Technology for Nonprofit Fundraiser Events with Justin Goodhew

Carolyn Woodard explores the technology behind nonprofit fundraising events with Justin Goodhew, CEO and co-founder of Trellis. Galas and in-person events have come roaring back since COVID, and they have changed — guests expect and enjoy more experiential, mission-centered evenings. 

But the pressure on staff has not let up. As AI begins to reshape data entry and reconciliation, the nonprofits that thrive will be the ones who have already built the right technology foundations under their events.

Justin brings years of experience helping nonprofits run galas that integrate cleanly into their existing systems — and he has seen firsthand what separates a smooth, energizing event from one that leaves staff burnt out. The conversation covers how to think about technology adoption the right way, how to make smarter asks on the big night, and how to use post-event data to deepen donor relationships before the window closes.

Justin and Carolyn discuss:

• Why events have become more experiential since COVID, and how nonprofits can use that shift to bring donors closer to their mission.
• The three Ps of event technology adoption: procedure, people, and product — and why most organizations get the order wrong.
• How seamless integration between your event platform and your CRM or ERP protects staff from burnout and keeps donor data actionable.
• How the right data quickly allows you to identify your highest-value attendees and make the right asks at the right moment. And how data helps you plan the right type and right-sized event for your highest value donors. 
• Why moving reconciliation and data planning to the front end of your event planning cycle - the three months in advance of your date - changes everything about the days that immediately follow your gala.

Resources Mentioned:

• Trellis — https://www.trellis.org

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• on the Community IT website

Thanks for listening. 

Transcript

Justin Goodhew 0:00

I loved it. Yeah. These things are fun. They give me a lot of energy for the rest of the day too, which is nice. So no complaints.

Carolyn Woodard 0:05

Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, it's this is a bit of a departure for us because we don't usually, well, I mean, we don't we don't do consulting on fundraising at all. It's we support the IT underneath, you know, if they have a CRM or they have Raisers Edge or whatever it is. So yeah, I think this will be really good for our audience because it's a little different topic.

Justin Goodhew 0:23

Yeah.

Carolyn Woodard 0:24

Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators Technology Topics podcast. I'm Carolyn Woodard, your host. And today I'm really excited to be talking with Justin from Trellis. So, Justin, would you like to introduce yourself?

Justin Goodhew 0:38

Hello, everyone. Thanks for the intro, Carolyn. Um, yeah, my name's Justin. I'm the CEO and co-founder at Trellis. I live up in Canada. Um, I have two little kids and two doggos, and I love to be outside when I'm not doing this, but uh we're here. So, and

Justin Goodhew 0:54

What we do at Trellis is we help charities that run Galas that are Raisers Edge customers. So if you're a Raisers Edge NXT customer and you want your event data to actually integrate and you don't want to do two weeks of reconciliation at the end of your event, you want it to just be automated, then you should come chat with us. We do everything from auctions to tickets to raffles, donations, uh, check-in and everything in between for your next gala.

Carolyn Woodard 1:22

So I have to start out with a caveat that I used to work at nonprofits before I was at Community IT, and I have attended many, many galas, but I have never planned one. So I'm really interested to see how technology kind of improves the event quality and then that fundraising success and like take some of the stress off of the, you know, the staff who are ...because a lot of nonprofits, it's like all hands on deck, everybody is like doing the gala. And um, so yeah, I'm really just interested to have this conversation.

Carolyn Woodard 1:55

And before we were talking, when we were emailing about doing this episode, we both mentioned COVID and how, you know, for a couple of years there, everything was virtual with various degrees of success.

Justin Goodhew 2:08

Yes.

Carolyn Woodard 2:09

And then it feels like the gala came kind of roaring back, and now everyone's having galas and different types of events too. So can you talk a little bit more about that, like your experience with that? What are galas like now?

Justin Goodhew 2:25

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so galas now are even more experiential, right? Um, and that's because I think we've COVID allowed us to adopt all this great technology, right?

