Social Enterprise and Special Events

Julie Olberding

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317375487
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Government & Business
• Index: Business

During the past twenty years, the field of nonprofit management has grown significantly in terms of the number of nonprofit organizations, number of people employed, and amount of funds raised. A key activity in nonprofit management has been organizing events, which are generally defined as "purposive gatherings of people." These purposes may include: increasing awareness about the nonprofit organization and its mission; raising funds to support programs and services related to its mission; engaging and developing individuals as donors, volunteers, and advocates; and enhancing the image of the organization and/or the broader community.

Events in the modern era tend to be organized across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. While a nonprofit organization may create and manage an event, corporations and businesses often contribute financial support and technical expertise in areas such as branding, marketing, and social media. Depending on the event type and size, a local government may provide the venue and public safety services, including police, fire, and ambulance.

We can understand more about these mission-driven, cross-sectoral events by looking through the lens of social enterprise. Social enterprise has been defined as a venture that advances a social mission using business methods or market-based approaches. It is typically conceptualized as spanning sectors, particularly the nonprofit and private sectors.

Social Enterprise and Special Events focuses on how market-based approaches can be used to help mission-driven gatherings achieve their purposes as efficiently, effectively, and sustainably as possible. These approaches include market research, brand development, cause marketing, gamification, liquidity, cash management, and clustering. The book also incorporates concepts important in the nonprofit and public sectors such as collaborative governance, social capital, political capital, community development, placemaking, and diversity.

Part I
Introduction and Creation

1
Special Events with a Social Mission

Julie Cencula Olberding

The Rubber Duck Regatta is an annual event that raises funds for the Free-store Foodback, which is the largest emergency food and services provider for a 20-county region in southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southern Indiana. For this event, participants buy a duck for $5 each and then a truck dumps all of the ducks—about 150,000 in recent years—from a bridge into the Ohio River. The “owner” of the first duck to cross finish line downriver wins a new car. The Rubber Duck Regatta raised more than $1 million in 2015 and a total of nearly $10 million over 20 years. In terms of the Freestore Foodbank’s mission, these funds represent the equivalent of about 30 million meals. “The regatta does two things,” said Bob Edwards, who led the creation of this event. “It makes it possible for us to do more for more people, and it has made the community more aware of the need locally and how the Freestore services food pantries and shelters” (Curnutte, 2014).

Another event in Cincinnati—actually a series of events—was developed with a very different mission or purpose. Play in the Park was created in 2013 in response to two homicides in Kennedy Heights Park. (Kennedy Heights is one of 52 neighborhoods in the city of Cincinnati.) A vigil was held at the park after the shootings, and one participant, Susan Wade-Murphy, was moved by a boy’s words about being afraid to go to the park and decided to do something about it. Susan came up with the idea of organizing weekly activities in the park in order to “take back” the space and help kids and adults feel safe there. She collaborated with the local community council as well as the city’s police and parks departments, and she found organizations and individuals to provide activities each week. These activities included live music (various local bands), tie dye and other crafts (a community arts organization), whiffle ball and other games (a nearby recreation center), a tent-camping demonstration (a Boy Scout troop), penguin and other animal exhibits (the regional aquarium), and free ice cream, tacos, and other food (various vendors). Within a year, the neighborhood experienced a 72 percent reduction in serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and auto theft. Due to its success, Play in the Park was selected for a first-place prize in the City of Cincinnati Innovation Awards in 2014 (City of Cincinnati, 2015), and it has served as a model for other neighborhoods in the city, such as Madisonville.

Increasingly, events like the Rubber Duck Regatta and Play in the Park are organized with a social mission, purpose, or cause often by nonprofit organizations, government agencies, public-private partnerships, or some other collaborative effort. The social mission may be: raising funds for a nonprofit organization to address a social need, increasing awareness about a particular nonprofit or cause, increasing participation and engagement in a particular nonprofit or cause, enhancing image of or pride in a city or community, and/or other purposes. While there are a handful of books on events, they tend to focus on “mega,” sport, and corporate events, so many chapters are not relevant to these mission-driven or cause-related events and their organizers. Further, the existing books tend to deal mostly with the implementation of mega, sport, and corporate events. They provide lots of information and checklists for how to manage an event as effectively and efficiently as possible. Topics in these books tend to deal with the “nuts and bolts” of event bidding, planning, operations, monitoring, vendor contracts, marketing and promotions, and technology.

