Cocktail Parties: Are they effective?

I am reading a marvelous account of the Prohibition era titled “LAST CALL,” written by part-time Wellfleetian, Daniel Okrent.  This is a MUST-READ.

One of the many, many things that I learned is that cocktail parties – the idea that you would bring guests into your home just to drink alcohol and not eat dinner, too - began as a by-product of Prohibition, when people who could obtain liquor would hold a drinking party at home for their friends.

So I asked myself, what function do these parties serve nowadays?

I have attended, planned, and co-hosted many of these parties. Looking back, it seems that the best ones were meant to give something back to those invited.  And if, by the way, we raised money for a great cause, well, that was even better.

Cocktail parties can be a great way to retain donors by thanking them for their gifts and their commitment to your cause.  It can remind donors that your cause is also their cause. (It is important to find ways to do this regularly.)  And it can be a way to recruit and retain valued volunteers.

If your cocktail party is designed to be a giveback, then your organization’s supporters will happily bring new friends – potential supporters – to meet you and the others who lead that group.  That makes it a good way to expand your organization’s friends.  And I know – since you read my blogs – that you’ve heard me on that issue!

Nothing is more important than keeping your old friends and making new ones, just like the grade school song says: “Make new friends, but keep the old/ One is silver and the other gold.”

How true!

So, yes, hold some cocktail parties!  Have fun, give back, and help your organization be sustainable over time.

Cheers!