Can special events raise money with little cost?

Summary:

Events are rarely successful until they have become well-established.

Ina Frank wrote:
Events rarely raise serious money until they have become
well-established, much-anticipated community traditions. This requires a
great deal of work, faith, and donor cultivation, as well as years of
refining and expanding the event.

Unless your community is hungry for events, time and energy might better
be spent in other ways. Most organizations considered successful in
fundraising regard events as public relations efforts and
important elements for donor recognition, rather than significant
fundraisers.

Mike Feagans added in December, 2000:
I think NPOs should more carefully consider this question when deciding to
hold special events. Special Events are often used by larger NPOs as a
way to identify potential donors and cultivate and thank existing
donors. For the most part they do make money on the events. But for
smaller organizations they need to think about the amount of staff time
that is used to hold the event and how that expenditure figures into the
bottom line. I think the best strategy for small NPOs is to allow
volunteers to handle Special Events with minimum amount of participation
by the NPO staff. Having parties, wine tastings, golf tournaments that
benefit your organization where your participation is limited to
providing a mailing list, attending the event, and thanking all of the
participants is a win for your organization.