Communities often have difficulty attracting residents to their social events, which can make it difficult to justify the effort and cost. Imagine a family-oriented HOA with 500 homes – with a healthy social budget of $50,000 per year. A community can do a LOT with this amount of money, but it is still only $100 per home per year. One of the most common challenges in this situation is when there are a lot of free or low-cost events that do not get a lot of community participation. In a community of 500, if it is the same 50 people attending all the time, that means the other 450 owners are funding the social activities for a small group. It’s important to gear your social events towards attracting the participation of a wide variety of people and making them cost effective.
Here’s what you can do:
- Offer diverse events that attract a wide variety of people.
- Get owners and committees involved to increase interest through word of mouth.
- Promote the events – well in advance, via flyers, emails, newsletters and meeting announcements.
- Measure performance to determine success. How many people participated? What was the cost per person?
- Consider small fees for certain events to cover the costs.
- Evaluate your events on an ongoing basis, do not repeat events that don’t have a high ROI (Return on Investment) - (FUN X PEOPLE) / COST
- Over time, establish a standard set of events that you can repeat every year. Figure out which ones have the best ROI – the most fun, with the largest group of people for the lowest cost.
What social events work best in your communities?
Which ones have failed?