Justin Goodhew 2:35

So we can now work from home, we could be remote, we can basically unplug from everyone. I mean, I chat with more people from Zoom than in person now, and like being in person is like, oh man. So we realize we we need that.

Justin Goodhew 2:48

And so they're more experiential, is what I've seen. And that's great. And we can dig into this for sure because uh that's why you give. You give because you get to experience uh what the cause is doing, right? And so it's honestly just this perfect opportunity for people to get more individuals into their cause by, you know, allowing them to drink the Kool-Aid, giving them that experience at the event. It doesn't have to be the rubber chicken dinner. Um, you know, we can chat about,

Justin Goodhew 3:18

We've seen some great customers do uh mission stops where there's just different food paired with, you know, a different experience that the charity gives and the impact. Um, there's just so many different ways we've seen that. So

Justin Goodhew 3:30

That was all stemmed from COVID, right? Because you had to be very creative with COVID. Uh, we actually, two weeks when COVID hit, we were the ones that did the first stay-at-home gala in our hometown of Kelowna, and we raised $22,000 for the food bank. Uh, and we just did it over Zoom, and it was just hundreds of people in our community on this.

Justin Goodhew 3:48

And then, you know, a month later we did it across Canada, which was so exciting too. And we had Olympians and Canadian artists come on, and I was learning about broadcasting and all this stuff, and raised uh, you know, a couple hundred thousand for food banks that way. And that was the start of this whole, you know, formal on top, pajamas on the bottom. And now we're back to maybe something in between. So it's exciting to see that evolution.

Carolyn Woodard 4:14

Are you seeing that there are nonprofits who are making that mind shift around the opportunities? How can they convey their mission through some different uh interesting type of uh experience uh versus maybe some nonprofits who are like, great, we can have a gala again, just like we always used to. Are you seeing that?

Justin Goodhew 4:37

Yes, 100%. So they're they're questioning, okay, um, we did it this way this many years, then we stopped for two years and we had this weird online one. What do we want to do now?

Justin Goodhew 4:49

Because we have an opportunity to reinvent. And so I we saw we have a college that's on our platform and they are, you know, they they have chefs, right? And it's all about the culinary program. And so they had their chefs cook, so they actually went out to there, and then so they could taste all of the amazing things, right?

Justin Goodhew 5:06

And we had a SPCA, they brought in the puppies. So when they're asking for that fund to need, you have this cute, adorable puppy in your lap, and you're like, if you can't adopt this puppy, it only costs a thousand dollars to get 10 puppies adopted. I made that up, but you know, and then it is right there, or the uh the mission stops. Uh

Justin Goodhew 5:24

Keely from the Huntsman Foundation, they she did a great one where you go, uh you walk in, and then they're, you know, it's for mental health. So there was a program, and there was someone who administered the program talking about the the effects of that program, the benefits, and you know, some of the money that was given last year, what it did at this stop.

Justin Goodhew 5:42

And it it was just an incredible uh experience. And you got to A, you know, hang out with your friends, chat with them that you came in with, but B, get some really good food, and C, which is the most important part, learn about that cause. And then everyone funneled into the main area and they did that fund a need right after, right? Because they had that experience.

Justin Goodhew 6:00

So every cause is different. I can't unfortunately answer what it should be for our listeners, but they probably have an idea based on the those examples.

Carolyn Woodard 6:09

Those are so great. I mean, how could you resist when you have the puppy right there?

Justin Goodhew 6:14

I know, right? I mean, I'm a dog lover, so for me, it's the puppy one. Yeah. So, but I mean, it doesn't have to be, right?

Justin Goodhew 6:20

And people kind of get, oh, I don't, you know, they roll their eyes, I don't I don't have puppies or kids or whatever that is. But the people give up their evening, right? They come, they they don't they don't go to as many, right? They don't go to as many events as they used to before COVID. But the ones they do go to, they they really want to go there and they want to be there. So they care.

Justin Goodhew 6:41

So why do they care? And if you're not 100% sure, then I would start by asking, but you probably have a good idea, and then just that's where you want to amplify it.

