This winter season on the East Coast, particularily in the Washington DC Metro area, has produced record amounts of snowfalls and 3 blizzards in the area in less than 2 months, with 2 of them within a week's time.  Schools have been closed for weeks on end in some areas.  Many events of all kinds have been cancelled or postponed.  What would you do if you found yourself in this situation?  Your event is coming up and a huge snowstorm hits the area 2 days prior.   Your event cannot go on as scheduled.  

This is a nightmare situation that could have a detrimintal effect on your fundraising efforts.  It is also one of the most overlooked details when planning a fundraising event. A few questions you should ask yourself are:

 Can we move the event to the following weekend at the same venue?  If not, where else could we move the event to?  What about the catering?  Can the auctioneer be re-scheduled? How about the audio/video support?   Most times your event vendors will be booked for months in advance and cannot be re-scheduled very easily "on the fly" so to speak.  It is important to have in your contracts some clause that addresses bad weather issues, and how your support event vendors can work with you in the unlikelyhood your event is cancelled due to weather.  Do not wait until the storm is approaching, this needs to be in your contracts when you negociate them from the beginning.

We recently had a client in the DC Metro area that had a situation where 2 feet of snow caused them to postpone their event.  Because of good planning and consultation they were able to reschedule their event for a week later, the event not only was a big success, it raised more money than the prior year's event. 

Weather cancellations for fundraising events, from our experience, are a very rare occurance.  However, they can and do happen.  Be prepared, have a plan. 

For more information on event planning or benefit fundraising consultation, please contact Fred and Ron today!