Animal Welfare Professionals

We have been invited to attend a Combined Federal Campaign Kickoff Event. This is a chance for Charities to get exposure to Donor Companies to increase donations through CFC. I was wondering if anyone's organization has been invited and attended any event. I want to know how to prepare for this, what to expect at the event, what to bring, etc.

I appreciate any help I can get with this. TIA

I'm with Best Friends and we've participated in these for several years. We've typically taken some of our magazines, and general brochures that tell more about our organization. This is an opportunity for you to increase awareness among the employees that your organization is an option in their workplace giving, so anything that is informative and at the same time engaging will be helpful. You won't be taking donations that day, so giving them a takeaway, pamphlet or whatever, will be important.

Thank you PatG, so from what you're saying and the info that I gathered while googling, etc., they have tables set up for charities to give info, brochures, pamphlets, all day.  Do you know if they allow more than 1 person from the charity to attend? I sent them an email that I had some questions, I'm hoping that they respond before tomorrow's RSVP deadline.

While googling, it said that some charities bring games?? That's what made me post here, I was wondering if they expect you to bring games and what games. If you have any more info or advice that might be helpful, I would greatly appreciate if you shared with me.

Again Thank you

Hi - we used to attend many events around the country and they weren't always exactly the same.  We would send two people, it was typical to share a table with another organization. The employees attending would then walk around and interact with the various representatives at the tables.  Since we participated in lots of these, we'd have very well-trained volunteers representing Best Friends in a lot of the cities where we didn't have staff, and sometimes the volunteers would ask if they could bring laptops to display our website, play our videos, etc., and so that was an option in some of the places. I don't remember anything about games. It was thanking the employees for coming, telling them about the organization - have your "elevator speech" prepared to be short and impactful - in 30 seconds, what are the most important things you want someone to know - your mission, your successes, etc.  Give out materials, any other kinds of giveaways.

Thank you so much!! This is great info and advice, just what I needed. 

Oh and, talk about how their donated funds will help...

Thank you, will keep all this in mind in preparation.