If you’re affiliated with a charity, you know this better than anyone: events are a critical component of a sustainable fundraising strategy. Small gatherings, extravagant galas, charitable walks and runs, even virtual experiences or Facebook challenges—every event you host adds to your visibility, engagement, impact, and, ultimately, to your fundraising levels.
As you chart your fundraising events for the year ahead, don’t forget one seemingly small, but important aspect: event merchandise! Thoughtful and strategic charity branded merchandise will enhance and extend the hard work you’ve already put into planning your event. When done right, event merchandise will boost donations, build loyalty, and keep your supporters coming back for more.
In this post, we share tips for how to effectively integrate merchandise into your upcoming events strategy to help you meet and exceed your goals, no matter the size or format of your gathering.
Set Clear Goals for Your Merchandise Strategy
It’s tempting to dive headfirst into merchandise. We get it! It’s fun and exciting to expand your branded product line. But the most effective, high-impact event merchandise follows a clear and defined strategy. Before you integrate your branded charitable merchandise into your next event, take a step back and define what you want to achieve.
Do you want to leverage your merchandise to increase donations? To build awareness of your brand and mission? To foster loyalty among your supporters? Do you want to sell your merchandise for proceeds? You’ll also want to align your merchandise sales with your overall event objectives.
Choose Merchandise that Resonates with Your Unique Audience
Before you select and design your charitable merchandise, take a step back and think about your event participants. Who are they? What type of item would they appreciate? Selecting the right merchandise will depend on the event itself. For example, if you’re designing a welcome kit for participants in a physical challenge, you might opt for a branded water bottle or a technical running vest. If you’re hosting a beach clean-up, opt for eco-friendly merchandise.
New supporters might respond to something fun and flashy to help your charity stay top of mind, while long-term donors might appreciate more functional items for everyday use. You can rely on your own knowledge of your past event participants to identify key audience demographics like age, gender, location, and interests. But you can also tap into other resources for deeper audience insights—such as surveys, feedback, and social media analysis. For more, see this article on how to design eye-catching fundraising merchandise.
Create that Pre-Event Buzz
A key part of planning a successful fundraising event is simply letting people know about it. You want to build excitement and buy-in to ensure a strong and engaged turnout. The same is true of your merchandise. When you promote your event, promote your merchandise! Use all channels at your disposal—your charity website, social media channels, and via direct outreach or newsletters.
If you plan to gift your charity event merchandise to people who register to join your event, make this clear with enticing descriptions and images of the goodies they’ll get, especially if the items are limited editions. If you intend to sell your merchandise as part of the fundraising event, give your supporters a sneak peek at the products. You might even offer special pre-sales or curated bundles of merchandise when someone purchases an event ticket. All of this will help your charity generate buzz—and maximise early sales! For more, see this article on promoting your charity fundraising merchandise.
Leverage Merchandise as Part of the Event Experience
Let your merchandise do the talking! You’ve taken care to select and design merchandise that is strategically tied to your event, your audience, and your goals. Now showcase it! If you’re hosting an in-person event, set up eye-catching merchandise booths and custom counter display boards at strategic locations. Tap your volunteers or staff to engage attendees and explain how their purchase of certain products supports the causes that they care about.
Incorporate Merchandise into Event Activities
Think back to the goals you defined. Do you want to leverage your merchandise to build awareness of your charity? Consider gifting functional, high-visibility items like reusable shoppers or branded t-shirts to help spread the word. Do you want to foster loyalty and celebrate your biggest supporters? Host an awards ceremony and give prizes for donor milestones. Do you want to bring new or young supporters into the fold? Gamify your event merchandise strategy and offer high-value items as part of a raffle contest. Do you want to boost your proceeds? Set up locations where people can purchase special limited-edition event merchandise on-the-spot—and be sure to offer multiple modes of payment including cash and digital payment platforms like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Another tip is to create a sense of urgency and excitement with coveted, collectible event-specific merchandise that is only available to purchase before or during the event.
Post-Event Opportunities
Your follow-up strategy is just as important as your pre-event buzz. Post a public thank you to everyone who attended or, if you can, identify those individuals by name or tag them in a social media post. Share pictures and videos of the event and remind your supporters of the impact they made by attending your event.
You might also find that you have leftover merchandise after the end of the event. It’s a good problem to have! You might reach out to people who registered but didn’t attend to give them an exclusive opportunity to get in on the limited edition event merchandise.
You could also offer a time-bound chance for all of your supporters—new and old—to get in on the special merchandise with a special discount or curated box of goodies. A smart post-event strategy will not only help your attendees feel valued and recognised, but also encourage participation at future gatherings.
The fundraising season is about to be in full swing! Maximise your impact with thoughtful—and strategic—merchandise that enhances and extends your charitable event. And remember, it’s okay to start small. Test different products and approaches and evaluate your results as you go to help you optimise and refine your event merchandise strategy over time. We’re here to help you every step of the way. Get in touch with the friendly experts at Rocket Charities to ensure an eventful year ahead!