The Secret to Using Facebook Live to Generate Non-Dues Revenue

Bruce Hillegeist, President of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce, along with Brandy Beyer, Vice President of Operations were our special guests on this episode of More Non-Dues Revenue Ideas podcast.

This episode of the More Non-Dues Revenue Ideas podcast is especially relevant for chambers looking at out-of-the-box thinking to generate multiple streams of revenue.

Ready to hear about some extraordinary ideas...listen now:

Inside this episode Bruce and Brandy discuss how they successfully:?

• Generated $5,000 profit from their very first virtual auction using Facebook Live?
• Sold 314 new members in 2 days with a successful Membership Fundraiser event
• Partnering with other organizations during a crisis helped increase visibility for the event and created tremendous goodwill in the community

The Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce dates back to the late 1920s. It’s an organization with a long history and legacy in the Greater Tomball area, located 30 miles northwest of downtown Houston. Their staff of four has a total of 61 years of staff longevity. CEO. Bruce gives full credit to Brandy, Dawn, and Amy (Mason) for what they do every day to promote the chamber. Most of the chamber members are small businesses in the oil, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. The city of Tomball is around 12,000 people, only 12 and half square miles, but in about an eight to ten mile radius there are over 350,000 people. So the area served is quite misleading as people think of just Tomball proper. The chamber has had the designation as a four-star accredited Chamber of Commerce for about six years now.?

And now for our interview...

Transcript:

EB:?

Your chamber organized a live auction for the first time. And it seems to have been very successful. Can you tell us a little bit about that auction and how it came about? And most importantly, how much money did the chamber net?

BB:

Sure. Thanks, Ed, for having us on the show. We put on an event we called it Tomball Tidings.

The way the event was put together really came through when one of our members approached us with an idea. He owns a restaurant and he could get donations from his vendors. He’s like y’all, we’ve been doing a lot for the community, saying the Chamber has been doing a lot for the community. He wanted to give back to the community through the chamber. His vendors can only contribute to 501(c)(3) designated non-profits. Given that constraint, we sat down with a group of people and brainstormed. And we came up with the idea to host an event we called “Tomball Tidings”, a live online auction. We, as the chamber, got sponsors for the event. And that money from businesses came to the chamber. We sent an email out to all of our member nonprofits and said...

“Hey, if you want to participate in this live auction, all you have to do is get an item donated, and agree to help us promote it”.?

We had 10 nonprofits participating. They each brought in their own live auction items. Some were better than others. The ones who needed help are where we made use of that restaurant to add value to their live auction items.?

At the end of the day, the chamber made $5,000 and the nonprofit’s (10 in total), made over $13,000. As far as work from the chamber staff, we sent out that email and then we promoted it. We spent $50 on Facebook to boost the post. Everybody delivered their items to the chamber. We had to set it up on the same day. We did it through Facebook Live. People posted their bids in the chat. And so that’s kind of how it all came together.

EB:?

So you didn’t use any special software or anything, you did it all on Facebook Live,

BB:

We just did Facebook Live and had some volunteers there who were monitoring the chat as the bids were coming in. We put a five minute time limit for people to get their bids in. And during that time, Bruce and I talked about each of the nonprofits, and their auction items. And it worked out really well. It was a fun event. We had a really good time doing it. The members were on the chat. They were talking smack back and forth with each other. And they made it really fun. At the end, people were giving back items, and we were auctioning off again. There were some bidding wars going on.

EB:

How long did it take to prepare from the start of let’s do this ... to actually go live with it? How long did it take you to get all that pulled together and ready to go?

BB:?

Not very long. I will tell you, we talked about it in the middle of November. And we did it I think on December 17. So it was thrown together really quickly. And the nonprofit’s were so excited to be a part of it.

EB:?

What kind of nonprofits partnered with you on this?

BB:?

A wide variety from a horse therapy place, a place that deals with adults with mental disabilities, the local food pantry, the local health care clinic, and even the YMCA participated. So it was a very wide range of organizations.

EB:

And you just reached out to these organizations and offered them the opportunity to participate for the money?

BB:

I sent one email, that’s it, like, take it or leave it and 10 of them took it and that was just right, especially for our first time. If anybody wants to go check it out it is still on our Facebook page. I will say that it was rough the first couple of minutes, especially because we had some technical difficulties with the microphone. But we got that worked out after the first couple of minutes everybody could hear. Bruce and I did the talking.

