Purchasing a unique URL for your event costs less than 10 bucks -it won’t break your budget. With a simple WordPress based site, you can create an inexpensive place to host your event. Consider a solution like eTapestry to take registrations or ChipIn to encourage individuals to raise money for your cause.

So why go through the trouble?  Here are 3 good reasons to create a page.

1) It provides another opportunity for people to find you on the web. You use multiple types of fundraising techniques, right? (direct mail, special events, planned giving) Why wouldn’t you apply the same concept to your online fundraising master plan?

2) It allows you to step outside your agency’s normal look and feel to create some excitement. Check out this example from the Salvation Army in Indianapolis. Here is their main page. Here is a special event page for the WIBC Radiothon.  Notice the difference in graphics, tone, attitude.

3) You get to show off your sponsors, create value for them, and strengthen that relationship.  The Salvation Army Indianapolis hosts event pages for 2 of their media partners: WIBC radio and WISH-TV.  The media partners are happy because they have one less thing to worry about. The sponsors are happy because they get more focused promotion.  Of course, both the media partners and the nonprofit are linking to the event website from their main pages.

These pages always manage to pay for themselves and the extra value keeps your partners happy.  If you have a good example of a specific event page please post a link in the comment section below.

So, how do you get quality people at a discount?  First, if you’ve never read the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, I recommend starting there. It follows the Oakland A’s baseball team as Lewis tries to answer the question: How does a team with half the payroll of the New York Yankees seem to field a competitive team year after year?

The lessons learned in the book apply to staffing your development team. Don’t have time to read the book? Here are some tips I’ve used.

1) Learn to spot inefficiencies in the way talent is evaluated.

Example: The obvious answer to how are we going to fill the open grant writing position is to hire the candidate with the most grant writing experience/success. I recently did the exact opposite! Of the final three candidates, I chose the one who had only marginal grant writing experience. What she did have was a vast array of experience that could easily have her filling a variety of roles in our department. The other candidates had much more grant writing experience, but that’s ALL they had. Plus, I knew she could write, she just needed some coaching. Now, I have an excellent grant writer who can do just about any job in our department (even mine!).

2) Learn to get talent at a discount.

Example: When A-Rod gets sick of playing in New York, he might just take less money to play in Minnesota. The same applies to recruiting staff. Keep your eye on people at other organizations who aren’t happy in their current positions and whose life goals align with your organization’s mission. This isn’t about paying somebody less than their worth. That’s not the mindset to have. It’s about being able to offer someone a position within your organization that rewards them in ways that a higher salary can never do.

3) Learn to let staff make mistakes.

Example: I frustrated a lot of staff members last fall at an event because they kept coming to me with issues and I kept sending them to the event coordinator. To some, I was goofing off or not taking my job as boss seriously. What they didn’t know was that our relatively new event coordinator had never put on an event of that scale before. She needed the experience. All of the experience, including issues, problems, and making mistakes. I intentionally removed myself from the decision making that day because I wanted her to grow as a person and an employee. I also know that someday, she would like to run her own event company. I’m not afraid to help her reach that goal, because I know she will work harder for me while she’s here if I help prepare her for what’s next.

The result: sure a few people thought I was a slacker that day. But, my event coordinator emerged with a confidence that has been noticed by many people. Now, she’s creating an event top to bottom and I don’t lose a second’s sleep over it. I know the event will be first class.

You can field a Major League team on a Little League budget. It just takes a different mindset to attract and keep talent.