Tracking attendance at your Gala

Where are your guests coming from?

Would you like to know with a picture if that new venue you chose for your Gala or Fundraising event is resulting in more guests from a targeted area? Is it worth the added expense to have your event at a Downtown Hotel or events center or is that Ranch out in the country you transform to a wonderland each year the best spot?

Here is an App that lets you look at just that. It’s called Batchgo  and you can use it to map exactly where your guests are traveling in from and what areas of your community they live in.

Here in Austin the high net worth areas include Pemberton Heights, Barton Creek , The Hills and several other exclusive subdivisions, but until now it has been a time consuming task to plot each address on  a map and determine if a venue is drawing the right people of influence and affluence to your Gala. Batchgo makes it easy. Just enter in the zip code or better yet upload your own data and you get an instant picture of your guests and where they come from.

This is invaluable data if you are thinking of moving your venue to say the other side of town, or from an Event center in the country to a downtown site. You need to know before you add the extra expense if people will travel the extra distance OR be able to access the risk/reward if you are moving your event farther out of town to reduce expenses.

Visit the website and check it out! Some of the features are free!

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Make No Mistake- Women are in Charge

Women have always been a central demographic for charitable events. The fact is that Women play a more dominant role in planning and participating in charity events than do their male counterparts.

How do we know this is true? Over 80% of respondents to a recent study by the New York Based Charity Happenings.org were women. This fact might not sound significant on its own, but it fits with something that Charity Happenings.org as well as SR Custom Events & Auctions notice all the time while interacting with the gala community in Central Texas.

An overwhelming number of responses (91.7%) came from event goers age 50 and under, with the Majority being women born between 1981-1985. You can download the entire report at www.charityhappenings.org. if you would like to read more.
This matches with our experience here in Texas. Women tend to not only be the Gala Chairs, but the driving force behind the event itself, making the key decisions on Catering, Auction Items, Venue and Ticket Price as well as many other details. Also women tend to me more philanthropic in nature and have a strong sense of whether an organization fits in with their value system. This holds true whether a woman works hard as a homemaker or is career oriented. As a result a woman tends to be more aggressive in Auction item and Sponsor solicitation and filling those tables with affluent and influential friends and associates.

It goes without saying that if you want to maximize the potential of any Fundraising event or campaign you have to consider your primary community and market. An example would be a Sporting Clay shoot that should be marketed to men between the ages of 35-55 who are hunters and sportsmen.

If you are planning an event that is more informal and one that would be held at bars and clubs it should be an event that a young, up-and-coming, professional woman age 24 to 28 would love to attend, BUT it should also be one that a man would not mind accompanying her to, so bear that in mind when scheduling the “Hana Floral Design Show” on a Saturday night during Football season.

A high dollar admission Black Tie Gala should likewise be scheduled and marketed to the Professional Woman who has a sense that she has arrived or is close to doing so. She should want to have her hair and makeup professionally done, get the latest Zac Posen dress and show off a little.

So how can you use this information?- Three Tips:

1. What kind of Gala or event are you planning? Look for members of your committee that fit the model stated above and are “Influencers” in the community so they can get people to your event. An “Influencer” is someone everyone wants to be like and around. Christo and Jean-Claude, Anita Perry and Susan Dell are all “Influencers. Who are your local “Influencers?”

2. Try not to overlap. Remember that most metropolitan areas have many active charities whose events frequently overlap one other. In Central Texas it is not uncommon to have 4 or more events taking place on the same spring evening (late January to early May is “prime spring season” for charity events). Be sure to consult a charitable events calendar at CharityHappenings.org, The Austin Chronicle or in the Austin American Statesman before scheduling your event. You do not want to make the “Infuencers” have to choose one event over another.

3. Recruit your committee now. If you just had your Gala, get ahead of the curve and get the key people on your side and committed to your event. Don’t wait, because the ‘Widget Foundation” surely has them in their sites and you need to get them first.
Women are in charge. Men (Smart men) have known this for a long time. Get them on your side and watch your event soar.

Note: This blog post was written using some information from The 2010 Charity Event Market Research Report- Charity Happenings.org LLC ( 800)-610-8587- www.charityhappenings.org and the personal experiences of SR Custom Events & Auctions- www.sherri.dev

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The Right Ticket Price for your Gala

Are you charging the right Price for a Ticket to your Gala?It is a basic rule that every event should pay for itself, with money left over before the first guest shows up for the Party. NEVER should you depend on Auction Items or a “Paddles Up” to …

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