Advancement events - what's your ROI? - Part 1

By Alastair Lee – Director, AlumGrow Consultancy

Introduction

I’m often approached by education providers to provide guidance on how to plan major advancement events and achieve greater ROI.  Whilst all schools and universities are different with varying degrees of complexity in their approach to community engagement, my key piece of advice always remains the same - get your strategy planning right at the start and the benefits will inevitably flow!

In this two-part series I take a look at how to achieve greater ROI from advancement events and provide my top tips to get the most out of your alumni, fundraising or marketing events. 

“Show me the money! Show me the money!”

I am often reminded of this immortal and often parodied line from the hit US movie Jerry Maguire, when it comes to planning and staging advancement events in an education setting.

Events are still one of the most popular methods used by schools and universities globally to connect with their alumni, donors and enrolment prospects. Yet so many organisations I see in the sector don’t approach their events strategically enough, whilst often missing rare opportunities to achieve major ongoing returns on investment.

Whilst not all your advancement events should be about ‘showing you the money,’ they certainly should serve to add tangible value to your organisation’s brand over the long term - just like it was eventually for our irrepressible player agent Jerry Maguire’s firm. 

The education sector today is facing ever-increasing competition and financial pressure, meaning all events planning (now more than ever) needs to be approached in a much more strategic and calculated way - highly data driven and strongly KPI focussed, with the ever-present expectation of a return on investment.

Recent survey research carried out by The Content Marketing Institute found that 56% of organisations surveyed around the world rate in-person events as their top audience engagement tactic – above digital and email engagement and furthermore that 80% of marketing professionals believe ‘live’ events are critical to achieving their organisational goals.

The importance of these stats lies in the fact that your competitors are also holding events just like you, and so the need to get your events right and stand out from the crowd is magnified. 

One of the greatest miscalculations that many institutions make, is to view events as standalone tactics, rather than integral parts of an integrated community engagement program that can be used to help achieve your institution’s KPIs. Yes events should have an individual impact - but they also should be viewed as one part of a much larger engagement strategy.

So how do you ensure your events are more strategic you may ask? How do you avoid many of the common event planning pitfalls? How do you create events that meaningfully engage your audiences, resulting in tangible ROI?

Well I’m going to share with you some of my secret tips and tricks honed over more than twenty years of global event planning that will hopefully ensure your events are well-oiled strategic successes stories. 

So here goes…

Tip #1 – Know your event strategic why!

This is a biggie – actually it is NUMERO UNO! Before you even think about drafting that invitation or booking a venue, you must take the time to carefully articulate your strategic event why. 

You should approach this process by addressing five key questions:

• Why hold the event? 
• How will it help achieve the goals of my organisation? 
• How will I measure success?
• What does success (ROI) look like? 
• Who is my target audience and why would they attend the event?

If you get this part articulated from the very start, it strategically sets up everything else in terms of the ‘how’ with your events. 

During the event planning cycle also make sure you keep referring back to these five questions to keep your team firmly on track to reach your end goals.

Tip #2

Set clear objectives and KPIs for each individual event. These should tie directly back to your institution’s strategic plan along with your own program KPIs. Remember that event KPI’s should be specific, achievable, time bound and measurable. 

It also helps to ensure advancement staff and senior leadership are aware of, and sign off on these KPIs before proceeding any further – this helps ensure everyone is on the same page.

Tip #3

Start your planning early. Planning a major event can be a massive task. The more time you can give your team to organise and plan every little detail, the better. So start as early as possible. Book all venues, equipment or other essential items at this point too – you can always make changes later. 

Ensure too, that you have contingencies e.g. wet weather plans and seek out specialist professional event assistance right from the very start where it is required.

Tip #4

Use event management software. Event management software is an event planner's best friend. Using programs such as Eventbrite, Monday, Wrike or Whova will keep your event planning and coordination on track, on time, on theme and on budget. These programs will help save a lot of planning time and enable you to create a more streamlined and successful event experience for your audience.

Tip #5

Set your budget and stick to it. One of the vital aspects of event planning is developing a realistic budget and monitoring it regularly to avoid blowouts. 

Budget overruns can be highly damaging to your professional reputation and often result in budget cuts to your program by unhappy bean-counters. So get your budget process right and stay on top of spending from the very start.

For major events it is always a good practice to add a 15-20% contingency buffer to cover unexpected or unplanned costs.

Tip #6

Always have a signed contract when using external providers. Whether it is for catering, venue hire, event coordination services or special equipment - insist upon a signed contract and have your institution’s legal representative review it before signing anything. 

A contract at its most basic level should ensure that the rights and responsibilities of the parties are clearly set out, with set time parameters and prices stipulated. It should also state what legal jurisdiction shall apply should something go wrong, and provide for basic remedial actions before the parties can consider more formal legal remedies.

