AND BEST FRIEND section as a basic introduction to efficiency tools and risk management. The checklist and form templates included are designed to help save your team a tremendous amount of time and energy while maintaining focus on essential elements of the planning process.

The original printed editions ISBN 978-0-9882344-0-6 (Spiral) and ISBN 978-0-9882344-2-0 (Loose Leaf Indexed/Binder) recommends the reader photocopy and use Timelines, Checklist and Evaluation Form templates contained within for maximum benefit. Since printing from ePub format may be limited or impossible, the reader may use the Timelines, Checklist and Form templates as visual guides and references. It is recommended that the reader consider obtaining a printed edition to access Timelines, Checklist and Evaluation Form templates for photocopying and use as necessary.

Whether your organization has successfully executed several Banquets or seeking guidance for the first time, this guide and system may provide some new fundraising principles, ideas, and tools to help equip your team and improve overall results. As you study and review sections, you may think of more ways to improve your procedures and results, so keep a note pad handy to record ideas and thoughts as you read and while they are fresh.

Sometimes we are presented with opportunities to make a life changing difference in another person or group of people, and the process starts with having and nurturing a servant’s heart and attitude. This guide and system is designed to lessen the stress and fatigue of organizing and executing a successful Banquet, and help your team survive the process with their servant’s heart and attitude intact.

SECTION 3

ASSESSING LEADERSHIP

ASSESSING LEADERSHIP

As Professional Fundraising Consultants, one of the key elements of our process is identifying and preparing new leaders currently within your organization. If your organization has no current new leadership candidates, then learning how to seek, identify and acquire these new leader candidates into your organization will be the first priority goal.

The people in any organization are its greatest asset. Learning to carefully and strategically assemble the right people is the beginning and foundation of any organization’s success. Once the right people are assembled and/or identified, the process of grooming and training new leaders can begin.

Sometimes the Executive Director of the organization fails to understand how key their roll is in raising up new leaders. They become so immersed in the daily tasks at hand, that they fail to use every opportunity to teach and train those leaders or leader candidates around them. Ask yourself if you are taking every opportunity to specifically ask the other leaders or leader candidates what they would do if faced with the exact same situation. This will allow the other leaders to share in the management process and learn to work as a team while exploring multiple ideas and options to accomplish the goal. The expression leading by example cannot be understated. If the Executive Director is a good or not so good leader, the example will be noted for better or worse, so seek to be the best example possible understanding your role in the future development of the new leaders in your organization.

Since most successful leaders have a natural desire and tenacity to get the job done, look for these leadership traits as well as a contagious positive attitude and desire to learn as well as to lead. Leaders and leader candidates that share the organization’s vision for the community can add to the pleasure of leading a leadership team that seeks to make a difference in those around them as well as themselves.

As in most relationships, there are key essential elements that will help nourish and develop your organization’s leaders and leader candidates into the best leadership team for your organization’s vision. They are Respect, Trust, and Encouragement. Respect your leaders and leader candidates as people you believe can get the job done. Trust your leaders and leader candidates as people you believe can do the job right. Encourage your leaders and leader candidates as people you believe can make a difference.

DESIGNATED STAFF DUTY ASSIGNMENT FORM

Use the included DESIGNATED STAFF DUTY ASSIGNMENT FORM to help guide, train and assess leadership qualities in your organization’s staff and volunteers. This form will also help keep Banquet preparation assignments moving ahead and provide essential follow-up dates.

The skills learned in this environment can and will be used for years to come in fundraising and improving the lives of those that participate as well as those that are blessed through the process.

SECTION 4

BANQUET TUTORIALS

BANQUET vs. DESSERT

A well executed Banquet can take a year or more to plan compared to a Dessert that can be planned in a few months or less.

The Dessert is an excellent venue to learn some basics on fundraising. It is recommended that Desserts be mastered first before stepping up to the much more complicated and costly Banquet.

If your organization does not use Desserts and/or has a current successful Banquet program, try to avoid the temptation to skip this section. Even if you do not have a current or active Dessert program, this section may be the most important information you will learn. If your organization is seeking extraordinary Banquet results, then it is essential to build growing supporter, table host, and guest lists to fill your Banquet seats. A continuous and well written Dessert program can provide the productive environment necessary to build relationships and accomplish this goal with remarkable results.

Photocopy the DESSERT PLANNING & MEETING FORM included for your use to help set up and execute a BASIC (1) HOUR DESSERT. Many successful Desserts can be much longer than (1) hour, however, it is recommended that the shorter the better to maintain maximum guest interest and retention.

On the following page are some basic differences between the Banquet and Dessert to consider.

UNDERGRAD SCHOOL- THE DESSERT

College and university classes progress through a basic pattern of complexity and increased instruction, practical application, and examination designated as 101, 201, 301, and 401 as undergraduate study. Each progressive class builds on the skills and knowledge base learned from the previous class, helping to improve, adapt, and evaluate the course objectives.

