When I ask conservation advocacy organizations – and I’ve talked to a lot of them – about how they measure the success of their events and campaigns I what to hear numbers. I generally hear that the events were “OK,†or “well attended,†or that they just “don’t know.†I find this frightening because the organization is spending time and money, which they cannot justify. How do they know if their outreach and advocacy are really working?
For $3 and change, you can start your organization on a path to better information; that is with a crowd-clicker (aka a tally counter).
As an example, last year I volunteered at a local arboretum’s annual festival. Attending were 4,000 people who were ecologically minded and happy to be outside in the rain no less. It was a great audience for the sponsor and the other conservation nonprofits that were onsite. Of the 12 nonprofits, I asked about how many people had stopped by their booths; 11 booths had no clue, though some of those groups did have an email sign-up form.
One booth gave me a great answer,
“284 visited her booth, 63 signed-up for the email, she had great conversations with 24 who wanted to come to future events – half of those half wanted information about next month’s meeting, and 8 wanted more information about volunteering.â€
It was a great answer that she can take back to her boss and use the data as a baseline for next year’s event. Her secret for knowing the 284 count was that she used a crowd-clicker, and she diligently documented the rest.
At the end of the day I checked in with her again, she had shared her organization’s message with 400 people; that is 10% of the event’s attendance!
I get it, nonprofits are stretched for resources, but do yourself a favor, get a crowd clicker. Start measuring your events.