Best Practices:
Green Tie Event Fuels Endowment

Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN) has seen its endowment grow from zero to nearly $1 million from the fund’s inception in 2004. As a participant in Community First Foundation’s first Endowment Challenge Grants program, MCPN received a dollar-for-dollar match on the first $200,000 they raised during the challenge-grant period. MCPN’s energy and innovation have continued to fuel donations to the endowment today. John Reid, vice president of fund development, said that the St. Patrick’s Day Green Tie Event developed for endowment fund-raising has been key to their success. Here’s what he had to say about Best Practices for special events.

Why did you develop a specific event for endowment fund-raising?

I find that a special event is a great way to cultivate long-term, major donors and corporate partners. It galvanizes supporters and is a great vehicle for marketing your organization.

How do you educate donors about endowments?

We communicate what an endowment is in all of our marketing materials and highlight how ours has grown over three years. We distinguish between short-term and long-term giving –-clarifying that the endowment is for MCPN’s future. I drive this message with internal communications. It permeates our development department, staff, and board. During the Green Tie event we promoted our endowment through a PowerPoint presentation with graphs detailing the growth of the fund. We also handed out pledge forms asking specifically for endowment support.

How do you balance the cost of the event with the dollars raised?

All costs for the Green Tie event are underwritten with corporate support. I would not recommend holding an event like this without up-front sponsorship. We start promoting our event five months in advance and encourage sign-ups for corporate tables early. We charge $175 per ticket and solicit sponsorships with levels from $5,000 – $20,000.

How do you measure success?

It is especially important for an event to be strategic. A priority for me is marketing MCPN’s mission successfully. Making money is a byproduct. We set specific fund-raising goals, but also goals such as cultivating major donors. A key measure is how quickly the event sells out. We sold out all corporate sponsorships and seats within two months of the event this year.

What else have you learned from this event and consider Best Practices for endowment-building events?

Small events may not net enough return for the time intensity and effort involved. I recommend pulling all of your resources to put on the biggest and best events possible, since it takes as much effort and energy to launch a small event as a big event. The payoff is much greater.

Visit Metro Community Provider Network for event details at www.mcpn.org

John Reid, Vice President
of Fund Development