What #RushTok Can Teach Us About Event Day

If you’ve spent time on social media lately, you may have seen the sorority Bid Day posts taking over #RushTok.

Massive balloon installations.
Matching outfits.
Custom swag.
Lots of hugging & screaming.

There’s a lesson here for nonprofit events that goes beyond the production budget:

Bid Day may look like the end of recruitment, but it’s really the beginning of community.

The investment in the experience is equal parts celebration of the moment and recruitment for the future. Every photo, reveal, and shareable moment gives the in-person experience a life far beyond the people who were actually there.

As we head into fall event season, it’s worth thinking about:

How will your event live on? Are you creating moments participants will want to capture and share, extending your reach into their networks?

How are you helping participants feel like they belong? Are you creating opportunities to build relationships with your mission, your organization, and one another?

What are you inviting participants into next? How can you use that moment of peak excitement to keep them connected, bring them back, and inspire them to bring others along?

Event Day may be the culmination of months of fundraising, but it shouldn’t be the end of the relationship.

Celebrate what they accomplished. Then make them excited about what comes next.