How do you award participant prizing for your events?

Michelle Collins 2 · May 2017

Hello there,

I am having a debate with our walk organizer over participant prizing. Do you award a prize based on a combination of offline and online contributions, or only online contributions?

My past experience with walks has only been to give awards based on online gifts, this encourages participants to collect pledges online (cutting down on the post-event workload) and it means that I'm not running lists 5 minutes before registration opens.

Daniella Dowiak · May 2017

Michelle Collins:

Hello there,

I am having a debate with our walk organizer over participant prizing. Do you award a prize based on a combination of offline and online contributions, or only online contributions?

My past experience with walks has only been to give awards based on online gifts, this encourages participants to collect pledges online (cutting down on the post-event workload) and it means that I'm not running lists 5 minutes before registration opens.

Hi Michelle,

Everywhere I've worked has always done a cummulative total of offline and online contributions. I have always been of the mindset that an offline donation is better than no donation. I think most people tend to steer donors to donate online becuase it's instant and then they don't have to worry about what to do with the donation - that in itself is an incentive. And some fundraisers/donors simply are more comfortable with offlline, which is important to acknowledge and not dis-incentivize. Plus, when it comes to messaging and reporting on levels reached, it's a lot easier to have it be all inclusive. So while you may save staff time by not entering quite so many offline donations, what's to say that those donations were made online vs simply not received at all? Plus, you might very well spend that time saved answering questions about your policy.

That being said, if you were to do fundraising contests - "the first person to raise $250 more dollars wins a pair of baseball tickets" for example - I would do that all online.

Probably not the answer you wanted to hear, but maybe others will weigh in as well :-)

Michelle Collins 2 · May 2017

Daniella Dowiak:

Michelle Collins:

Hello there,

I am having a debate with our walk organizer over participant prizing. Do you award a prize based on a combination of offline and online contributions, or only online contributions?

My past experience with walks has only been to give awards based on online gifts, this encourages participants to collect pledges online (cutting down on the post-event workload) and it means that I'm not running lists 5 minutes before registration opens.

Hi Michelle,

Everywhere I've worked has always done a cummulative total of offline and online contributions. I have always been of the mindset that an offline donation is better than no donation. I think most people tend to steer donors to donate online becuase it's instant and then they don't have to worry about what to do with the donation - that in itself is an incentive. And some fundraisers/donors simply are more comfortable with offlline, which is important to acknowledge and not dis-incentivize. Plus, when it comes to messaging and reporting on levels reached, it's a lot easier to have it be all inclusive. So while you may save staff time by not entering quite so many offline donations, what's to say that those donations were made online vs simply not received at all? Plus, you might very well spend that time saved answering questions about your policy.

That being said, if you were to do fundraising contests - "the first person to raise $250 more dollars wins a pair of baseball tickets" for example - I would do that all online.

Probably not the answer you wanted to hear, but maybe others will weigh in as well :-)

Thanks for your response Daniella. It's great to get other perspectives on my question, even if they are, as you say, not what I want to hear.

My other arguement for the online only approach is what happens if we end up naming a winner based on primarily offline pledges that are never realized. My co-worker has pointed out that we have the contact info to chase these donors down, but again, going by past experience it can be difficult to collect from people once an event has passed.

Daniella Dowiak · May 2017

I think in that case you can say something like "Prizes are determined by fundraising total at 8 am event day [or whenever]. Any offline donations should be sent to XXX and postmarked by [two weeks prior to event] to ensure they are added to your fundraising page by the time prizes are determined."

I would set clear rules so that the winner remains the winner for sure. If someone turns in donations later and they surpass a winner, perhaps consider an email/card and/or small gift that lets them know you see their total has increased and appreciate their work.

Daniella Dowiak · May 2017

I just reread what you said about pledges. Personally, I'm not a fan of pledges because so many aren't realized, but that's a different topic

Just to add on to what I said, I would modify rules so that it says "any offline donations and pledges must be received by..."

I would not count pledges toward the total for prize determination; just donations actually received, whether online or offline.

Hope that helps!

Michelle Collins 2 · May 2017

Daniella Dowiak:

I think in that case you can say something like "Prizes are determined by fundraising total at 8 am event day [or whenever]. Any offline donations should be sent to XXX and postmarked by [two weeks prior to event] to ensure they are added to your fundraising page by the time prizes are determined." I would set clear rules so that the winner remains the winner for sure. If someone turns in donations later and they surpass a winner, perhaps consider an email/card and/or small gift that lets them know you see their total has increased and appreciate their work.

Thank you so much for your suggestions Daniella! I have already posted a similar blurb on our Walk site. Learned my lesson the hard way last year on that one.

I think that giving out prizes/acknowledgements later is a pretty satisfying solution for both sides. My colleague maintains a good stewarding relationship and I'm not crunching data at the last minute. I know the participant might be a little disappointed not to get that recogniton at the event, but hopefully this would encourage them to use the online system in future years.

How do you award participant prizing for your events?

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