Donations are the lifeblood of animal advocacy foundations, but while ongoing awareness and appeal campaigns help generate a steady flow of contributions, larger-scale philanthropic events are where most advocacy groups collect the bulk of their monetary assistance.
To say these events can be time-consuming is an understatement, but the investment can be well worth the payoff — if the right people are aware and encouraged to attend. While marketing and advertising can help spread the word about your event, public relations has the ability to help generate another level awareness before, during and after the event to improve visibility, drive attendance, and subsequently, increase donations.
How PR helps pre-event promotion
There are a variety of public relations tactics that can be utilized to help promote an event. Just a few include:
- Announcement press releases
- Social media posts and promotions
- Pre-event interviews
- Exclusive and feature stories about the event
- Media invites
Ultimately, though, these and other PR tactics should be employed based on your goals. What are you hoping to get out of the event? How will you know if the event is successful? These are just a few questions to ask yourself to help determine what tactics will best provide your desired results.
How PR helps during the event
The role of PR is not finished once the event starts. In fact, there are several tactics that can be used to help generate even more awareness, whether for your organization in general, or for the next event that new donors would like to attend.
From on-site media coordination to ongoing social media updates as the event unfolds, PR can be used to bring the event to life through stories that are happening in real-time.
How PR helps after your event is over
Just because the event is over doesn’t mean that your PR stops. Photos, videos and other content such as testimonials and interviews obtained during your event can be packaged together and shared to provide a recap to those who attended and potential new audiences who would like to attend the next event.
In addition, after the event is a great time to follow up with any media contacts and provide additional background information and potentially exclusive access to post-event information to continue the narrative and cultivate those relationships further.
As you can see, PR is a vital part of an event strategy that can pay off not only for the event itself, but in future dividends as well. If you’re not approaching the process the right way, though, you could end up wasting your limited time and resources without a successful end result. As animal welfare advocates, we at Orange Orchard understand the importance of these big donor events and can help you put together a plan that takes advantage of every part of the event — from pre-promotion to post-event follow up.
If you’re in the process of planning your next philanthropic event, we want to talk with you. Contact us today at 865-977-1973.