Justin Goodhew 6:50

So if the hotel boardroom or the hotel banquet hall isn't the best place to showcase that impact, don't do it there.

Carolyn Woodard 6:58

Yeah, yeah. You were talking earlier about that learning curve that we all had in COVID, where you're like suddenly I have to broadcast this, you know, nationwide, and I never did that before. Um, and

Carolyn Woodard 7:12

I think one of the things about the shift to more experiential uh events is that probably a lot of staff are looking at that thinking, oh gosh, you know, we've never had the event at the shelter or at the aquarium or, you know, like whatever it is. Um, and so it's like that extra piece of learning. And

Carolyn Woodard 7:36

I'm wondering how the technology can help with like different technology tools. Like, how does that um help with thinking out like what this great event could be um, but also then like doing it.

Justin Goodhew 7:51

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it it's a it's been a big learning curve. It's been a big learning curve for us supporting these um all these events. And

Justin Goodhew 7:59

What I what I like to say is is integrate at every level. Don't just integrate with your CRM, which should be a no-brainer, but most aren't integrated, which is wild. So that's why we we focus on that. And and but the it's

Justin Goodhew 8:14

Integrate with the attendee. So does the attendee know how to go to this, download this app and create a login and all that? Like they, yes, they do, but do they do that on their phone all the time? No, they don't enjoy that. Do they know how to get a text message? Yes. Do they know how to click a link in a text message that can be personalized? Yes.

Justin Goodhew 8:34

So make sure your technology can give them the things that they need when they need it in the moment, a fund a need. If you're asking for people to pledge on their phones or put up a paddle, right? They need the paddle. But if you want them to pledge on their phones, let them pledge. Don't make them again create that user account, do everything.

Justin Goodhew 8:51

So, what I look at when I'm looking at technology stacks is less is more, and the more integrated, the better.

Justin Goodhew 8:59

And that's not just the integration that we all talk about again of event software to CRM, but it's what does the event software integrate to the fundraiser? So that fundraiser and your team, do they have the data they need the day after the event to go make those asks? Because if you don't do it within 48 hours, your chance of donation goes down significantly.

Justin Goodhew 9:17

Does the database administrator know what's going on to get the data into it? Does the finance person know how to reconcile?

Justin Goodhew 9:25

Because you mentioned it right off the top, Carolyn. Like it is so sad how many events got canceled because of burnout. It wasn't even the ROI, really. It was just we're too burnt out to even figure out the ROI. It was way too much. So what we've seen people do is we just they they tell me, Justin, we just integrate into our current systems. So then there is no burnout. It's yeah, we have to do 10, 20 minutes extra of reconciliation a day, but that's it. It's not two weeks where we have to stop everything and then our work halts, and then we get sick and frustrated and all these things, and then we dread the next event.

Justin Goodhew 10:02

So the long answer, just all about integration.

Carolyn Woodard 10:06

No, I love that answer because I mean, we've been talking in nonprofits, I feel like for decades about those silos and how if I could only have this information flow into this other part of the team that does this other thing that interacts with the donor, that it would all work better.

Carolyn Woodard 10:28

And for the donor side, you know, they have that seamless experience of the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing. Because I think we've all gotten like this bizarre general ask, like the day after you went to the gala.

Justin Goodhew 10:40

Yeah.

Carolyn Woodard 10:41

And you're like, I was literally just there.

Justin Goodhew 10:44

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And if you want to dig in on those general asks and everything, which I think is just really crucial, is once you get that data integrated, then you can, the fundraisers can say, Oh, so I can segment based on people that donated a certain amount. Oh, I can see which table purchasers brought the biggest donors. Oh, I can maybe have some sort of an analysis on who those best donors are, right?

Justin Goodhew 11:11

So with the technology, it's it's that integrating and seeing it and then asking for it.

Justin Goodhew 11:15

And also making sure that you make the right asks too. So when you're looking at what ask to make, it's not, okay, I need to ask them about a raffle ticket and I need to do a silent auction and a live auction and this and that.

