Are you looking to implement strategies that create meaning in your event to drive attendance? Work with the Destination Organization to get outside of the antiquated concepts of attendance driving and support the new world of shifting delegate sentiments. By putting funds in a place that makes a positive impact in the destination, you can promote attendance by giving to causes that truly matter to your stakeholders and the community that they will visit. Doing this aligns your meeting’s values with the local community while building word-of-mouth advertising and creating a loyal fanbase of repeat attendees. See how to introduce the fabric of the meeting destination into your event to create special experiences.

Legacy Collective’s City Giving Circles

One nonprofit organization has set its sights on the long-term legacy impacts of meetings and conventions. Legacy Collective works to solve systemic issues by funding sustainable and innovative efforts through partnerships with nonprofit organizations locally and globally and has expanded its focus to include City Giving Circles. 

What Are City Giving Circles?

• Help conferences and conventions leave a positive impression and lasting impact on the destination.
• Make event attendees feel good about giving back and making a difference.
• Give local nonprofits a boost by the generosity.

How City Giving Circles Work

• Legacy Collective creates an online giving portal with vetted, local nonprofits to send to the Event Strategist.
• The event adds or allocates a specific dollar amount to be added to the registration fee or gives attendees the option to donate a designated amount. 
• The Event Strategist chooses or allows attendees to vote on which nonprofits to fund, and Legacy Collective issues the grants accordingly. 

Why Legacy Collective Stands Out

• The female-founded and -led organization prioritizing social inclusion has an extensive vetting system for nonprofits included in Giving Circles to ensure they are in good financial and social standing, have an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) statement and that their social image does not contradict that statement. If a nonprofit does not have an EDI statement, Legacy Collective will help the organization write one. 
• Another big piece is Legacy Collective’s reporting and metrics, giving Event Strategists the chance to create an understanding of impact with their attendees.
• When grants are processed, Legacy Collective amplifies the story of impact through its social media channels to highlight the host organization, the destination and the nonprofits included, providing a platform of awareness for extended giving within all networks.

Examples of City Giving Circles

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Indianapolis
• Kissimmee

Since 2015, Legacy Collective Has…

Other Ways to Make a Difference and Increase Attendance

Here are more strategies for how you can reallocate pre-promote funds toward driving event attendance and engagement. 

Work With the Destination Organization to Uncover and Market What’s Unique About the Destination

• Re-allocate pre-promote funds toward introducing the local culture and creating unique experiences. Working with the Destination Organization will help you uncover these opportunities. 

Define the Intention of Your Event and Articulate It to Stakeholders

• Work with the Destination Organization to provide opportunities for attendees to engage with the local community around causes that are important to them. Letting attendees give back will create long-term impact and leave attendees with a sense of deeper value. 

Create Original Experiences for Attendees

• Work with the Destination Organization to learn how your event can make a positive environmental and sustainable impact and voice those practices to your attendees before, during and after the event, supporting the progress of the local community. 

Determine How You’ll Measure Success and Report It Back to Attendees

• Partner with the Destination Organization up front to understand what success looks like to the local community. If the destination can share information about local engagement statistics, you can help attendees see the impact they have made.
• Measuring the impact that attendees have made on the community and the environment can be a very important tool that allows them to not only feel emotionally connected to the event but also attend with the comfort of knowing the planning organization is taking those factors into consideration. Sharing measurements around environmental or social offset areas will create a deeper connection between attendees and the meeting. 

Create a Strategy That Engages Before, During and After the Event

• Work with the Destination Organization to build excitement about the destination appeal in advance of the event. Most destinations have marketing resources and teams in place that can help in the creation of a plan that exceeds a simple micro-website or brochures. Tap into those resources.

Reach out to Legacy Collective to learn more about City Giving Circles.

Contact Legacy Collective Directly

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