There's No Vanity in Good Evaluation

Hello again everyone,

Wrapping up Vanity Fair has meant that most recently, I have been involved in the event's evaluation. However, my supervisor and I started planning methods of evaluation long before the event was actually hosted, as pre-planning is really important in identifying the most effective data collection and evaluation strategies. If you don't think about it beforehand, afterwards you're left thinking, "Damn, we should have gotten people to do this, and sign up for that", and so on, resulting in missed opportunities which could really influence the effectiveness of activities and communications in the future.

One method of data collection we devised was to offer patrons a free raffle ticket upon entry. This gave people an incentive to fill out their details, as the raffle prizes included a $400 quilt set, $300 handbag and a Garden City voucher. In order to be included in the draw, people were asked to list their full name, address, email, the means by which they heard about Vanity Fair (The Sunday Times, database mailout, Facebook etc) and whether they were interested in receiving updates about BCCWA's activities, on the raffle ticket.

This resulted in approximately 300 new contacts added to BCCWA's database and also provided the marketing team with important feedback about which methods of communication were most effective in attracting patrons to the event. The data was saved in a spreadsheet for further evaluation and use in the planning of next year's event. Word of mouth (WOM) was one of the most common communication mediums listed by patrons, so next year's communications plan will focus on devising ways in which to generate greater positive WOM about the event and maximise its effect.

The number of people who attended the event was also used in its evaluation, in order to gauge strategies and supplies needed for next year's event, which should be bigger and better! Approximately 500 people visited Vanity Fair on Sunday, 11th September, which was seen as a measure of its success as it was the first time BCCWA had ever held it.

Sales figures were also used in the evaluation. Approximately $10, 000 was raised in total by Vanity Fair. Of that figure, $8, 000 was from the sale of clothing and $2, 000 was from entry fees, cake and drinks sales. Drink and cake sales were surprisingly low, so next year the organisers know not to focus too much on this as a source of revenue, or perhaps alter the offerings to encourage greater sales of these.

Feedback from the volunteers who helped on the day was also gathered and utilised. Many volunteers commented that there wasn't much for them to do during their shifts, as patrons were pretty capable of looking after themselves and didn't need much aid, which may result in a smaller volunteer task force recruited for next year's event.

All in all, from its evaluation the inaugural Vanity Fair vintage and designer clothing sale was deemed a success! It reached its fundraising target and exceeded sales and patronage estimates. It was a fantastic event to help BCCWA launch and organisers expect next year's event to be much bigger and better, as the general opinion in event management is that the first time is always the hardest!

Kind regards,

Rebecca Schaus

Bentley Campus

14272149

Lessons Learned

Hi everyone,

It has been a few weeks since my last post, as things got very busy at Breast Cancer Care WA in the lead up to their first ever vintage and designer clothing sale, Vanity Fair, which was held last Sunday, 11th September at Notre Dame University.


With the luxury of hindsight, I have now identified a number of interesting PR components involved in the organisation of this event:

a) Professionalism is paramount - As Breast Cancer Care WA is a small, not-for-profit organisation, professionalism may be more important to its success than your average corporate organisation. Low levels of public awareness combined with the unique nature of charities (limited resources), means that many people struggle to take the actions and goals of BCCWA seriously. Hence, during my time there I have learnt that it is very important that all promotional material produced, every meeting held, phone conversation made and event organised must be executed with the utmost care and to a very high standard. This encourages critics and those who are unfamiliar with the organisation, to treat it as they would a large, powerful company. It also encourages better reviews, more favourable reception of ideas and thus, more fundraising/sponsorship/in kind support.


b) Strong teams work better than the best individuals - The workplace environment at BCCWA is very team oriented and strongly positive. Despite being exclusively female, there is a surprisingly low level of gossiping and negative back chat among colleagues at BCCWA and I think this is largely due to the selfless and rewarding nature of the work that everyone does. No colleagues compete with one another, as this serves no purpose in not-for-profit. Each member has their own defined role and works in conjunction with similar, yet distinctly different titles to achieve a common mission. Maintaining a strong team and an environment of support and encouragement for their employees is a huge priority at BCCWA. On the last Friday of every month everyone stops work at 4.30pm and congragates in the meeting room for drinks, nibblies and hilarious conversation. This gives employees a chance to connect on a level other than work, which I think is really important. Every time someone has a birthday it is celebrated with a card signed by every member and a cake. Little things like these have meant that the ladies at BCCWA are friends first, and colleagues second, which has proven to be a sure recipe for success.


c) No amount of planning can prevent a mishap - Despite many people in our profession having excellent attention to detail, no amount of forethought, planning and organisation can eliminate the possiblity of things going awry. It's vitally important that plans take into account the 'worst case scenario' and try to anticipate the difficulties which may arise from PR activities. Having said that, at the end of the day many things are still beyond your control and it is how you react to the mishap that matters rather than the issue itself. For example, one of the volunteers at Vanity Fair was recruited to play the role of a stylist for people unsure of what to wear/buy. She is an eccentric and very enthusiastic European lady and unfortunately was often a little too crass and direct in her advice to patrons. At one stage, a trio of guests left the venue very offended and alerted us to the issue, which resulted in a loss of potential fundraising sales. Most importantly, bad word of mouth and a mark on the BCCWA's professionalism and good reputation are likely repercussions. But volunteers are the 'life blood' of charities and they simply can't be told off, reprimanded or 'let go' because they are so in demand and vital to the operations of a charity. To resolve the issue, I praised the volunteer's enthusiasm and passion, and asked her to spend the afternoon manning the cake stall, whose sales were modest. Evaluation of the event saw the number of sales at the cake stall almost triple during the afternoon shift, which just goes to show that sometimes the issue isn't an issue at all, it's just a talent being misused ;)


Well I think that's quite enough insight for one day, but I'll post another update discussing Vanity Fair itself in more detail, soon. Just in case some of you can't wait, please visit the link to find out more about it!

www.breastcancer.org.au/news/article/05092011-105/vanity-fair-a-beautiful-day-and-a-fantastic-result.aspx


Kind regards,


Rebecca Schaus
Bentley Campus
14272149