Justin Goodhew 11:28

It's like, what makes the most money for that ROI? Is it is it a raffle that makes you $2,000 and you have to bug everyone and disrupt their evening and get them to buy? Or is it really focusing on the experience and spending all that volunteer time on making the experience amazing, not getting the $2,000 from the raffle, but then getting everyone in the room to donate $1,000 or more, right? On a fund a need where it's and you don't have to cut it in half because it's not a 50-50, right? Like that's so it's

Justin Goodhew 11:58

It's again focusing on on the right pieces and making sure the tech in in in that instance can can I guess host it and make it easy for them to do.

Carolyn Woodard 12:10

That all makes a lot of sense. Um, we were talking earlier about how stressful an event can be. And like I said, when it's all hands on deck and you're like, I've got other stuff I've got to do too.

Carolyn Woodard 12:24

So can you talk a little bit more about um not just the sources of that stress, but I kind of want to combine it with a question about something else that we talk about all the time, which is the technology and the needs, and how often uh nonprofits will see a tool that does a thing and try to stick themselves into, well, I can do that thing if I use that tool, versus figuring out what their needs are and then finding the tool that matches it.

Carolyn Woodard 12:58

So around having galas and events, like one need might be decrease that stress, make it easier for staff to do all the things that have to do with the gala. Um, are there other, I guess,

Carolyn Woodard 13:11

Are there other best practices around identifying what does the organization need from that gala, from the fundraiser, and then finding the tool that that makes that happen?

Justin Goodhew 13:24

Yeah, uh, I love that. And and I kind of see technology adoption done the right way is is really the three Ps, right? It's first is the procedure, right? It's like what do you want to get done and how detailed can you make that right? And you need to understand what you can do.

Justin Goodhew 13:40

And then you need the right people in place, right? And we're not even talking about technology yet. So then you start doing that.

Justin Goodhew 13:45

And then the last piece is the product, right? So that it's like it's the procedures, the people, and then it's the product.

Justin Goodhew 13:52

And the people that come to us, they know what they want. Um, and then there is a little bit of, well, hey, we've we've seen you know thousands of others, and this is how we do it. So we're gonna tweak some things for sure, because not everything in the real world goes into technology, as we all know. But and overall, that's that's what we see.

Justin Goodhew 14:10

And so it's it's really kind of looking at it from that point of view is what do you want that? And in the event world,

Justin Goodhew 14:16

In the event planning world, it's called footstepping, if you really think about it. So can you footstep through that experience? So when someone gets out of their car and they go to the venue, whatever that is, what's the experience? Like get in their shoes, you know, and then you can make sure, oh, if you want them to check in, how do you want them to check in? Should they have already checked in, maybe? Did you did you actually get them to do that beforehand because you emailed them? Or do you just want them to check in and they don't have to worry about their emails? These are all experiences that you can footstep through and do, and then you can pick the right tool based on what you want instead of being sold something and putting that last P first.

Carolyn Woodard 14:51

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Um, I have another question, which is that you talked earlier about that integrating at every level. And

Carolyn Woodard 15:02

I'm wondering, since I'm not an event planner at a nonprofit, I wonder if you could share with us some of the common pitfalls that you see like the day after. What is it that nonprofits maybe often drop the ball on that could make that event more successful in that the next steps piece?

Justin Goodhew 15:23

Yeah, in the next steps, I mean, honestly, what we hear is at least multiple days, but usually it's multiple weeks in getting the reconciliation completed. Yeah. Right.

Justin Goodhew 15:31

So that event data is in a silo uh and needs to be reconciled on the financial side, and then it needs to be brought over and added to the record. And it's a manual. Okay, so Carolyn was here, Carolyn did these three purchases. Okay, there's Carolyn's record in the CRM. Let's add it over there. Or it's making really nice flat files to then move over to the CRM. And it's a lot of, and it's, and

Justin Goodhew 15:55

You have to imagine the people that are doing this also just were out late on the Friday night and were probably helping the event planner all the way through doing things that they don't normally do. They're exhausted too. So, and then it's just that is the biggest piece, right?

