Why You Should Combine Your Ticketing and Fundraising Platform

Online and mobile technology is here to stay. Better technology and the increased popularity of social media and other online tools have lead to significant increases in efficiency across all aspects of our lives.

It’s no surprise that these improvements have also affected the realms of event management and fundraising.

Let’s first consider event management and online registration & ticketing. When was the last time you attended an event where you could only purchase physical tickets in person? As you’re probably thinking, this is now a rare occurrence. Instead, online event ticketing and registration tools are becoming the norm as event hosts are eager to reach a larger audience, sell more tickets, and collect information more efficiently. As a result, according to a Google study 71% of all event tickets are now purchased online.

While slightly behind, the shift to online and mobile may be even more drastic for fundraising initiatives. Fundraising event hosts and organizations are realizing that traditional fundraising methods (paper bid sheets for silent auctions & raffles, in-person / mail solicitations) are costly, clunky, and ineffective. Organizations and fundraising event hosts are now embracing mobile technology for their fundraising efforts, incorporating tools such as:

• Online donation pages
• Mobile & online silent auctions
• Peer-to-peer fundraising websites
• Text-to-give donation appeals

Each of these tools offers a plethora of benefits to both fundraising hosts and users. On the host side, online and mobile technology allow organizations to reach a much larger audience rather than only those who are able to physically attend their events. Online and mobile fundraising tools are also more engaging and efficient in collecting information about the organization’s supporters. On the user side, online and mobile fundraising tools allow for a more accessible and user-friendly channel to donate through. Donors can now support their favorite causes with the click of a button (or the sending of a text)!

In fact, online and mobile donations are growing rapidly. According to the 2017 Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report, 7.6% of all donations that year were done online — a massive 12.1% increase from the year before! Even more interesting — 21% of these online donations were submitted from a mobile device. Clearly, online and mobile donations are here to stay and are increasing at a rapid pace.

Naturally, the benefits of online technology are twofold when used for both event ticketing / registration and fundraising…but is it possible, and does it make sense to use one platform for all your ticketing and fundraising needs? In this post, we will tell you the advantages of combining your ticketing and fundraising platform. To start, we will advise you how to choose the right ticketing vendor, review the benefits of mobile fundraising, and wrap everything up by explaining the benefits of using one platform for both your ticketing and fundraising needs. Enjoy!

Choosing the Right Ticketing Provider

When it comes to finding the right online ticketing or registration provider, you’ll see a ton of options out there! To make your life a little easier in finding the right provider, we’ve put together a few criteria that we would suggest researching as you compare your options.

The Benefits of Mobile Fundraising

Now that we’ve covered the event ticketing and registration side, let’s quickly review the benefits of online fundraising. As we mentioned earlier, online fundraising can take many forms, the most popular being online donation pages, online/mobile silent auctions, peer-to-peer campaigns, and text-to-give campaigns.

No matter which mobile fundraising tool you decide is best for your organization, you should be able to raise more money than ever based on the benefits listed below:

If these reasons are not enough for you, learn more about the fundraising trends and technologies organizations are using by following these great fundraising resources.

Why You Should Combing Your Ticketing and Fundraising Platform

Taking all this information in mind, it’s time to move to the cutting edge of technology for events and fundraising…combining the two under one platform. While many readers may simply be interested in the ticketing or the fundraising side, many who are in need of both functions are currently using two different platforms to cover both their ticketing and fundraising needs. Using multiple platforms, of course, creates more work for the event organizer while leading to a disjointed experience for your guests and supporters.

Instead, we recommend using a platform that offers both online ticketing and mobile fundraising capabilities . Here’s why:

• Create email campaigns — This will allow you to update your supporters prior to your event. Here, you could send updates on ticket sales, attractions at the event, or even send through your mobile silent auction URL in order to attract donations.
• Check in to the event — The best ticketing and fundraising platforms will automatically create a continuous experience for your guests. For example, when your guests check in to your event, they can now receive an automatic push notification welcoming them to the event, along with a link to donate or bid. This provides a seamless experience for your guests and results in higher participation and proceeds for your organization.

Conclusion

After reading our overview of ticketing, mobile fundraising, and the integration of the two, we hope that you will feel as passionately as we do about the possibilities of using these two forms of technology in tandem. While the experience may be new for you, we are confident that you and your guests / supporters will have a better experience!

Originally published at https://www.accelevents.com on June 14, 2018.