Once successfully completing courses 101, 201, 301, and 401 as undergraduate study, the student would then move on to 501, 601, 701, and 801 as graduate study.

In the complicated and progressively more expensive environment of event fundraising, we will first acquire proficiency in the basics of a Dessert as undergraduate study, and then move on to a Banquet as graduate study. A Dessert is relatively inexpensive and simple to prepare and execute, compared to a Banquet that is relatively expensive and difficult to prepare and execute.

At first glance, the Dessert and Banquet appear to be completely separate events, and this is where a serious and major mistake can take place. The Dessert provides a friendly and non-formal environment to introduce new people to your organization and start the relationship building process that is essential for a successful Banquet. If your organization does not have an effective and productive system to continually introduce new people to your ministry, then it is unlikely your Banquet will experience extraordinary results.

The best and most successful fundraising program will include at least (1) Dessert every three months, or (3) Desserts over a nine month period culminating in a Annual Banquet three months after the third Dessert. For example: If your Banquet is in October, than your organization’s (3) preceding Desserts would be in January, April, and July or whatever schedule is best.

The main point is to have a scheduled Dessert (3) times a year as an opportunity to invite anyone that you believe may want to learn more about your ministry or organization. Remember, a Dessert is a friendly non-formal environment where people can relax and visit. As part of the Dessert a short (5) minute presentation is made that can invite your guests to partner with your ministry in ways that make a difference in the lives of the children and families in their community.

This is the perfect environment to build your Banquet guest list and the best environment to meet potential Table Hosts. The (4) basic and essential elements are foundational to a successful Dessert and will provide the growing supporter and guest lists necessary for a successful Banquet.

DESSERT 101

RELATIONSHIPS

Fundraising is all about relationships, and without relationships, there is little fundraising. The relatively easy, inexpensive, and non-formal environment of the Dessert will provide your organization the opportunity to begin the relationship building process that is the single most important aspect of any fundraising event, especially the Banquet.

For example: You are waiting for new set of tires to be installed on your car or maybe getting the oil changed. Sitting next to you is a man or woman doing the same. Through whatever means a conversation begins. During the conversation you share that you are involved with a specific organization that helps the children and families of your community. The person seems polite and asks some questions that you answer. You hand the person a business card and a preprinted Dessert invitation, then invite them to a scheduled Dessert, asking them to bring their spouse or a friend that some folks are getting together for some coffee and dessert to discuss ways of helping the children and families of their community. You ask for their name, mailing address and telephone number to keep in touch. Once back at the office, you prepare and mail a handwritten note thanking them for their time and visit.

It may take a few cycles of scheduled Desserts to actually see this person again, however if you don’t or never see them again, the important fact is someone else now knows about your ministry or organization that did not know before you took the initiative to share. If this person does make continued contact or someone that they know and learned of your organization through their friendship makes contact, then you will have the opportunity to access not only that person but several friends of that person through the Dessert and ultimately, the Banquet environments.

The previous example uses a complete stranger; however people generally look for ways to help their community when they are invited to. Imagine this scenario as the most difficult relationship to establish and all other scenarios being easier. The point is, you will be presented with many opportunities to invite people to the Desserts and need only have one or more scheduled in the future to invite them to. Remember, you are inviting someone that knows more people and a factor of multiplication begins to apply, and this is what makes the Dessert and the Table Host feature of your Banquet work so well.

Pre-scheduling Desserts is essential to this process and it is recommended that your organization plan ahead and schedule at least (3) in the next year. After you have completed a few and work out the best system, maybe schedule a new Dessert every second Thursday evening of every other month or some schedule that is easily memorized and recalled. This will help when you encounter a chance meeting with someone and can invite them to the next Dessert since you know they are scheduled on a specific day and in specific month(s).

DESSERT 201

MINISTRY AND ORGANIZATION HISTORY

Your guests are interested in (3) specific aspects of your ministry or organization: It’s History, Future and their role, or the Pledge. Your ministry or organization’s History, Future and Pledge should be developed separately, however presented together in about (5) minutes.

Learn to develop and present your ministry or organization’s History so it can be presented in about (1-2) minutes. It is extremely easy to get in front of a group of people and go on and on, so use a stop watch or timer.

DESSERT 301

MINISTRY AND ORGANIZATION FUTURE

Once you have presented a (1-2) minute presentation of your ministry or organization’s History, pause for a few seconds and then transition into a (1-2) minute presentation of your ministry or organization’s Future.

The key to learning how to transition from History to Future to The Pledge is simple and effective. Pause for a few seconds while looking at a few different people in your audience. Make eye contact and smile. When that person smiles back, you have connected and can move to another person in the audience. This will accomplish two critical goals while addressing a group. You have personally engaged with the audience and prepared them for something new coming next.

This technique is similar to personally engaging with the audience as you make your presentation, however the difference is you stop talking and pause for a few seconds. When a speaker stops talking, even for only a few seconds, the pattern of