What Years in Fundraising Events Taught Me About Community

Then, at some point, the event becomes what it was always meant to be - A place for people to connect. The mission engulfs the room and we hear the stories or watch as guests connect with old friends. I love to watch as people remember why they show up.

I have spent many years working in signature events, community events, and peer-to-peer fundraising, and I have always loved event day energy.
But in the end, the inevitable aftermath that comes is often a chaos that could use the most attention but is often forgotten. Everyone is exhausted, staff are burnt out, volunteers are tapped out and committees are tired.
The event team is reconciling donations, sending receipts, updating sponsors, cleaning up lists, writing thank-you emails and probably already jumping into the next campaign. Everyone is so tired, we often wrap the event before we have really listened to what happened inside it.

Post Event Basics

There are certain post event activities that are ingrained into every process, the expected activities of any nonprofit or fundraiser. We must share the total amount raised, we must post photos and we must send out generic thank-yous to all who attended.

Then we inevitably must move on to the next campaign. Fundraising is fast and the work moves quickly because we’re often working on timelines not our own, donors have other engagements, grants have reporting deadlines and prospects don’t wait for us.

I get why it happens. But I also think post event activities are one of the biggest missed opportunities in fundraising. The event should not be the end but it should be thought of as the beginning of the real relationship. Events are not just revenue generating moments, although they are usually measured by the obvious numbers and those numbers do matter, numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Some of the most meaningful things that happen at events are harder to capture in a final report. They happen in conversations at registration tables, during sponsor check-ins, between volunteers, and in the stories people tell when asked why they attend.

The Stories are Already There

Our audiences are filled stories. Volunteers who have been showing up for ten years because the mission helped their family. Team captains who rally everyone they know because they are walking in memory of someone they loved. Sponsors whose logo is on the sign, but whose real reason for giving is deeply personal. That is the community.

When we treat events only as transactions, we miss the chance to honour the people behind the participation, so let’s switch the mindset from start to finish to be focused on stories instead of transactions.

One of my favourite things about peer-to-peer fundraising is that people naturally tell you why they care. When someone builds a fundraising page, they often share their story in the form of who they’re raising money for and explain what brought them to the cause by naming the person they’re honouring, remembering, celebrating or supporting.

Those stories are gold and not in an extractive “let’s turn this into content” kind of way but in a human way. These are people who are already championing your work. They are inviting their friends, families, coworkers and neighbours to care too because they’re talking about your organization in their own communities.

Some of my favourite event memories have come from team captain gatherings, especially in the peer-to-peer space. I remember gatherings for Run for Ovarian where so many team captains were loved ones of people who had died from ovarian cancer. It is a devastating disease, and the grief in those spaces was very real. But so was the love.

There were teams rallying around survivors. People showing up with handmade crafts, cupcakes, signs, shirts, stories and a huge outpouring of support. You could feel how much care had gone into every detail.

These were not just “teams” on a spreadsheet.
They were families, friends, coworkers and communities trying to honour someone they loved. They were celebrating someone still fighting, or making meaning out of something incredibly hard. That is the part of events that has always stayed with me.

The Rallying Cry Behind the Dollars

When you take the time to understand who your people are showing up for, you can build something much more meaningful than a campaign update. You can help them honour their person and help them feel seen. An important goal of an event should be to invite others into the story in a way that feels respectful and true.

I once worked on an event where a family team signed up and rallied their community to raise money in memory of their son. The organization took time to listen, understand the story, and build a relationship with that team and because of that time taken to listen, the connection grew into something much bigger. An annual family grant was created in his honour.
Changes like this happen when event organizers go beyond the generic follow-up email. It is so important to slow down and listen so that a relationship can be built. Relationships and awareness are cornerstones of effective fundraising.

Learning to Ask Better Questions

Post-event surveys are great tools but they don’t always help us get to the root of why people give. I have a few favourite questions that take relationships from transactional to transformational and I now include these questions in various formats during my post-event process.

• What brought you to this event?
• Who were you honouring?
• What made you want to volunteer?
• What made this mission feel personal?
• What do you wish more people understood?
• What would help you keep talking about this work?