Ensure too, any external contractor is insured against something going wrong e.g. that they hold public liability insurance and ask to see their current certificate of insurance – if they can’t provide this, then step away! Your institution will likely be requested to do likewise by most major external providers.

Tip #7

Research and choose the right venue. Choose a venue you know will provide a quality experience for your guests and institution. 

When deciding upon a venue, the number one priority from a brand perspective should be to host it at your campus. Where this is not possible e.g. if your campus is in a remote area, then choose a venue located in a central CBD area near where the majority of your audience are based – one that is easy to access via public transport, offers car parking, has a good reputation and compliments your brand. 

Tip #8

Set an event theme. Ideally, you should only hold events that have a very specific purpose e.g. reunions, professional development, speed networking, alumni awards, enrolment marketing etc. 

From my experience you should avoid the ‘social drinks’ scenario as the ROI on these events is usually very low and ultimately nothing your audience can’t do in their own time. Your organisation should be seeking to add targeted and tangible value with its events that result in real ROI at every turn.

Ensure too that your event theme ties directly back to your strategic goals and is in keeping with your organisation’s brand and mission.

Tip #9

Choose your event content wisely. Ensure your event content is audience appropriate (refer Tip #1) -including all speeches, entertainment, decorations, activities and theming. 

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and think about what they would most likely support or respond to and then plan accordingly in line with your set KPIs. 

Tip #10

Carefully consider charging for events. With the exception of major gala events (where most audiences are usually happy to pay for the experience), think carefully about whether to charge for smaller events. In the alumni and prospective donors space it can be highly advantageous to be seen to be giving something back first before seeking to fundraise or asking an audience to donate their time – offering free events is often a great starting point.

In cases where your audience may not have regular face-to-face contact e.g. international-based alumni, I strongly recommend that charging for these events be kept to a minimum.

Tip #11

Use your event to capture evergreen content. Capture important event moments via film or photography so that you can repurpose the material for use in other communications channels such as social media and magazines.

Using snippets from things like webinars, interviews and speeches can be great way to create an evergreen resource library that you can call upon at any time e.g. during slow news weeks or as ready-made marketing material.

Just ensure you obtain the relevant legal permissions from event participants in order to use the content and make sure that audience members are given an opportunity to decline being involved. It is often a great idea to capture guest privacy permissions at the time of event booking. At the event ensure there is appropriate signage and that your MC mentions that photography or filming will be occurring.

I also recommend using a professional to do your photography or filming – particularly for high profile events.

Tip #12

Ensure you cater for those who can’t be there. For those who can’t regularly attend your events, consider livestreaming or recording the key parts of your event e.g. presentations and speeches, to post up online afterwards – this can often be a great way to engage key audiences living overseas or interstate and at a minimal cost. 

Your archives team will also love you for this, as it is a way of helping preserve your institution’s history!

To be continued next week...

Well that is it for Part 1 of my look at advancement events for this week. In my next article I’ll give you my final top tips on creating more impactful and strategic advancement events - so stayed tuned!

Coming up next week… Part 2 - Advancement events – show me the ROI!

*Alastair Lee is an international award-winning senior thought leader in the Australian education industry, and has held many key leadership positions over the last two decades in marketing and advancement with Deakin University and University of Tasmania. Over his career, he has planned and staged well over 1,000 events globally – including Australia’s largest ever alumni homecoming whilst working with the University of Tasmania in 2015.

He is also the Founding Director of AlumGrow Consultancy – an Australian-based firm specialising in enrolment marketing research, brand development and advancement strategy. Alastair is also Manager, Tertiary Education Services with Spectrum Analysis Australia. He can be contacted via email [email protected].

Like, share and comment on this article too!

If you enjoyed this article don't keep all these insights to yourself - please like it, leave a comment and share it with your colleagues and friends!

Subscribe today!

Want to receive all our latest articles and news, then sign up to the AlumGrow Consultancy news service today at subscribe here. Best of all - it's free of charge!

AlumGrow 1st Anniversary Sale– Take 20% off DevelopmentPro!

AMAZING 2021 OFFER: AlumGrow is celebrating 1 year in business and is offering any education institution that signs up to DevelopmentPro before the 26 February 2021 a huge 20 per cent off the advertised price of membership.

For more information and to download an application form visit alumgrow.com.au.

AlumGrow provides expert advice to education providers everywhere...

In addition to DevelopmentPro, AlumGrow can help your education institution to engage your school or university community in more effective ways to secure its financial future.

Whether you want to…

• Fundraise for strategic projects…
• Develop a more effective and targeted alumni community engagement narrative
• Increase your enrolments, membership, donors or volunteer numbers…
• Research and create a brand marketing plan that will resonate with prospects…

AlumGrow can help!

To learn more about AlumGrow’s specialist consultancy services and how they can help you create more effective community engagement solutions visit alumgrow.com.au.