EP 67: Event Planning 101: Why You Should Hire an Event Planner

Positioning review: No prescriptive adjustments needed. Conversation is naturally experiential and observational. Adrienne shares her own event planning philosophy and experiences. Handbid is mentioned only in the natural context of the hosts' roles and their own fundraiser.

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Events, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. In this episode of Elevate Your Event, we are joined with our friend, event planner Adrienne Coffey with A Touch of Bliss Events. We discuss event planning, why it's important to hire an event planner, and other tips and tricks to help you out with your future events.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better than the last one. And with that, we have a special guest today, Adrienne Coffey, who is absolutely an expert in helping you make your next fundraising event better than the last one. No pressure.

Adrienne: Yeah. Thanks for that intro. I'm not sure I would call myself an expert, but we'll get there.

Jeff: You are. You've done over a thousand events. That makes you an expert. All right. So I'm joined here with Elise Druckenmiller, head of sales at Handbid. We've got a long history with Adrienne. She's so busy, especially this time of year -- especially this week. It's my fundraiser this week. And guess who's the event planner for it? We're all pointing at Adrienne.

Jeff: We had a separate set of podcasts about our own fundraiser, and we mentioned that we had hired an event planner for the first time. And now we're here. And she hasn't fired us yet.

Jeff: So tell us, how did you get into event planning?

Adrienne: I started in fundraising events in college. I went to school for business, did a couple different internships, and really just loved it. Out of college I worked in nonprofit organizations, planning their fundraising events -- but also a thousand other things. The events got pushed down to the bottom of my list, and that was what I really wanted to do. One year, my husband gifted me my company name and said, you should just start something. So I started my company planning events.

Jeff: Right after that, we met at a Starbucks. We ran our first auction in May of 2011. You started in 2014. I love the event side of fundraising for nonprofits -- the strategy behind the events. Why are we doing this? What's the purpose? Not just, we should have a gala because everyone has a gala.

Jeff: When are people ready to start talking to you?

Adrienne: The biggest thing is, can you spend money on events without the guarantee that you're going to make money? Is your organization sustainable enough? Do you have enough of a donor base? Around 10 to 15% of your donor base comes to your events. If you have 150 donors and you're trying to have an event for 150 people, it's obviously not going to happen.

Adrienne: Once an organization has discretionary funds and enough of a donor base, that's where you can start thinking about event strategy. And your goal cannot just be make a bunch of money. That's not consistent. It takes a while to build up.

Jeff: What do you encourage them to think about for criteria for success?

Adrienne: What do the donors do at the end of the event besides that was fun, see you next year? What can we get them to commit to -- money, resources, time? It's not just about one night. How do we get them to engage throughout the year?

Jeff: That's why we get into these check-in wars with clients around why it's important to collect information at the door.

Adrienne: We find that all the time. You buy a table and then the organization says, oh, they said they have their eight guests, we don't need their names. Well, why don't you want their information?

Adrienne: Getting information ahead of time is key to lines, check-in process, guest experience. That's the first thing they experience at your event, and it sets the tone.

Jeff: How do you manage board expectations as they start throwing out ideas?

Adrienne: We have a conversation at the beginning: give us your opinions now. Then we limit the regular meetings to just the people who can make decisions.

Jeff: Tips for success?

Adrienne: Varied goals for the event are huge. You can't just do it one year and hope it knocks it out of the park. Building on it over multiple years tends to be what really makes events work. Don't just copy other people. Your crowd is used to one thing, and a different crowd is used to a different type of event.

Adrienne: So many people don't adjust their program to the type of event. Your program could be five minutes max for a standing event. And too many fundraising activities is confusing -- we typically say three max.

Jeff: What's your number one piece of advice?

Adrienne: Keep it simple and keep it strategic. What are we doing? What's the purpose? Focus on that instead of having a thousand different ideas.

Jeff: We hired you for very specific reasons. When you're running your own event, you're acting as an event operator instead of a board member. There are different levels of support from an event planner.

Adrienne: The goal is not that I'm bringing you money. It's that I'm freeing up your time so you can bring in more money.

Jeff: For all of you thinking about hiring an event planner, Adrienne, how can they get in touch with you?

Adrienne: You can go to our website, adrienneco.com.

Jeff: A special thank you to Adrienne Coffey with A Touch of Bliss Events. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe. Until next time, happy fundraising.