6 Important Steps For Cancelling Your Event Due to Coronavirus Concerns
Amid the rash of event cancellations and venue closings taking place over the last 48 hours, many nonprofits of all sizes are evaluating whether to move forward with their calendars as planned. Between the health risks involved in convening large groups of people, and the financial impact of ticket cancellations from those in your community who do not want to take the risk of attending events, there are lots of factors to weigh as you make your decision. Luckily, there are steps you can take to mitigate the potential damage of an event cancellation or postponement.
Start with board members. Your board is your closest group of supporters and they likely make up a large portion of your event ticket-buyers. Have a frank conversation with them about your situation, how your organization is being affected by fears around the COVID-19 epidemic, and what your concerns are about moving forward with your event. They can serve as a good sounding board as you finalize your next steps, and it will be important to have their support as you start to make your cancellation or postponement plans public. If you are going to postpone, work together to select a new date in the future.
Prioritize your vendors. Once you have made the decision to move forward with a cancellation or postponement, prioritize working with your vendors to rearrange your plans. Review your contracts to make sure you know what’s at stake in terms of money you might still owe them, and reschedule with them for your new date, if you have one, in order to mitigate cancellation fees.
Make a decision about refunds. Whether you offer to refund tickets to your event is a decision that is personal to your organization, your community, and the specifics of your event. If you have a new date, we recommend offering to move everyone’s tickets to that date, to avoid losing the revenue. Keep in mind that you also have the option of asking ticket-holders to turn their purchase into a donation (more about that in #5 below!). In addition to deciding whether to issue refunds, you need to also determine how those refunds will happen. Right now, communities are feeling a great deal of anxiety and the more clear, succinct information you can be prepared to provide up-front, the better it will be for everyone.
THEN, communicate to your ticket-holders. It is so important to make your decisions about how you are going to move forward BEFORE communicating to those who will be affected by your changing plans. Offering up incomplete information is more likely to cause confusion and make more work for you in the long run. Although decisions do need to be made quickly, you have to make them before taking your decision public. At this point, your board should already be in the loop, and the rest of your ticket-holders should be notified before you make any announcements to the general public. Communicate with them personally, via phone call or email, as much as possible. This is especially important for those donors who have made large ticket or table purchases, committing significant funds to your event.
Aim to preserve your revenue. Even if you have cancelled your event all together, issuing refunds to ticket-holders isn’t your only option. In order to preserve the revenue you have already raised, and minimize the financial impact of your cancellation, approach your ticket-holders with the request to turn their purchase into a straight donation to help keep the organization stable during this tumultuous time.
Finally, share your changing plans with your broader community. Depending on the size of your organization and the profile of your event, you may utilize email, social media, or even a press release to announce your cancellation or postponement. Whatever you do, make sure everyone in your network feels like they are in the loop. There is no time more important than now, when fewer and fewer people can gather in the same room together, to make sure that you are still building community among your donors, clients, and audiences. Despite the circumstances, there is a real opportunity to forge deeper bonds as you get through this crisis together.