Module 9 workshop: launch plan

A full promotion plan for a 400-ticket fundraiser: invitations, ticket tiers, social calendar, sponsorship deck and media list.

Read the transcript

Module 9 workshop: launch plan.

A full promotion plan for a 400-ticket fundraiser: invitations, ticket tiers, social calendar, sponsorship deck and media list.

The exercise.

Build the full promotion plan for a 400-ticket fundraiser: a hospital foundation's spring gala at a downtown hotel, tickets at 300, dollars with a 400,000 dollars gross target.

Produce the invitation plan, the ticket tiers, the social calendar, the sponsorship deck outline and the media plan, each on one page.

1. Invitations and RSVPs.

Save-the-date to past attendees and donors 16 weeks out.

Printed invitation with QR reply to the top 600 households 10 weeks out; digital invitation to the full list of 3,000 at the same time.

2. Ticket tiers and the math.

Fixed costs of about 55,000 dollars and variable costs of about 160 dollars per seat put break-even at roughly 60 seats sold at full price before sponsorship; the plan's risk is the paddle raise, not the ticket sales, which is why the program design (Module 5 and the fundraisers track) matters more than the invitation design.

3. Social calendar.

Eight weeks, two posts a week: launch; the cause (the unit, a patient story with consent); the headline act; the menu and the chef; the presenting sponsor; the early-bird deadline; behind-the-scenes rehearsal; the final-week countdown.

Live coverage by one assigned person; a next-morning total post; a recap video within a week.

4. Sponsorship deck.

Eight slides: the cause and the number; the audience (who was in the room last year, by sector and seniority); the night (program and the moment); the tiers; activation examples with photos; last year's fulfilment report excerpt; the ask; contact.

Built from the template and sent only after a personal call.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Build a launch plan
• Price tickets to break even
• Pitch two sponsors

The exercise

Build the full promotion plan for a 400-ticket fundraiser: a hospital foundation’s spring gala at a downtown hotel, tickets at $300, with a $400,000 gross target. Produce the invitation plan, the ticket tiers, the social calendar, the sponsorship deck outline and the media plan, each on one page.

1. Invitations and RSVPs

Save-the-date to past attendees and donors 16 weeks out. Printed invitation with QR reply to the top 600 households 10 weeks out; digital invitation to the full list of 3,000 at the same time. RSVP and ticket close 10 days out; guarantee to the hotel 7 days out. Reminders at two weeks and on the closing day; personal calls to the 40 largest donors by the chair.

2. Ticket tiers and the math

Fixed costs of about $55,000 and variable costs of about $160 per seat mean each $300 individual ticket contributes $140 and each $350 table seat contributes $190, so tickets alone would need roughly 290 to 393 seats to break even before sponsorship. Sponsorship closes that gap, and the plan’s real risk is the paddle raise, not the ticket sales, which is why the program design (Module 5 and the fundraisers track) matters more than the invitation design.

3. Social calendar

Eight weeks, two posts a week: launch; the cause (the unit, a patient story with consent); the headline act; the menu and the chef; the presenting sponsor; the early-bird deadline; behind-the-scenes rehearsal; the final-week countdown. Live coverage by one assigned person; a next-morning total post; a recap video within a week.

4. Sponsorship deck

Eight slides: the cause and the number; the audience (who was in the room last year, by sector and seniority); the night (program and the moment); the tiers; activation examples with photos; last year’s fulfilment report excerpt; the ask; contact. Built from the template and sent only after a personal call.

5. Media plan

Two stories: the unit (health reporter, 4 weeks out, chief available) and the act (morning show, 3 weeks out, studio demo offered). One photographer pass with a shot list. A fact sheet with the total available at 9:15 p.m. for the next-morning story.

What this teaches

The five documents are one plan seen from five angles, all pointing at the same two numbers: 400 seats and $400,000. Complete the worksheet for an event of your own, and start from the number.

Ontario checks before launch

A launch plan that is legally sound on day one avoids a scramble on day forty. Before the first invitation goes out for the spring gala, work through these checks with the foundation’s staff.

• CASL: confirm consent for every address on the 3,000-name list, that each email identifies the foundation and includes a mailing address, and that the unsubscribe link works and is honoured promptly.
• Receipts: confirm with the foundation’s accountant the fair-market value of the dinner and how the ticket and table receipts will be calculated, and that sponsorship packages are not promised as receiptable gifts.
• Lottery: if the paddle raise is accompanied by a raffle or 50/50 draw, apply for the correct lottery licence through the AGCO or the municipality well before tickets are sold. A silent auction is not a lottery, but anything sold by chance is.
• Alcohol: the hotel’s liquor licence normally covers service, but confirm that any donated wine can be served under it and on what terms.
• Privacy: add an optional consent line on the registration form for sharing contact details with sponsors, as PIPEDA requires.
• Accessibility: make the invitation, ticket page and reply form usable with a screen reader and offer accessible formats on request, in line with the AODA.
• Price display: show the all-in ticket price, including any mandatory fee, with HST treatment stated clearly.

The first two weeks after launch

The plan comes alive the day the save-the-date goes out, and the first fortnight sets the pace for everything that follows. In the first days, the save-the-date reaches past attendees and donors, the presenting sponsor ask is made in person by the chair, and the ticket page is tested on several phones with a real purchase and refund. By the end of the first week, the committee should have a target list for the gold sponsors with a named person responsible for each, and the media list should be built with one named reporter or producer per story.

In the second week, the social calendar starts with the launch post and the cause post, and the first sales report goes to the chair. That report should show four things only: tickets sold against target, sponsorship committed against target, gross to date, and the next three actions with their owners. A launch plan fails quietly when nobody looks at the numbers until six weeks out.

Checking the numbers

Workshops are where arithmetic errors hide, so check each figure in your own version of the plan before you hand it in. Confirm that the seats in the table add up to the room: tables of ten, sponsor seats and individual tickets together should equal 400, and the room’s licensed capacity and the hotel’s layout should support that number. Confirm the break-even by recalculating it yourself: fixed costs divided by the contribution per seat, where the contribution is the net ticket price after HST and fees, minus the all-in variable cost per seat including the hotel’s service charge and HST. Run both through the event budget calculator and note any figure that differs from the plan, with a sentence on why.

Then test the plan’s weakest assumption. In this exercise it is the paddle raise, which carries more than half of the gross. Write down what the gala nets if the paddle raise reaches only half its target, and what the committee would do about it before the night.

Common mistakes in this workshop

Learners most often write five excellent documents that do not agree with one another: a social calendar that announces the early-bird deadline on a different date from the ticket page, a sponsorship deck that promises more seats than the floor plan holds, or a media plan that releases the total before the chair has announced it in the room. Put all five on one calendar and read them in date order. Other frequent slips are forgetting comps in the catering guarantee, leaving no owner on a task, and building the media plan around a story that is not yet confirmed.

How this connects to Module 10

Everything in this module is a promise: to guests, to sponsors, to reporters. Module 10 is where those promises are kept on the night. The sponsor mentions become lines in the run of show, the media pass becomes a person at the door, and the 9:15 p.m. total becomes a task with a name beside it. Carry your launch plan into the day-of kit and the first hour.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet, complete it for your own event (or the running gala example), and keep it in your course binder. It takes about 18 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)