And then Amy Mason and Dawn Stone were our “Vanna and Holly”... [think Holly from The Price Is Right]. And so they showcased the items for us. We just made it fun, and everybody had a good time. And it brought us goodwill, because it opened up some nonprofits to some new people, people who might not have heard of a different organization, you know, made some new friends, and then you know they get an opportunity to make some money in a year where they didn’t really make any money was a big plus.?

EB:

What’s fascinating to me is that you were able to do all this just with Facebook Live. And you didn’t need any other tools or software to do it. You pushed it out through social media that this was happening on Facebook Live. You guys monitored the chats for the bidding. And then when somebody when they were successful in bidding, you just said you’ve won. How did you do that?

BB:

Yeah, the volunteers were sitting beside us, and that would say, okay, it’s cut off. And "the winner is..." and we just announced it. And they all came to the office the next day. They wrote their check directly to that nonprofit. So we weren’t even the middlemen on taking money. We took out the checks and delivered them directly to the nonprofits.

EB:

So if any chamber that’s on with us today wants to undertake an online auction like this, this was the first time you guys did it. So you know, it sounds like it was a little bit rough around the edges. Could you kind of summarize what steps if a chamber is sitting there thinking I would like to do this? What would they need to do? Starting with the idea that you wanted to do this, what would be some of the steps they need to take, you know, kind of briefly to get to that point of making it live?

BB:?

A couple of things I will tell you, we missed the mark on. But really reaching out to your nonprofits letting them know you’re doing it, setting a good price limit or bottom price on your nonprofit on the auction item, I think our item prices were a little low. And some of them were not great items. So make sure you get really good items. And then after that, it’s promote, promote, promote, we put a packet together that had all of the items that were up for donation or up for auction. We shared it with all the other nonprofits and asked them to share it on their Facebook pages.

And at the end of the day, then we had a location to do it, the restaurant whose idea it was in the first place is where we did the actual event. That’s where we should have done some preparation and some trial and error and real practice ahead of time to make sure we got the sound right, because the restaurant was really loud that night, we did it on a Thursday night, and the restaurant was packed. But at the end of the day, I think it added to some of the energy that Bruce and I had offered. Do you agree, Bruce?

BH:?

I totally agree. What I was going to mention is that there were some complaints that people couldn’t always hear, but that the room was full of their customers. It did add to the energy between Brandy and I and just the whole event itself. So it was a good thing.

EB:?

This is Texas. So people are joining us from other parts of the country. And in California it’s very difficult to have people gather in a restaurant let alone in a group. So how did you guys manage since you’re in Texas? How did you manage social distancing? Or was it during the COVID situation??

BB:?

Yes, it was this past December 2020. And I’ll tell you Bruce and I were kind of stuck in a corner with social distance. And then Don and Amy were basically sitting in front of us. And so we could see them, and the restaurant managed the rest. I won’t say that it was stellar and how they did it. The camera was specifically focused on Bruce and Anna, and then it would pan over to Amy and Dawn as they were showing the items.?

EB:?

So having it at a venue like this was helpful for what you guys were doing. But you can certainly have an online auction without being at a specific venue, right?

BB:?

And I will tell you, it would probably be easier to do it in a big room with nobody else in there. Because then you have room to properly display your items. And they were really crowded. But I wouldn’t change it for the world because that energy is what I think got Bruce and I through two hours of talking.?

EB:?

Thank you for sharing about the auction. It’s something that a lot of chambers have been very curious about. I want to talk to you about the next topic. And it’s not a non-dues revenue generator. It’s a dues revenue generator. You had a membership drive or, more accurately, a membership event last year which brought in a big chunk of members, more than 300 members. Could you tell us more about that?

BB:?

Yes, we used a company, Your Chamber Connection, to host the event. When we started talking about it, we hadn’t done a membership event in probably 10 years. Because when we would do a membership event, we would get a lot of members to join but then we would lose them the next year. And so we just wanted to grow at a steady pace. And you know, better to maintain than to have them. So when we finally decided to bite the bullet and do a membership event, we had to retrain our minds. Most importantly, we had to retrain the minds of our board and say...

“Hey, this is a fundraiser. You know, it might be a temporary membership boost, but it is a huge fundraiser.”?

