Top 5 Digital Mistakes When Planning Festive Events

Festive events are a major highlight for many charities, offering an opportunity to engage supporters, raise funds, and generate buzz around their cause. However, as the digital landscape becomes increasingly integral to event planning and execution, charities often fall into costly digital pitfalls that can erode their event's effectiveness.

Here are charities' top five digital mistakes when planning festive events—and how to avoid them.

Underutilising Social Media

The Mistake:

Many charities only scratch the surface when using social media to promote their festive events. They often post a few updates but fail to truly harness the power the platforms offer. This underutilisation means they miss out on building momentum, attracting larger audiences, and fostering deeper engagement.

How to Avoid It:

Social media should be a core part of your event's promotional strategy. Create a detailed content calendar leading up to the event that includes teaser posts, behind-the-scenes updates, countdowns, and user-generated content from past participants. Use platform-specific features like Instagram Stories, Facebook Events, and LinkedIn Posts to reach different audience segments. Consider investing in targeted social media ads to ensure your posts reach your current followers and potential new supporters who align with your cause.

Paying Too Much for Third-Party Event Platforms

The Mistake:

Many charities rely on expensive third-party platforms to manage ticketing, registrations, and donations for their festive events. These platforms often come with high fees, cutting into your fundraising efforts. In some cases, charities may also face restrictions on how they can engage with attendees or manage their data.

How to Avoid It:

Look for low-cost or in-house alternatives that allow you to maintain complete control of your event and donor data. This will save you money and ensure a seamless transfer of data between systems, enabling better post-event stewardship. Alternatively, explore lightweight event platforms that offer transparent pricing without hidden fees.

Ignoring the Power of Automation

The Mistake:

Festive events are busy, and it's easy for charities to focus solely on the event itself, forgetting about the supporter journey leading up to and after the event. Many charities miss out on automating pre-event communications and post-event follow-ups, which can result in a loss of engagement and missed fundraising opportunities.

How to Avoid It:

Automate your event's communication flow. Use email automation to send reminders, personalised invitations, and thank-you notes before, during, and after the event. This ensures you stay connected with supporters, build excitement, and create opportunities for continued giving. Automating thank-yous and post-event surveys helps you stay top of mind with attendees and gather valuable insights for future planning.

Failing to Optimise for Mobile Users

The Mistake:

Many charity supporters access information and make donations via mobile devices. However, many charities still need to ensure their event landing pages, donation portals, and emails are mobile-friendly. This can frustrate supporters, leading to lower engagement, fewer donations, and potential drop-offs.

How to Avoid It:

Make sure every part of your event experience—from registration to post-event follow-up—is optimised for mobile users. Use mobile-responsive design on your event pages and test your donation forms on different devices to ensure they are quick and easy to navigate. Consider implementing mobile payment options such as Apple Pay or Google Pay to reduce friction in the donation process. Ensure that your event-related emails are short, concise, and formatted to display well on smaller screens.

Neglecting Data-Driven Decisions

The Mistake:

Many charities plan and execute their festive events without thoroughly analysing data from previous events or making decisions based on real-time metrics. This often leads to inefficient resource use, poor audience targeting, and missed opportunities to improve year after year.

How to Avoid It:

Use data analytics to guide your event planning and optimisation. Before planning begins, analyse past event performance, including attendance rates, donation conversions, average gift amounts, and supporter feedback. Track live metrics such as ticket sales, donation progress, and engagement on digital platforms during the event. Use this data to make informed adjustments to your promotional strategies, budget allocations, and even live event content. After the event, review the data to identify successes and areas for improvement in future events.

By avoiding these common digital mistakes, charities can dramatically increase the effectiveness of their festive events while keeping costs down.

With a digital-first mindset for festive events and the right strategies in place, you can ensure that your events are not only memorable but also cost-effective and impactful.