When I ask wildlife conservation organizations how they measure the success of their events, I want to hear the numbers. I generally hear that the events were “OK,” or “well attended.” I find this frightening because the organization is spending both time and money, which they cannot justify.
How do they know if their outreach and advocacy had any impact?
For a start, buy a low-cost crowd-clicker (aka a tally counter).
As an example, last year, I volunteered at an annual festival for an arboretum. Attending were 4,000 people who were ecologically minded and happy to be outside. This was a target-rich audience for the sponsor and the other conservation nonprofits that were onsite. Of the 12 nonprofits, I asked about how many people had stopped by their booths; 11 booths had no clue, though some of those groups did have an email sign-up form.
One booth gave me a great answer:
“284 visited the booth,
63 signed-up for the email,
Great conversations with 24 who wanted to come to future events; half of those half wanted information about next month’s meeting,
8 wanted more information about volunteering.”
The organization can use the data as a baseline for next year’s event. The secret for knowing the 284 count was that the staff used a crowd-clicker, and diligently documented the rest. At the end of the day had reached out to a total of 400 people; that is 10% of the event’s attendance!
Do your organization a favor, and get a crowd clicker. Start measuring your events.