Are you keeping in touch with virtual event attendees?

Many organizations have chosen to offer virtual events due to Covid-19 rather than cancelling events altogether. As a result, your events may have attracted new attendees who wouldn’t have been able to attend an in-person event, because of geography or other reasons.

Have you communicated with these attendees after your virtual event?

Fundraising expert Claire Axelrod writes, “Events should be part of a continuum; not a one-shot deal. They should exist within a relationship-building context. Always think in terms of ‘What’s next?’” That’s just as true for virtual events as it is for in-person events.

For new attendees, post-event communication is key to converting them to donors; for existing supporters, it’s a valuable stewardship opportunity. In either case, you need to be able to contact those who attended your event.

If registrations for your virtual events were handled through another platform, like Zoom or Eventbrite, you can export that data and add it to your donor management system. If you’re using Little Green Light, you can upload the data using the Flex Importer, or you can consider using the Zapier integration going forward.

Once you have access to that information, you can send a targeted follow-up communication to those attendees to thank them for making time for your event during a difficult year and, in addition, share any updates about your organization. Make sure they know about any upcoming events, too. Later, you can include those attendees as part of your year-end appeal. Because they’ve heard from you after the event, you’ll be in a stronger position to convert them to donors.

Looking for ideas on how to make your events more meaningful for attendees? Check out our advice here.