21 Feb
Case Studies: Wildlife Conservation Network
In the vibrant world of nonprofits, where grants and donations serve as the lifeblood of organizations, fundraising isn’t just the responsibility of the development or advancement team —it’s a collective effort of the board, other key stakeholders, and nonprofit staff. Unlike the more segmented fundraising efforts, like the annual campaign or major gift asks, nonprofit events serve as the singular place where fundraising responsibilities converge.
Here, executive leadership, board members, and the event host committee cultivate, solicit, and steward support. Programming staff volunteer and share their experiences. Marketing and communications teams align to showcase the organization’s mission. And the development team coordinates all for the ultimate goal of raising funds and awareness of the organization’s mission. Amidst the whirlwind of event logistics, from venue selection to program planning, one critical aspect stands out: coordinating event registration. This is precisely where RSVPify steps in, providing a reliable solution that streamlines the intricate event planning process, allowing nonprofits to focus their energy on what truly matters—raising vital funds and fostering community support.
With that in mind, RSVPify sat down with Sophie Croen of the Wildlife Conservation Network, a leading environmental conservation nonprofit organization, to learn more about how WCN leveraged our software to make nonprofit event planning easier.
About Wildlife Conservation Network
Learn a little more about the important work that Wildlife Conservation Network does every day in their own words:
FUNDING AND RESOURCES
We offer fiscal sponsorship and help partners to fundraise, but we do so much more. Whether it’s connecting them with supporters, writing foundation grants, offering scholarship opportunities to their staff, and obtaining solar power for their organizations—WCN gives conservationists the funding and resources they need to save wildlife.
BUILDING SKILLS
Conservationists know a lot about wildlife, but might not know how to build a website or create a financial balance sheet. We offer partners opportunities to strengthen or learn new skills to make their organizations more impactful and resilient—from accounting to communications to fundraising.
CULTIVATING A NETWORK
WCN helps conservationists to collaborate and connect, including providing opportunities for partners to visit each other in the field to share experiences, support their colleagues, and make their organizations stronger by working together.
INTERNSHIPS
We offer our partners funding to hire student interns in their home countries, helping local students learn and grow and giving partners some extra assistance.
Challenges WCN faced before partnering with RSVPify
So how did Wildlife Conservation Network and RSVPify end up planning events together? Here’s what Sophie had to say:
- “The Wildlife Conservation Network hosts a twice-annual Wildlife Conservation Expo, which provides an opportunity for our donors and community members passionate about wildlife conservation to meet our conservation partners and get the latest updates on their efforts to save wildlife. Our event model is complicated because we have different tiers or segments of donors invited to various events. It’s crucial for us to track easily who’s going to which events, who shows up afterwards, and to have their registration process be seamless. They should be able to show up on a webpage, easily click what they need, and get the information to attend the events. That’s what brought us to you.”
- “Before RSVPify, everything was done manually, including individual communications with donors. They would email me directly, which is still an option for our donors. We manually kept spreadsheets of who had RSVP’d and who hadn’t. Then, a couple of times a week, my teammate would upload this into our CRM so everyone in our organization could easily check who had registered for a given event. It was very tedious and error-prone.”
How RSVPify Helped
Once Wildlife Conservation Network knew they wanted nonprofit event management software to solve some of these pain points, they found RSVPify. Here are some of the solutions RSVPify offered that appealed specifically to WCN:
On control of the event registration process through RSVPify
- “The ability to email a certain segment of people based on whether they’ve registered or not has been wonderful. Setting up a site is now much easier, which is crucial for us as a nonprofit with limited staff and budget. We can now customize our registration tool for each specific event we host over a weekend, knowing exactly who’s coming to what. Another huge win for us is being able to see each person’s individual RSVP within a group, allowing for personalized communication with our donors.”
On RSVPify’s customization options
- “Two main things stood out: the user experience and the customization options. From the donor’s perspective, it’s important for them to quickly get to a page from their email and register or update their RSVP easily. RSVPify allows their names to be pre-filled if we set it up through emails. For us, being able to customize our registration tool and have detailed control over individual and group RSVPs has been crucial, especially as we aim to have personalized communication with our donors.”
On the RSVPify user experience for attendees
- “We wanted a system where our donors could quickly and effortlessly register for events directly from their email. RSVPify’s system pre-fills their information if we set it up through emails, and they can also edit their RSVP, which is incredibly valuable. Our donors often update their availability leading up to the event, and RSVPify makes this process seamless.”
- “Moreover, the ability to customize our registration tool for various events was crucial. We host many different events over the course of a weekend, and it’s essential for us to know who’s coming to what. RSVPify’s system allows us to manage RSVPs on an individual level within groups or families, which is a game-changer for us. It enables us to have more personalized communication with our donors, like sending specific messages about who we look forward to seeing at an event and who we’ll miss. This level of detail and personalization was something we couldn’t find with other platforms.”
Partner with RSVPify for your event
Are you looking to save countless hours on nonprofit event planning like HOPE? Have questions about how RSVPify can partner with your organization to provide a custom suite of event planning tools designed for streamlining your upcoming fundraisers, networking, or donor relations events? Let’s get started:
- You can contact our Sales team here to book a demo and learn more about features, pricing tiers, and features specifically designed for nonprofit events.
- Check out some of our custom nonprofit event templates (link added once template page is live), designed to make event setup easy and quick. You can tailor your nonprofit event template to feature your own branding, edit details, and much more.
RSVPify is proud to partner with hundreds of nonprofit organizations from around the world, to help these organizations continue the vital work that they do and spend less time on the mundane duties of event planning. We’re excited to meet you and help tailor a solution to fit your organization.
Related
Recent Posts