New Approach

As a researcher who studies events in the academic world and as a person who helps organize events in the real world, I found that the existing books on event management were not a good fit with my needs and interests. There seemed to be a gap in terms of the classic or traditional books on event management and some of the new realities of events, especially those with a social mission, purpose, or cause. It seemed that there was space for a new approach—or at least a different approach—that was better suited for the types of events with which I was familiar and the complex environments in which I’ve seen them operate. Part of the reason may be that events in some communities are changing because the environments in which happen are evolving.

This book takes a new approach to studying and learning about events in our society. First, as stated previously, it focuses on special events with a social mission using the conceptual framework of social enterprise, or a venture that advances a social mission using market-based approaches. Some chapters deal with events for which the mission or purpose is raising funds for a nonprofit organization or social cause. The Rubber Duck Regatta, for example, has raised nearly $10 million over 20 years for the Freestore Food-bank to provide emergency food and services. Often, organizers of these events utilize business methods or market-based approaches in order to minimize and/or maximize revenues in order to achieve the greatest-possible net revenues (or profit) to invest in the nonprofit organization or social cause. Other chapters look at creative and innovative events whose primary purpose is not raising funds. These purposes include “taking back” space consumed by violence or crime, increasing the number of organ and tissue donors, providing a forum for short-film makers, or improving a community’s image and pride. Still in this era of social enterprise, many of these event organizers use business methods or market-based approaches in order to create, implement, and evaluate them as effectively as possible.

Secondly, this book offers a different approach to study mission-driven or cause-related events organized by nonprofit organizations, government agencies, public-private partnerships, or other collaborative efforts. In doing so, it considers concepts important in the nonprofit, public, and collaborative arenas but generally not given much attention in existing event books. These concepts include collaborative governance, social capital, local pride, community building, placemaking, diversity, and inclusion. Further, the book takes a broader perspective—looking at event creation, implementation, evaluation, and innovation—rather than just implementation. There are case studies that provide new ideas, information, and insight on events as well as helpful tools for management and evaluation such as survey instruments for volunteers, survey instruments for participants, measures of economic impact of events, and measures of social impact.

Getting Started

Chapter 2 of the book discusses the conceptual framework of the book in greater detail. In particular, it explains why the lens of social enterprise may be appropriate and helpful in terms of understanding events in the modern era that have a social mission, purpose, or cause. In doing so, the chapter reviews relevant concepts in the literature related to special events and social enterprise. It is hoped that this discussion lays the groundwork for better understanding of event creation, implementation, evaluation, and innovation.

In Chapter 3, Douglas Olberding and Jay Jisha bring a fresh perspective to the creation of an event. In doing so, they borrow key concepts from the world of start-up enterprises, including market segmentation, target markets, brand development, and brand equity. These authors provide some helpful information and interesting recommendations for event organizers related to developing an effective brand and building brand equity. The chapter includes case studies of couple events with successful brands, including the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. This event has evolved from a small gathering of local musicians to a major festival attracting 75,000 participants and garnering national recognition. A key factor in Forecastle’s success, according to Olberding and Jisha, is consistent branding from the event website to the festival grounds. Another factor is the event’s “authenticity” in terms of its commitment to the values of music, art, and environmental activism and its engagement of attendees in a rich experience in Kentucky bourbon and other culture aspects. Forecastle further demonstrates its values and authenticity by investing hundreds of thousands of net revenues (or profit) into nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the environment.

Implementation

Once an event is created, then organizers must turn their attention to “putting it on” and making it as successful as possible. The next four chapters of the book focus on the implementation and management of special events with a social mission, purpose, or cause. Again, looking toward business enterprises and social enterprises, Chapter 4 examines three promotional strategies that are relatively new to the world of event management: cause marketing, social media, and “gamification.” Katie Dillon and I borrow concepts and ideas used often in the business world but not so often in the event world. Of these, the most innovative may be gamification, for which event organizers use competitive activities—such as challenges, points, leader boards, badges, and rewards—to engage participants and potential participants. This chapter shares information and insight from Katie’s efforts to utilize cause marketing, social media, and gamification in order to create excitement and positive energy around an event with a social mission that can be perceived as somewhat unpleasant—the need for organ and tissue donors. This case study also provides an analysis of the event outcomes, particularly the social media efforts, including a return on investment approach.

