We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Swaim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

We are a company that professionally gathers people at fundraising events and auctions. Our nonprofit clients are dependent upon those events to generate support, keep donors informed and engaged. So when COVID hit and we were unable to gather we were forced to rely on technology. Very quickly we started producing virtual galas. That work taught us the huge benefit to livestreaming events and now most of our event production is hybrid. We have adopted a protocol to continue to build relationships with donors by gathering folks in ballrooms for galas and auctions and then broadcasting that content out for a bigger reach and increased audience. This has helped nonprofits to be more versatile, to create easier access and increased inclusiveness in their fundraising events.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Swaim Strategies has been working in the fundraising event space for over 20 years. We are experts in helping nonprofits to increase their revenue and build community through gatherings. After producing fundraising events for The Grammy Awards, Sam Swaim and Kristin Steele saw the opportunity to help nonprofits apply neuroscience and technology to create impressive gatherings that help build missions and ultimately connect donors through story to increase their fundraising revenue. Swaim Strategies was launched in 2004 to help nonprofits move their fundraising efforts further. After producing nearly 700 events that now have a subsidary business called The Fundraising Event Co. that produces events around the country while Swaim Strategies has added education and hybrid technology to supporting more nonprofits in their gatherings and fundraising efforts. We are a small firm in Portland Oregon but work with nonprofits around the globe. Additionally you can find free educational resources and the weekly Fundraising Elevator podcast available on their website and on all streaming channels.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

COVID quickly could have put a stop to our business. But with the help of production partners like The AV Department and technology parters like Greater Giving we were able to quickly pivot into gathering people in a virtual space. We built a livestream studio within the first week that the pandemic hit and were broadcasting 3-4 virtual events a week through the first year of the pandemic. We rapidly grew our service offerings to include conferences and other virtual gatherings and grew our team and business to teach others how to do the same. It was a quick evolution but allowed our business to flourish and our clients to receive new resources and tools.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

As the needs of our clients grew out of the pandemic we had long term invested employees that we were looking to provide growth opportunities. Out of the growth we experienced we were able to bring on an employee as a co-owner and the managing member of our newest subsidary. This allowed us to have different branches of our business focused on key service offerings and allowed for our employees have increased growth and ownership opportunities. Now we have two businesses that collaborate and offer two different types of services. Swaim Strategies offers strategic consulting, education and training. While The Fundraising Event Co offerings full production support. These two businesses are able to refer work to each other and support each other in learnings and collaboration. But allow for distinct teams with distinct service offerings and provides the owners Kristin and Sam with the opportunity to focus on business development and growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.swaimstrategies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swaimstrategies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swaimstrategies
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swaim-strategies
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheFundraisingElevator
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/fundraisingelevator

Image Credits

Images photographed by Andie Petkus, Tom Cook & Chris Wodjak