Should you send traditional or email invites for your charity event?

Email invitations are becoming a very popular way to let people know about charity events, but when is an email invite appropriate, and when should you send a traditional invite? The answer isn’t as straight forward as you might think. There’s a lot of factors to think about when deciding how you should send out invitations.

Email Invitations

You can send an evite when:

• You have a small budget. Email invitations can save money, as there’s no printing or postage costs.
• The event is only a month, or less, away. Evites are much quicker, and less work intensive if you’re running out of time.
• If the event, or something similar, is an annual event, then evites may be appropriate, but formal events are the exception.
• If the charity has an environmentally friendly ethos, an evite may be the most appropriate.
• You don’t have all of the donors contact information. If you know email addresses, then you should consider an evite.
• If the charity has a high online engagement with supporters through social media, blog comments, and email newsletters, and you have a younger target audience, then an evite may engage them better than a traditional invite.
• Some events may need to register online beforehand, and an email invite can make the registration process easier.

Traditional Invites

You can send a traditional invite when:

• It’s a formal event. Any type of formal event, like a gala, needs a formal, physical invitation.
• If there’s less than 50 guests, and it’s an exclusive event.
• If you have all of the appropriate contact details.
• If the target audience is older and are less likely to engage online.

Both

You can send both a traditional invite and an email invite when:

• It’s a first time event. You need to get as many potential donors as possible interested in the charity and the event.
• There’s been a decline in attendance. You can use both mediums to expand reach and engage with new potential donors.
• If you have varied contact information. If you have only email addresses for some donors, but have a postal address for others, you could consider sending both types of invite.