Justin Goodhew 16:11

So if you take all of that work and you move it to the front and you move it over three months on the front, where it's hey, okay, where do we want these purchasers to go? Right? Fundraisers, you want these types of people. Okay, let's put them in that area of the CRM. Okay, finance, what do you need and when do you need it? And we get purchasers going, okay, and then and so you do that planning beforehand, right? So you're,

Justin Goodhew 16:36

I mean, I'm gonna be honest, you're not saving that much time. You're just saving so much stress, and then you're you're allowing the time after the event should be used to, oh my gosh, did you see that per that new person that came in, like with Carolyn? They they bid it on three different things and they they did this at the fund a need. Like, who is that person? Like, we need to go chat with them. Like, who invited them? Like, oh my gosh, this worked great, right? Like, talk about all of those pieces.

Justin Goodhew 17:01

So that's the biggest thing, the biggest change and thing that we see in the ones that really focus on the um integration.

Justin Goodhew 17:08

And it's just also following up with some of the bigger donors, right? Which is a great chance. It's hey, Carolyn, you pledged because we didn't want you to worry about credit cards or putting it on your DAF at the night. We just wanted you to say, I want to give this much money and then keep enjoying yourself. And now we're gonna, and then it gives us an excuse to give you a call and really thank you for that and make sure you had a good evening and get your feedback and it'll also give us that $10,000 pledge that you did, right?

Justin Goodhew 17:34

So that's also the other activity that should be happening then. So make sure your technology can can handle that.

Carolyn Woodard 17:41

And I know um one of the things your website talks a lot about is the ROI, so the return on investment. And I think for a lot of,

Carolyn Woodard 17:50

I know there are nonprofits that that don't do galas anymore because or you know, golf tournaments or whatever it is, because it was just all of the staff time, you know, was not paying out, basically. Um,

Carolyn Woodard 18:03

So can you talk a little bit about like a how do you know? Like,

Carolyn Woodard 18:07

I'm sure people get a gut feeling about like, oh, that was a great event and we did really well, you know, versus like, well, but it wasn't really, but are there like uh

Carolyn Woodard 18:18

How do you help nonprofits think through both the ROI in terms of fundraising, but also like for the organization and for the people? Like, what was the return on investment? We put all of our staff and all this, hopefully they've done the three months ahead of time, which I hadn't even really thought about it that way. Like you think of three months of planning the event, but spending those three months also for those teams to plan the reconciliation and the data flow, that's just a brilliant idea.

Carolyn Woodard 18:47

So then how do you see the ROI in those different pieces that you talked about, like the people and the funds and the process?

Justin Goodhew 18:56

Yeah, I've had this conversation a lot, Carolyn. It's a really good question. And

Justin Goodhew 19:00

I think a lot of people say, oh, we just don't have the ROI. I think that's half true and unfortunately half not true. Um, the half that's not true is I think they're honestly, they're just just burnt out. And it's again not integrated, which we've talked about into their systems and their experiences. So everyone is just frustrated and kind of annoyed. So when they don't do as well as they think, it just they just lump it all into this ROI bucket, which isn't untrue, but there's that side.

Justin Goodhew 19:25

So we've talked about that side, but then there's the also, okay, like we we had a goal of a hundred thousand and you know, or a million, whatever, and but we spent the same amount, or maybe spent more, right? And that's where um you have to look at uh the different things you're asking and who you're bringing, right?

Justin Goodhew 19:44

So the pre-planning for you know the database and finance people I mentioned, but you need to go back to your past events before COVID, during COVID, after, and say, okay, let's apply the 80-20 rule, right? It's always there. So 20% of your attendees give you 80% of the revenue at the event. So who were they? How did we find them? How did they get invited? Let's just do that more, right?

