Easter Sunday has been in observance since time immemorial and the significance of it surely isn’t unknown. Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is always celebrated on a Sunday, and marks the end of Holy Week, it marks the end of Lent.
The busiest organizations during this season are churches. Easter fundraising gets really big and with each year, nonprofit fundraising ideas become more innovative. GiveCentral also has an article solely focused on easter fundraising ideas that you can adopt and execute.
For events and services related to Easter, there are a few points that should be included on your list in order to ensure the success of your service. Let’s have a look at this checklist and how you can go about it.
Promotions
Be it social media or word of mouth, spreading awareness about your Easter service is a must. Get your volunteers to design some creatives for social media promotions; request your church members, friends, family and supporters to share the same. Make sure that you start spreading the word two weeks well in advance.
It all starts at the parking
Your first impression will be your last impression and this logic never gets old. When people reach the venue, they should feel positive vibes from the parking lot itself. There should be volunteers guiding people on where to park and which way to proceed, the goal is to be well organized. You can also make special arrangements for differently abled guests and kids too.
Enquiry desk
There needs to be a table that will give away all the required information that your guests might want to know. Make this a central location where visitors can learn more about your church through conversations. The volunteers or staff member assigned to this task should be well trained so that they can answer any question that may come up.
The meet and greet
Greeters are an important part of your congregation, you must make sure that you have them in place. They are the ones to make people feel welcome and in most ideal cases, make them want to come back for more gatherings. Really, nothing beats the impact of a warm smile and a welcoming handshake.
Ushers
As we speak of meet and greet, the role of ushers come in as a support to that of the greeters. You need volunteers known as ushers to lead visitors inside the venue and take them to their respective seats. A well trained usher team will make your guests feel less lost and this is important on a high attendance weekend like Easter.
Security
Although an Easter gathering is usually a peaceful one, that doesn’t minimize the requirement for a good security. There are kids who will be coming with their parents, so for the safety and betterment, a few volunteers can be assigned to keep a watch on the campus during and after the event.
Arrangement for easy identification
In order to avoid confusion among your guests, have badges or t-shirts made for each department – be it ushers, volunteers outside and inside the venue, security, speakers, greeters and so on. This will make it easier to identify people with their duties and even if a visitor has to approach somebody, he/she would know where to go and what to ask.
Clean restrooms
A restroom is that one spot where your visitors would want to feel relaxed. Therefore, the work segmentation for your event should also include maintenance of the restrooms and checking on it after every interval. Clean restrooms send a message to visitors that your church cares about their visit and well-being.
Volunteer briefs
As you gather volunteers and build your dream team for Easter Sunday, prepare well in advance. Brief your volunteers very thoroughly and perform rehearsals on execution of duties and responsibilities. Your volunteers can be given the freedom to choose the responsibilities they want to take up; do not forget to thank and appreciate your volunteers after the service.
Overflow plan
Gatherings and services are expected to witness a big crowd on days like Easter Sunday and Christmas. Therefore, the ready available seats might fall short; have a back up plan that can be put to use in case of any overflow. This is more like having a crisis management plan for your congregation on Easter.
After your church service ends, greeters can be made to see the guests off in a warm manner. In case of new visitors, do make sure to have arrangements of follow-up programme.
Taking the Easter spirit forward, the week leading to Easter can be used as a time to serve others. Connecting with other churches or nonprofit organizations and fundraising for a cause together doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