When we ask the right questions, we can begin to understand who our champions are and what they need from us. Stories emerge from the community when we notice the people who are already carrying the mission into their own networks. It is important that as event organizers, we keep reminding ourselves that engagement is not just about getting people to do the next thing, it is about helping people feel connected to the thing they already chose to be part of.

Not All Sponsors Want Publicity

Don’t forget that sponsors have stories too. Sponsorship is often talked about in terms of logo placement, recognition, benefits, impressions and packages. While those things have their place and sponsors do need to understand what they are supporting and the monetary value behind that support, corporations are made up of people and every person has a reason for saying yes. Sometimes that reason is deeply personal.

I have seen people give to causes because they are living the issue in their own family. I have seen people support mental health because they know what it looks like when someone they love is struggling and not yet able to access or accept help. They give because they are trying to do what they can with the resources, relationships and privilege they have.

That kind of giving is not transactional. It is personal, complicated, often painful and deserves to be treated with care. If we bake the right questions into the solicitation process, we may find that not all sponsors want their stories to be publicized. The reason for giving is often very personal so it’s important to be considerate.

Instead of only asking, “What logo file should we use?” or “Who should we invoice?” we can also ask, “What made you feel that is the right event for you to support?” or “Is there a particular connection to the mission that you would like us to understand?” The answers are often simple but sometimes those answers will change the way you steward the relationship.

Post Event Stewardship

I often see nonprofits get stuck once the event ends. The team needs to process payments, send receipts, reconcile donations, thank sponsors, update the board, report on revenue and probably start planning the next thing. There is very little capacity for deep storytelling, reflection or community-building. Once the bidding closes and the receipts go out, there is still important work to do. The most successful events happen when the right questions are being uncovered:

• Who showed up?
• What stories emerged?
• What did we learn?
• Who needs to be thanked more personally?

Community doesn’t happen by accident, a lot of the people involved in fundraising events are already champions. Take a moment to think about your existing champions - peer-to-peer fundraisers, volunteers, team captains, sponsors, even recurring attendees and small-dollar donors can absolutely be champions. They are already talking about you.

The focus should be on helping the champions talk about the work in ways that are meaningful, accurate and align with your mission. Consider sending team captains a templated post-event update they can share with their supporters. Volunteers will always appreciate a note that reminds them what their time made possible.

There’s a great opportunity for connection without an ask when you send post event communications to participants that offers an opportunity to share their story in a future campaign. Ask your board members to reach out to sponsors and gather reflections on why they got involved. None of this has to be complicated, it just has to be intentional.

Through my work with The Nonprofit Hive, I keep coming back to the same belief: people do not just need more information, they need more connection. That is also true for nonprofit professionals who are trying to navigate complex work, often in isolation.

Stewardship IS Community

People want to feel like they are a part of something, learn from each other and share what worked. They want to honour the people who brought them to the cause and they want to know their effort matters. This is also where I think there is an opportunity for organizations to think beyond the event itself.

A gathering of team captains before and after a peer-to-peer campaign or a sponsor and volunteer reflection session can bring valuable insight for future events. Building a post-event peer learning space, like a Community Hive, for chapter leaders, fundraisers and other event hosts can really become a knowledge sharing afternoon where people can connect by a shared mission to build relationships, exchange ideas and feel less alone in the work.

The format matters less than the intention because your event community should feel connected between the asks, not only when it is time to register, donate, sponsor or volunteer again.

The event is a doorway to a new community, a chance to listen more deeply, to honour people’s stories and a chance to build trust. This trust can turn participants into lifelong champions and move your supporters from transactions to relationships.

What is The Real Takeaway?

I love event day - the energy, the organized chaos, the problem-solving and above all, I love the stories. But the longer I do this work, the more I believe that the event itself is only part of the opportunity. The real magic is what the event opens up after the room is packed up, the walk route is cleared or the auction closes.

I have learned the importance of asking better questions, looking for the stories that act as catalysts and I focus on celebrating the people behind the numbers and giving champions what they need to keep championing. If we are thoughtful, it can become the beginning of something bigger. It can become community.

Special thanks to Nicole from the Nonprofit Hive which started as a free global community for nonprofit and social impact professionals. Today, it has grown into a wider ecosystem of peer-led Hives — spaces built for people who need the right conversations, the right peers, and a little more connection around the work they care about.