Chapter 5 looks at some important concepts related to financial management of events. At a basic level, it identifies some “hot spots” for special events—that is, those few financial areas that cause the most problems for event organizers. These hot spots include lack of liquidity (think: cash poor) and fraud (think: embezzling). Both of these situations can make it challenging for event organizers to pay expenses. At worst, they have been the downfall for a number of events in the United States and beyond. Part of the learning in this chapter comes from a case study of Tropfest in Sydney, Australia, where the event manager “lost” $500,000, or about half of the annual budget. This chapter looks to the literature on financial management and nonprofit management, particularly in nonprofits that “house” many events at this time. Co-author Patrick Frambes, an accountant and auditor specializing in nonprofit organizations, also provides sound advice based on his extensive professional experience.

Of course, most events are very time consuming to plan, organize, and implement; in other words, they require a significant commitment of human resources. Many organizations engage volunteers, in part, as a way to lessen the cost for human resources and, thus, bring down the overall cost of the event. (Such cost reductions can result in a larger net profit from the event, which may be invested in a nonprofit organization or social cause.) Volunteers bring other potential benefits to an event, including networks of family, friends, and co-workers who may be interested in participating, donating, or volunteering. Chapter 6 addresses the importance of volunteers in events with a particular focus on motivation, which undergirds volunteer recruitment, satisfaction, and retention. It provides insight through a case study of one of the most popular running events in the United States: the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. The chapter also provides a sample survey instrument for those event organizers who want to have a structured way to obtaining feedback from their own volunteers about their own experiences, rather than just reading about what volunteers from other events say about what motivates them and what makes them happy.

Another important aspect of events in the modern era is that most of them cannot be planned, created, and implemented by a single organization or entity. The need to collaborate is particularly true for large-scale civic events and festivals because they require a diverse and extensive set of resources— human, financial, legal, political, and technical—that are not possessed in totality by one entity in one sector. Dale Krane and Carol Ebdon examine the College World Series (CWS) baseball championship in Chapter 7. The CWS is a 64-year-old event that combines a major sports competition with a family-oriented festival. It is characterized by a mix of public and private partners who utilize inter-sectoral arrangements to host the event. The authors’ analysis of the CWS’s diverse governance is an opportunity for all of us to “look behind the curtain” and see the complex relationships in managing a major event. This study is relatively unique because, although existing literature provides considerable advice on how to produce a major event, it offers very little on how to foster and sustain collaborative arrangements across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Assessment

The next section of the book moves beyond implementation to evaluation. One characteristic of the modern era is that there are greater expectations for events—along with other projects and programs—to be assessed and evaluated. Of course, we’ve all read and seen economic impact analyses that suggest certain events have brought $100 million, $300 million, or some other unbelievable amount to a city or region. In Chapter 8, Steven Cobb and Douglas Olberding share their expertise in terms of using a more reasonable approach to developing credible estimates of economic impact. These authors explain important economic concepts such as direct spending, multiplier effects, and import substitution, and they provide tools for measuring them. They also highlight common sources of error that generally cause inflated estimates, such as investigator bias and poor definition of impact area. This chapter includes sample survey items to help readers who are interested with developing their own survey of event participants in order to assess economic impact.

Economic impact analyses have received much attention from scholars, event managers, government officials, and others. There are a couple good reasons. First, people in our society tend to be more interested in economic or financial outcomes—e.g., how much did it cost? how much does she make? how much did he lose?—relative to social, cultural, political, and other outcomes. Secondly, it’s just easier to measure economic outcomes relative to the various non-economic outcomes. With that said, scholars and observers have begun to give more attention to non-economic impacts of events, such as runs, walks, and music festivals. In Chapter 9, Douglas Olber-ding and I provide a conceptual framework to study the potential social impacts of an event, including social causes, social capital, community image, and local pride. It highlights a recent study of the social impacts of a major event with unique data from surveys of participants and volunteers. The chapter also provides some ways to measure the non-economic social impacts of an event for those who may be interested.

New Perspectives and Innovation

It seems that we, as an academy and as a society, have given a great deal attention to large-scale events—that is, major and mega events—but very little to smaller-scale events. This is probably a natural reaction to the fact that these big events draw more participants and, thus, have the potential to impact more people. Another reason may be that traditional media and now social media tend to pay more attention to people, places, and things that are big or even huge. (Bigger is better, right?) But Chapter 10 makes the case that smaller-scale community events can be both interesting and impactful. Specifically, Whitney McIntyre Miller and I address how certain...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors
• PART I Introduction and Creation
• PART II Implementation and Management
• PART III Assessment and Evaluation
• PART IV New Perspectives and Innovation
• Index