UK WHO
CareFlight is an Australian charity that provides aeromedical services. Their mission is to ‘save lives, speed recovery, and serve the community, which requires high fundraising support each year. The charity started its operations in 1986 with the support of just one helicopter and a small team of medical professionals. Fast forward to 2022, the organisation has a whole fleet of vehicles, including helicopters, aeroplanes, and jets, which serve the whole of Australia.
WHAT
The CareFlight Hangar Ball is an annual fundraising event to aid the charity’s top-end services. Annual events need to maintain strong audiences and be remembered throughout the year as this is what supports returning donors and new interest to ensure events are bigger and better as time goes on.
The event lets guests take a close look at the life-saving vehicles the organisation needs to raise money for, with anaircraft and facilities showcase. Using both live and silent auctions,the event also celebrates the fascinating history of the Northern Territory to incorporate storytelling and to help donors build an emotional connection with the very worthy cause.
RESULT
We are thrilled to report that the CareFlight Hangar Ball 2022 was a resounding success. CareFlight managed to collate over 50 auction items from generous business donations. This helped them raise an amazing $68,945! This shows that combining auction efforts by making the most out of people in the room on the night and others unable to attend leads to elevated fundraising success.
TOP TIP
We asked Laura Nguyen, CareFlightFundraising and Community Engagement Officer, what the charity would consider their top tips for running successful events. Here’s her incredible advice:
- Preparation: Prepare for the event 3 or 4 months in advance if it is a big event. You should also set fortnight or weekly meetings so all stakeholders can have a chance to give updates on what they are doing, as this can also help you make plans to work with all necessary suppliers, staff members and sponsors. You should also draw up a master plan and stick to it to check the whole process. This is great advice and the steps that we take at Givergy to ensure that events run without any hitches. Running an event that intends to raise money is much more complex than a traditional occasion, as you must also consider the KPIs you need to hit and ensure you are balancing your spending. At Givergy, we specialise in pre, during, and post-event support so that you can hit each fundraising objective.
- Resource Mobilisation: Fundraising events need a lot of resources, including human, financial, assets/equipment, and technology. CareFlight Hangar Ball 2022 is a big fundraising event which gathers 400 guests, including business leaders and government dignitaries. Givergy can also provide event staffing during your event as well as go-to support during the planning and follow-up stages. We aim to ensure that organisations can spend time with their donors and not worry about logistics.
- Communication and Cooperation: Communication is crucial in arranging an event. Communicating with stakeholders with respect and empathy, and trying to find a common voice makes the process smooth and effective. It is also important that you automate as many communications with clients and donors as possible to help spread resources and improve brand perception.
- Traditional Advertising and Social Media: For the CareFlight Hangar Ball 2022, we used both traditional advertising, like NT news and commercial radio. We also found that advertising it on Facebook and LinkedIn worked well to ensure we had targeted all clients.
- Fundraising Platform: The Givergy platform has been used for several years by our organisation, and it has been proven to be a professional, effective, and user-friendly. As a fundraiser who oversaw it for the first time, I found it easy to manage, and it has all functions that we need for a successful fundraising event. This is great for us to hear, as that is the main goal of our platform. Making the system is easy to use and suitable for individual client needs is essential for ensuring bespoke services can be created. Our unlimited packages are ideal if you want to use different fundraising methods to find what works best for your charity.
- Post Event Care: The event is just the beginning step for us to establish the relationship with our stakeholders. After that, how we nurture and take care of our partners can bring the partnership to the next level of trust and understanding. That’s why after the Hangar Ball 2022, our team spent a considerable amount of time writing thank you cards, designing appreciation certificates, and having them posted to our donors, sponsors, and suppliers. This is a way for us to express our deep gratitude to all stakeholders who helped us, supported us, and made the night a memorable event.
“The Givergy platform manager is professional and supportive and gave us all the necessary guidance and instruction to run the platform. The support team is very helpful, too, and is always there whenever I have any questions about the auction items.”.