For this event, all toll we brought in over $160,000, although we did have to pay a commission on that, you know, that’s just part of it. But next year, if even half of those renew, that’s a whole lot of money next year that you’re not having to give away to anyone. So it was a big boost in income. And it was a lot of fun. Your Chamber Connection made it really fun for us. But I’ll tell you the training that they did for the members that participated, you know, the people who were calling their friends on those days, those people learned so much about our chamber, and about how chambers in general work that battle, that aspect alone made it worthwhile. And it gave us so much energy for the next year, it really, really pumped up our membership.

EB:

You guys rebranded this from historically a membership drive to a membership event as a fundraiser - just that rebranding sounds like it made a huge difference. I’ve heard that traditional membership drives are just a short one time booster shot in the arm for cash. In your case, people were not just calling up board members, they were calling up their friends saying...

“Hey, can you do me a favor and join the chamber?”

It sounds like the training you and your volunteers received was to talk more about the benefit and the value of the Chamber of Commerce? Is that right?

BB:?

Absolutely. There was a huge 45 minute training session with each group of people that came in, and they only had to work for two hours. So it was only a two hour commitment for them - not an all day thing or even a half day thing. And half of that was training, teaching them about chambers, what we do and why we do it so they could share that with the people that they called. They called their friends and said:

“Hey, please join. But here’s why. You know, we’re doing a lot for the community”.?

So we worked out that we actually did the event in 2019 and we sent renewals in February right before everything shut down for COVID. We don’t know how many people would have renewed because of the training, and because of what we had been able to offer them since COVID just took it out of so many businesses.

EB:?

Sure, but you’re coming up on the renewals period again right now for 2021? So in the next few months, you’ll be able to gauge what your retention rate is, from all those people that joined right?

BB:?

Now, you know, when you get them to join after a rejoin after that first year, you do a pretty good job of keeping them after that. I’m excited to see that we keep most of them that have come back.

EB:

Well, it sounds like the volunteers have been trained well and they’re really talking about the Chamber’s relevance in the community, and particularly during 2020. Everybody’s 2020 plan was shot out the window. And that was an opportunity for the chamber to shine. And that will come back in spades, if you know, the chamber did what it did. And the value proposition, I think, is if it was properly imparted to the volunteers, and they properly impart it to the people, that the new members. That’s great to hear that there’s so much good training that’s going into it.?

BH:??

And if I can just say that without getting into the weeds, you know, they asked us to get 10 captains together. And that is the most important thing. One of the most important parts of the whole deal was to find people in the community who had chamber membership who had been influenced, so we did have our school superintendent, our college president, our hospital CEO, and our City manager, and then they added their team. It became a real competitive thing as we had some very competitive type personalities there. It really helped us bolster and add to the success of the two day membership drive.

EB:

So that’s key to having some competitive people as captains. Good point.

BH:??

We didn't realize how competitive our captain of our police department was and the school superintendent, but they ended up being number one and number two, and boy, they were very competitive. This energy really still exists today. Honestly, you recall that day and it was a lot of work on the staff, but let me tell you that the good that it did, overall for the chamber, not just financially, but just for people to know what we really do and the training we provided was the best part of the whole two days.

EB:

Were there any other companies besides Your Chamber Connection that you were looking at to help with this event?

BH:??

This is really the only company we looked at. We did consider others, but Your Chamber Connection really does support the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives (TCCE), and they are at most conferences and whatnot.

And I used them back in 1995 on a two day membership drive. In those days, it only lasted one day, because my volunteers didn’t show up. And we had 110 new members in just one day. So I knew what they could do. But then I was the one wanting members to join, because they really wanted to join. It’s about changing your mindset. Yes, you want the members, but it’s important to think of it as a fundraiser as well.

EB:?

That makes sense. So just one last question for you guys. Now, going through this process, are there any questions that a chamber should ask of a prospective vendor? We’re not here to promote any particular vendor, this just happens to be the vendor that you use. But if some chamber is looking to do a membership event, a membership fundraiser, what questions would you suggest that they ask of the vendor?

BB:?

I think one of the first things that people need to ask is, “Do they have a training piece in there”? We want to make sure that the members who show up get value out of being there other than just doing us a favor. We really want them to get something out of it. And because of the training offered, I think they had fun with their friends, in addition to learning a lot during that time.

