Funding Formula Stage 5

Organizing and planning a donor meeting

1. Why you should organize a donor meeting

A donor meeting is an opportunity to bring existing donors and potential donors together, whether for a few hours, a day or two days. It can be a good opportunity to:

• share with donors some of your Member Association’s key developments
• request your donors’ input into, for example, your Member Association’s new strategic framework or a new programme that you are planning
• ask your existing donors to endorse your Member Association’s work to potential or new donors

2. Before you start planning

When planning a meeting for your Member Association’s existing and potential donors, it is important to consider why you are planning it and what you want to achieve. The success of a donor meeting depends on your establishing clear reasons for organizing it, and assessing how it is going to help achieve your Member Association’s strategic objectives. Think about:

Q. Why you want to host a donor meeting?

It is useful to think carefully about what a donor meeting would achieve for your Member Association, and how a donor meeting will contribute specifically to your Member Association’s stated programmatic aims and plans.

Q. What is the goal?

What would be your Member Association’s overarching message to your donors? What does your Member Association want to get from your donors or potential donors? How will your Member Association – and its operational strategy – benefit from a donor meeting?

Depending on the goal of the meeting, consider what type of meeting is most appropriate. Perhaps a 1 hour meeting with a small number of people is appropriate, or perhaps a larger, more formal event is required.

Q. How will donors benefit from a meeting?

Remember their time is limited and precious, so you should make sure donors know why they are being invited to spend time with your Member Association and what they are likely to get out of it.

3. Planning a donor meeting

3.1 A quick logframe will help you

Putting together a short logframe will help your Member Association to focus on why you are planning a donor meeting, what you hope to achieve, and how you know that you have achieved it. Your logframe should therefore include: a Goal; some key Outcomes; some key Outputs; some Activities.

Don’t forget to add some indicators so that you can measure the success of the event. This can now form your logframe. An example could look like this:

Goal	Key indicators
To increase donor interest and funding for your Member Association	# of funding opportunities is increased $ value of donor funding is increased
Outcome
To increase the number and diversity of donors for your Member Association	# of donors interested in providing support increased # of types of donors providing support increased
Outputs
To demonstrate your Member Association’s credibility	Credibility is included in your presentation to donors, in your discussions with donors and in the materials that you give them: see the Credibility Checklists in Stage 2
To demonstrate your Member Association‘s relevance	Relevance is included in your presentation to donors, in your discussions with donors and in the pack of materials that you give them: see the Relevance Checklists in Stage 3
To increase your Member Association’s visibility, and awareness of your range of work	# new areas of your Member Association’s work, or new programmes, that your donors are now aware of
To build and strengthen your Member Association’s relationships with donors and partners	Intelligence that you have gathered during the donor meeting that will help inform your Resource Mobilization strategy, or will help identify funding opportunities for your Member Association
Activities
Keynote speech by existing donor to endorse your Member Association’s work to potential donors	Keynote speech given by existing donor(s)
Share your Member Association’s new strategic framework	New strategic framework is included in your presentation and discussions in the meeting
Present new/innovative approaches to your Member Association’s provision of sexual and reproductive health	New approaches are included in your presentation and discussions in the meeting
Share recent advocacy wins and the role your Member Association has played in them	Advocacy wins are included in your presentation and discussions in the meeting

3.2 The guest list

Think carefully about who you are going to invite. Think through the following:

Q. Which donors, potential donors and partners are you going to invite, and why?

How will these donors and their attendance contribute to the success of the meeting? What will be their roles(s)? Research carefully on websites such as LinkedIn for professional details about your guests.

Q. What messages do you want to give them?

Think about what you can do for your donors, and how they will benefit from the messages you give them.

3.3 Encourage your donors’ attendance

A theme or a hook will encourage a donor to attend the meeting:

• the theme could, for example, relate to a public holiday or an interesting date that the meeting is planned for – a special events such as International Women’s Day (8 March), International Day of the Girl Child (11 October), World AIDS Day (1 December) – pick one that suits and fits your Member Association’s event, and also may have a special meaning for the donors
• the hook of the meeting means – if there is a tight fit with donors’ interests and priorities, they are more likely to attend

3.4 Some practical tasks and tips

Before the meeting:

1. choose a venue/hotel: are guests staying the night?
2. draft an invite list
3. send out a “Save the Date” email to all possible guests, with an Acceptance Form, venue/hotel information and a deadline to receive RSVPs
4. once all RSVPs are received, the List of Attendance can be created: this excel document is important for helping to email guests, preparing name badges, and should contain the following details of attendees: country, full name, organization, job title, email address, any further notes
5. from the RSVPs, plan with the venue/hotel all preparations for the meeting:
   • number of delegates
   • negotiate rates
   • decide on the room layout, for example, will it be cabaret/café style, U-Shape?
   • all audio-visual requirements
   • reception or lunch to be organized; whether there are any dietary requirements – remember drinks as well as food
6. if guest speakers (donor, government, board member, volunteer?) are invited make sure all their logistical requirements are in place, i.e. transport, hotel are booked
7. a central element to the success of the meeting is a well-thought out and planned agenda
8. once a firm agenda has been created, a Participants’ Pack with all logistical information and the agenda can be circulated to the donors (although you should note to donors that the agenda may change)
9. based on the agenda, key speakers/presenters will need to begin preparing the content of their presentations:
   • have a template Powerpoint so that all presentations look uniform and organised
   • it is also advisable to have some ‘holding slides’ so when speakers are not presenting, a professional backdrop appears
10. based on donors attending, create a confidential donor biography document for internal use only; this is helpful for your Member Association as it enables more targeted conversation
11. a lot of preparation is needed just before the donor meeting takes place, for example:

• cross-check all break times and lunches with the hotel and make sure this matches your agenda
• make sure all AV requirements are in place
• make sure all nameplates and name badges are printed and ready
• make sure a good evaluation questionnaire is created, so that you can judge the guests’ feedback
• make sure all papers, presentations, and agenda etc. are printed in colour and bound if necessary

• make sure all marketing and Resource Mobilization materials are ready for taking to the venue, for example, all materials are ready and boxed up, with any spare/extra stationery
• make sure all presentations/speeches are ready and in some cases printed out for donors to take away with them
• if you are showing films, make sure this is embedded into the Powerpoint presentations and that you have an audio-visual technician who can help with any AV requirements and IT/technical blips
• make sure the seating plan is in place and that each delegate has their own copy of the seating plan as they enter the venue
• if you are giving out any USBs or other marketing gifts, make sure they are ready, for example, that USBs are loaded in advance as this can be time consuming!
• organise a note taker for the meeting and make sure you have enough laptops for the event

During the meeting:

Make sure you have administrative staff on hand, to help with any requests, for example, room temperature, printing, handing out documents, saving last minute presentations etc.

After the meeting:

Make sure you have staff to hand out – and collect – the evaluation forms; and follow up with any donor intelligence or requests as soon as possible.