Event Software for Nonprofits: Five Reasons Why It’s Essential
In the nonprofit sector, events are not only a major source of donations but also help to bring about awareness and build community.
You need to bring people together. It’s one of the best ways to get people excited about your mission, create a buzz around the brand, and capture valuable donations.
But it’s not easy. Selling tickets and operating payment infrastructure can be a real burden – especially if you don’t have dedicated technical staff for it.
Sorting all this out is a distraction from your organisation’s main goals – following the mission and making the world a better place. But without bringing people together, you miss out on a crucial opportunity to generate revenue and raise awareness for the cause.
So how can you make it easier?
Event management software is the answer, and it can be a lifesaver for busy nonprofits and charities. It’s an easy-to-use platform for non-technical staff to manage all of these tasks – and more.
Wondering how it all works? Let’s take a look at all the things event software can streamline for nonprofit organisations.
What can nonprofits do with event software?
In short: they can put on better, more effective, more memorable events for fans and patrons. The software does the heavy lifting for event planners so they can focus on the important stuff instead – like putting on an amazing event experience.
Here are five of the main benefits an event management platform will offer.
1. Sell tickets more easily and quickly
Most event management tools worth using will handle ticketing – an essential part of managing venue capacity and planning the resources you’ll need for your next event.
In the past, you might have used paper ticketing – a labour-intensive, insecure method that slows down your on-site staff when guests check in. Or, you might have used a third-party online event ticketing platform like Eventbrite or Ticketmaster. While these are better than paper, they can come with hefty pricing structures and don’t have the branding options or flexibility that smaller nonprofits can benefit from.
Whether you're planning a fundraising event, a charity dinner, or another type of event, dedicated event software will help you sell tickets faster and easier than ever before.
You’ll be able to sell tickets online directly with a store that’s part of your own website. You’ll keep visitors within your own online environment, and you’ll be able to upsell memberships, donations or anything else you want to promote as part of the checkout process.
And if it’s linked with a dedicated event app, even better – customers can go mobile, meaning fewer lost tickets and slow lines.
2. Improve registration rates
There’s more than just ticket sales when it comes to bringing guests into your system.
By using decent event registration software, you can collect information easily and securely. It’ll help you ramp up those registration rates and get visitors more engaged in your offerings, helping you communicate with them in the lead-up to the big day.
You can keep the experience consistent by collecting registrations, selling tickets, and accepting donations all in one place. So if you need guests to enter their details through a form, it should collect their data safely, while letting them easily share the form with others through email or social media.
Everything can have your own branding attached too, so there’s no confusion about what people are signing up to. And you should have the flexibility to accept individual, group and corporate registrations all in the same place.
3. Raise money quickly with online donations
When it comes to fundraising for your nonprofit, speed and convenience are crucial. Fortunately, event software makes it easy to accept donations from supporters in a few clicks.
Event management software tailored to nonprofits should give ticket buyers the opportunity to donate alongside their purchase (and even cover the transaction fees). This removes ‘friction’ from the donation process and encourages donors to give at the moment they’re feeling most connected to your cause.
According to the 2022 UK Giving Report, the total number of people donating to charity has been falling for a few years (although donation amounts have increased).
This means most nonprofits will have to work harder to collect donations – a great reason to have a platform in place to help.
4. Connect with third-party systems for extra functionality
One of the biggest benefits of event software is its ability to connect seamlessly with other platforms and services - allowing nonprofits to take their event capabilities to the next level.
Whether you're looking to integrate registration forms with your email marketing via Mailchimp, enable Apple Pay for easy mobile app payments, or track your event website usage using Google Analytics, choosing event software that works nicely with external services is crucial.
Payment processing is a must, of course, and it’s better when you’re not limited to one option. Allowing customers to pay by credit card is a user-friendly choice, but you’ll also have the chance to cut down on processing fees by choosing Stripe over Paypal, for example.
There’s also the option of integration with fundraising platforms like Justgiving. Selling tickets to your charity events can be done as part of a fundraising campaign when you link the two.
5. Gain a deeper understanding of your event attendees and donors
Nonprofit event management software can help you make sense of all the data that's collected throughout the event planning process.
The best event management solutions should have a robust reporting toolkit, giving insight into event details like:
Real-time attendance figures
Milestones hit through fundraising efforts
Donation sources
New contacts to add to your CRM
You should be able to download reports and see metrics at a glance, rather than digging through documents to find what you need.
The added insight you get from a decent event management system can be a real boost to your nonprofit fundraising, donor management and event marketing. It gives you the data you need to understand more about who’s attending your events and contributing to your cause.
Supercharge your nonprofit events
Any nonprofit running in-person events can enjoy massive benefits from a dedicated software solution. And the same goes for virtual events and hybrid events too – they’re all great ways to grow a supporter base and increase donations.
Whether you're planning an event for hundreds of attendees or just a small meet-up with your closest supporters, the right event software can help make the process much easier and more streamlined.
If you're looking for nonprofit event software that’ll bring your events and fundraising together, Nutickets could be just what you need.
You have your cause and the drive to make real change in the world; Nutickets has the software to seamlessly integrate fundraising, ticketing and your digital presence.
Our custom event platform offers all the features you need to plan and manage successful events, including online event registration and attendee management.
With Nutickets, you don’t have to sweat merging data from different platforms. Nutickets integrate with your existing systems to provide a unified platform that manages all your events and fundraising seamlessly.
Nonprofits of every cause — from RSPB to Oxfam — are using our platform to sell tickets, raise money and engage their communities.
Want to talk? We’d love to show you how Nutickets can help you run events better. Book a demo today!