EB:?

Thank you for sharing about that membership event fundraiser.?

Now, the next topic that I want to ask you about is that you had some existing events that pivoted during COVID that included other organizations, increasing their participation, visibility, and goodwill, as well as your own. Tell us a little bit about that and how it all came about?

BB:?

So at the end of 2020, we usually do a big Tomball Holiday Parade. It’s the highlight of the year for many people. We have 150 entries or more and 30,000 people come to town to see this parade. This would have been the 55th annual holiday parade. So it was a huge local event. And everybody was devastated that we couldn’t do it.?

We were looking for a way to have some sort of event where people could just come to town. We had been throwing around ideas to hold an event during the annual Shop Local event.

Then we got approached by our local group called Tomball Business and Professional Women. They do a Fall Food Fest every year but because of COVID they couldn’t do it. Instead they wanted to do a Restaurant Week. We thought about putting their Restaurant Week together with our Shop Local event.

And then our Tomball Economic Development Corporation, which is a city funded development organization, joined in - together the GTACC, TBPW with the Tomball Economic Development Corporation created a unique and loving way to contribute to our community by creating Ten Days of Tomball Together. It was a Shop Local campaign and basically any business in town could participate. We offered businesses 5 different ways they can be involved: Participate, Sponsor, Donate, Support, and Share. We received great publicity as well.

We created a website that showed who was having specials and on what days. Then people could come and go at their pleasure. As part of Tomball Night, we have mystery shoppers. And every year we have a poem and whatever the poem, the clue is in the poem. You ask somebody, for instance, if they’re wearing flip flops, “Hey, are you the mystery shopper?”, and you can win $100 if you are the mystery shopper. We added that to the two Saturdays.

The downtown area was pretty crowded with people just walking around, visiting the shops, and visiting our farmers market. And the farmers market was considered essential because they sell fruits and vegetables. And so they were not shut down during any of the COVID stuff, however masks were definitely required there. There were big crowds all over town and the businesses really, really appreciated us trying to do something to help them out.

EB:?

So one question from the audience is that you still have a parade? In my experience, I’ve seen a lot of communities moving away from parades, and moving more towards events that are business related to the Chamber of Commerce. Can you share with us about how you’re still doing the parade?

BB:?

We’re still doing the parade. It's a fundraiser for us, we make over $15,000 on it. The goodwill that it brings to the community is huge for us. We invite all of our local dignitaries. We have an attorney breakfast and make it a full, well-rounded event. And it does goodwill for us on a legislative level, as well as on a community level. But yes, we still do a parade.

BH:??

And you can tie in “Shop Local” too, because we have a lot of people who come to that parade. And hopefully they eat breakfast, buy gas or shop when they're coming or when they leave. And it’s just so popular. We did not get to do that in November of 2020. And that’s why this Tomball Together came about between that and our Tomball Night event in August of each year, which is always so hot weather-wise. But our main “shop local” campaign is called Tomball Night. Combining those two events more or less together and collaborating with others such as the Tomball Business and Professional Women was key as well in pooling our strengths together.?

EB:?

What was the non-dues revenue contribution from that pivot to what you guys did?

BB:?

Honestly, not very much. We’re going to be doing these top 10 Days of Tomball Together again over spring break.

We are looking for ways to add revenue generating steps into which we did make some money. It brought in about $5,000, which we split between us and the Tomball Business and Professional Women, and our split will go directly to our scholarship funds. But that was raised from businesses just making donations or doing 15% of sales on a specific day, and that sort of thing. That’s how the money came in with that 10 day event.

We’d like to do more and make it a real non-dues revenue generator. And we’re definitely open to ideas.

Audience Question:

Does the Chamber donate the all revenue from the events or keep it??

BB:

We keep it as a fundraiser for the chamber and for us to continue all of our economic development in the community.

Audience Question:

Do you find that you have to chase people to bring in their donations? Do you have any recommendations and an easy way once people commit to actually getting their donations??

BB:

Believe it or not, some people still have not paid from the event back in November. And we didn’t have a budget for it. So we didn’t really push people. But in the future, we want to get the donations ahead of time as opposed to the 10% here or the 15% there so that we can do a better job of bringing that money in. We’re looking at maybe doing a Spirit Night every night and charging people to be the hostess spirit. So that’s just one idea we’ve have in the works.