Justin Goodhew 20:08

So that is a huge step, getting the right people in the room. Now let's say you've done that. You've said, okay, we actually um this fundraiser invited three different people and they each invited brought a table and that worked out really well. So let's find more people like that and go.

Justin Goodhew 20:22

Or maybe this advertisement got these four people and they all donated a lot. So let's put all our money into that advertisement, things like that. Um so getting the right butts and seats for that ROI is key.

Justin Goodhew 20:36

And and if you can only fill 10 seats, then don't do a gala. Like don't, don't, don't get Trellis or anything else, just do a dinner and say, hey, Carolyn, you and your nine friends are like our closest supporters. Thank you for agreeing to do this dinner, putting in $5,000. How do we grow this? And just talk to them and ask them. But if you can find a lot more of those, 100, then great, do that, right?

Justin Goodhew 21:01

But don't have 200 people for the because the the banquet hall you've booked has 200 person capacity, right? So that's the right butts in seats.

Justin Goodhew 21:10

When you get the right butts in seats, though, it's giving them the right ask, not too many. And that ask is so, for example, um, donating auction bids, right? So you want to remind them.

Justin Goodhew 21:19

We love this uh thing that we've seen charities do, is they'll they'll say, Hey, Carolyn, thanks for bidding on this item. If you lose, do you want to donate your bid? And what that is telling us as a charity is, oh my gosh, Carolyn doesn't even care if she wins, she's just donating the money. Those are people that the day after you want to go and then make sure you say thank you. So those upsells are key, not for making more money, but also identifying the people that really care and have the money.

Justin Goodhew 21:48

So it's that full page, hey, thanks for buying a ticket. Now, do you want to give as well? And those the 10% usually that do, they have disposable income and they care. So um Yeah,

Justin Goodhew 22:00

Get the right people in the room, get the right upsells in front of them to identify. That's why, you know, you go to airlines and they want you to do premium, then they're going to put you in a bucket and market you higher things with higher prices because they know you flew first class, right? So find your first class people, right? And and they're not all that, and that's okay because the people that didn't buy first class, they maybe want to support a smaller event, right?

Justin Goodhew 22:24

And you can send them those asks instead of that, as you mentioned at the start, that generic, hey, thanks for coming. Here's our five other events. It's hey, Carolyn, thanks for coming. I saw you did the donate your bid. That is amazing. Um, did you want to have a quick coffee to talk about other opportunities and this great program we're trying to start? You know?

Justin Goodhew 22:41

So that that would be how you then flip the ROI conversation and it becomes this exciting thing within your organization because it's integrated, it's not as painful, and it's just part of that workflow.

Carolyn Woodard 22:53

I love it. Thank you so much for all of these great uh insights, I guess. So you're doing it for a while. Um,

Carolyn Woodard 23:01

I wondered if you have any last, you know, comments or thoughts you want to leave with the audience about this intersection of technology with in real life events and people. Like nonprofits are all about people and our relationships and like the experiences that people have. So anything you want to leave us with?

Justin Goodhew 23:21

Yeah, I would just echo that, right? Like focus on that experience and pushing that mission. That's why you're there and why people are coming. They're giving up their evening to enjoy that. So when you get excited about focusing on the new tech to look at, just make sure it's actually out of the way. Like they should just be frictionless and out of the way, right?

Justin Goodhew 23:40

So then you can do the part that matters, which is, you know, letting them uh chat with each other and experience what your cause does because you're the best at it. So that's all I have. Thank you so much, Carolyn.

Carolyn Woodard 23:52

No, that was great. That's a great piece of advice. I think it's always good to tie it back into. We talk about that a lot at Community IT too, about your mission. Like, why are you doing this and what is your why? And you are a great person to talk about that, you know, for your organization. And so making that space for that to happen at the fundraiser so important that everybody not be just completely burnt out by that time.

Justin Goodhew 24:19

Yes.

Carolyn Woodard 24:20

Well, thank you so much, Justin, for your time. I really appreciate it today. Thank you for coming on.

Justin Goodhew 24:25

Thanks for having me.