Spirited presentation this morning at the Ct Philanthropy Day Conference, around the translational opportunities with Events. It just takes a new perspective, for everyone, to make what has become a drudgery of futile transactional activities (events) into an amazing value-added Long Tail translational opportunity!
Let me tell you what I mean by Long Tail. Webster defines Long Tail as:
A frequency distribution pattern in which occurences are most densely clustered close to the Y-axis and the distribution curve tapers along the X-axis. The long tail refers to the low-frequency population displayed in the right-hand portion of the graph, represented by a gradually sloping distribution curve that becomes asymptotic to the x-axis. In most applications, the number of events in the tail is greater than the number of events in the high frequency area, simply because the tail is long.
Did I lose you yet?!?
What it’s saying simply is the value of what is at the head (left) of a graph is not equal to and is less than the value of what exists collectively within the long line to the right. Here’s what that looks like:
In our theory on the Long Tail of Events, that equates to the Event itself being the head and the value from that event being greater than the event, that’s the tail.
Got it?
Measuring the value of our events is a long-term view- we don’t measure the value of our acquisition appeal against that single appeal. If we did, we would determine that our ROI was negative and we would stop. We measure the value of our acquisition appeal against a long-term view that includes the cost-benefit of collecting new prospects in our major gift pipeline and the cash value of those major prospects over time. Similarly, we don’t measure the value of grant writing against a single grant submitted. Losing proposition financially. Instead, we measure the value of grant writing against a long-term aggregate of return on investment.
Then why do we allow our organizations to continue to measure the value of an event against itself as a single activity?
To expect your event to have a long-term financial value to your philanthropy requires a different perspective on event planning. It changes the way you think about and plans objectives for your events. It turns your inviting process on its head, giving you a laser focus on attendees, and it places your board central to the development of this Long Tail. It demands a data-driven strategy on donor engagement and a commitment to numbers and dates as deadlines.
It can be done.
We’ll be developing a webinar on the Long Tail of Events in the coming months. We’ll show you what we mean and I guarantee you’ll walk away wanting to chase the Long Tail.