Audience Question:

How do you generate revenue for the parade? Do you have entry fees? Can you give us a little bit more detail??

BB:

We have parade entry fees and we have sponsorships. Sponsorships don’t necessarily mean an entry into the parade. Those are our two main incomes for the parade and the entry fees pretty much pay for security and the things that we need to put on the parade but the sponsorships are where the money for the chamber comes in. Here are the forms we use.

BH:??

This is what our sponsorship levels are. You'll be kind of shocked because we have a certain like $50 for a member and $150 for a non-member and the non-members don’t blink an eye - that just kind of shows you how much to hear that people love the parade and still want to be in it.

BB:??

The parade brings goodwill, and it brings us money. It’s a legendary part of this community. It may not work for every community, but it works for us. Well, I think he just said something that’s really critical. If you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber, we’ve heard that adage for many, many years. If it works for one community, it may not work for another community, but it works for you to generate goodwill, it generates revenue, and it’s our tradition. Attendance is high so why change it if it works!?

Audience Question:

What measures have you put in place to make your membership drive members sustainable, rather than an influx of money?

BB:?

We tried to just do more of reaching out to them and making sure we have a big new member welcome event. But?when COVID hit, it kind of backed us up a little, but we are learning to pivot.?

Audience Question:

Do you happen to give referral perks to existing members who bring in paid members??

BB:

No, we do not. Instead, they get listed as the sponsor of the new member. And a “thank you” from the chamber, and that's about it for that.?

Audience Question:

Do you donate the revenue from the parade? Or do you keep it??

BB:

We keep it because it’s a fundraiser for the chamber.

BH:?

Years ago, during our golf tournament, we would give money to scholarships, but 20 years ago, the board decided we needed to keep that money. There are other scholarships throughout the community. So, it’s not bad to say it’s for the chamber because of what we do for the community. Our chamber is about at 60% revenue and 40% event revenue that keeps our budget to what it is. I really don’t want us to be an event Chamber of Commerce even though we do parades and whatnot. We do a lot in mobility, legislative affairs and other initiatives, too. But don't be ashamed to say that the money is going to directly benefit the chamber.

Audience Question:

For the membership drive, did you offer a special rate or a package for those who actually joined as members??

BB:?

There was no special rate, it was our standard rate. And in fact, right before the membership event, we raised our membership dues.?

BH:??

One of the membership fundraiser volunteers also mentioned that he had quite a few of our members who upgraded their membership during the membership grab, if they were paying $350 they might have gone to $650 up to $1,000. We were amazed.

EB:?

Why do you suppose they did that??

BB:

At the education level, probably and also just to help benefit the chamber.?

Audience Question:?

How do you market your membership drive as a fundraiser??

BB:

We just marketed it as a membership event and the beneficiary is the Chamber of Commerce. We don’t raise money for other organizations. If people want to give to us they’re giving money to us to continue our mission. And, that’s kind of how we know that Tomball Tidings worked.?

And those that money went specifically to that charity that donated the item, we still got sponsors for that event, and that money went to the chamber because we’re building our local economy.?

EB:

Thank you Bruce and Brandy for joining us today and thank you to our live listeners. More Non-Dues Revenue is a monthly Zoominar podcast series sponsored by Chamber Marketing Partners, where we interview Chamber of Commerce leaders and visionaries to share their creative entrepreneurial strategies for generating non-dues revenue. You’ll find us on your favorite podcast channel, on YouTube and at www.MoreNonDuesRevenue.com

About Our Guests:

Bruce Hillegeist the Tomball Chamber’s President and Brandy Beyer, the Vice President of Operations sat down with Ed Burzminski of Chamber Marketing Partners to discuss several of their successful non-dues revenue initiatives including a live online auction that netted $5,000 for the chamber and $13,000 for local charities; a membership drive that drew in 314 new members in two days; and existing events such as their annual parade that pivoted during COVID to include another Association increasing participation, visibility and goodwill.?

About Our Host:

Ed Burzminski is President/CEO of?Chamber Marketing Partners, Inc., a publishing project management and consulting firm specializing in chamber of commerce directories, guides and maps.?CMP’s unique model gives chambers total control, full financial transparency, utilizes local vendors and lets the chamber decide how much profit the publication will generate.??Contact us now.