5 Revenue Generating Games for your next Fundraising Event

So you are planning a Fundraising Auction! That is so exciting, and I know how much work that can be to get going. If you are like me, you are probably looking for all of the ways to increase revenue at your event besides the Auction and Fund-A-Need.

Lucky for you, I’ve rounded up my 5 Favorite Revenue-Generating Activities for Auctions.

Wine Pull or Whiskey Wall

This is an easy activity to set up and run. As the organization you will get wine, whiskey or spirits of your choice donated to your event.

See how to get booze donated to your event here!

Donors will pay a fixed amount to blindly pick a bottle of whatever you are serving up! Some bottles may be worth less than the given price and some bottles will be worth way more. Learn more about how to play The Whiskey Wall or Wine Pull here!

Punch Board

This is a great activity for nonprofits who have a lot of smaller gift cards or smaller auction items that wouldn’t bring in a lot of revenue during the silent auction. The guests get to pay to play. I recommend $50 to play. When clients sell $25 opportunities, it tends to sell out really fast, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a sign they could have earned more money. They will punch the board and find out what item they won. It could be a gift card or a physical item or literally anything that the organization had donated but didn’t put on the silent auction. See the best practices and full instructions of the Punch Board here.

The Dessert Dash

Would you spend $1,000+ on a cake? Me neither, but guess what? Your gala guests will. The Dessert Dash is a silent bidding system where the tables pool their bids together and submit them anonymously. When it is time to do the “dash” the facilitator will read the table numbers starting with the table with the highest bid and goes down from there. Each table will send their designated dasher at the time of the reading and they will literally run to pick out the dessert for their table. This is a profitable and fun way to bring in a lot of extra cash for your fundraising event!
Learn more here.

Heads and Tails

If you’ve ever been to a gala fundraiser, you’ve probably played “Heads and Tails.” This is a game that guests pay to play and the winner gets a prize which is either a donated item with broad appeal or something like half of the pot raised.
To play, the facilitator will flip a coin and guests will predict if it will fall on heads (by placing their hands on their heads) or Tails (by placing their hands on their booty). Those who guessed wrong are out and those who were correct stay in the game. You play until there is only one play staying. See the full rules, best practices and a video example of Heads and Tails Here

Golden Ticket

The golden ticket is a high end raffle where the winner gets to pick one of the live auction items from the auction prior to the live auction starting. The tickets should be priced high enough to accommodate an exclusive raffle so people realistically feel like they can win. Bidders will purchase the tickets like in any raffle and the auctioneer will pick the ticket prior to the live auction and ask which item they want. I’ve seen these raise $10,000 (100 tickets sold for $100 each) and then have the winner auction their ticket off raising an additional $5,000! See the best practices for the Golden Ticket so you can have a successful event!

What will you try?

I’d love to hear which of these you are most looking forward to trying at your event! Keep in mind that too many activities can spread your guests thin and end up losing you money in the end, so pick one or two of these to beef up your next fundraising event so you can raise more money!

How one nonprofit raised 50% over goal at their golf tournament

What if you could raise more money at your next event? What would that mean to your organization? Just think of all the amazing things you could do!

Like you, Lift Up, was grateful for their sponsor who chose them as their nonprofit of choice for their annual golf tournament. They were bringing in some extra money for their organization, but saw so many opportunities where they could engage donors better and raise more money so they could make a greater impact. This volunteer-run organization gives away 100% of the money they raise and tackle issues all over the world meeting the needs of people most other people don’t even know exist.

This year they set an ambitious goal of raising $80,000 to build a school in Peru. This was more than they had raised in the past, but they set themselves up for success so they thought they could do it. And they did, plus an extra $42,000 for a total of $122,000 raised!

So how did they raise 50% above goal at their event this year?

1. They took control of their event

   Instead of the golf event being a corporate event with a nonprofit benefactor, they turned it into a nonprofit fundraiser with a corporate sponsor. This allowed them to have more control of how the event was managed.

2. They invited the right people

   With having more control of their event, they were in charge of the guest list. So instead of stacking the room with corporate employees who knew nothing about them, they invited sponsors and business leaders in the area and created a higher end experience for the people who attended. If you are having a more intimate event and are unsure who to invite, check out this post I shared on hybrid events, but is totally applicable to any event where you need to be picky about the guest list.

3. The educated guests before the program started

   They had very short videos (less than 30 seconds) playing in the golf carts that would turn on when golfers pulled up to certain holes. This helped remind guests WHY they were there and educate them on the mission and the goal for the day. This helped keep golfers from being surprised when they showed up to the dinner and were asked to partner with them.

4. They added a Fund-A-Need brought in a Fund-A-Need Expert

   They brought in a professional auctioneer who’s expertise was in the Fund-A-Need ask. Yes, me. I’m the Fund-A-Need Expert. I was able to consult with them before the event to walk through their program and help them create a timeline that ensured we were doing the Fund-A-Need at a time when guests were most engaged. We had to make sure they were fed, but not lethargic. Energized, but not too drunk. So we created a short and sweet (5 minutes) lead up to the Fund-A-Need featuring the organization’s founder and then I stepped in and facilitated their very first Fund-A-Need, which raised $45,000 in 10 minutes. At this point we were at $85,000 for the day, but had not considered auction totals yet.

   As a fund-a-need expert, I’ve learned exactly what audiences respond to and how to build connections to the organization. This allowed me to take the key points and data shared by the founder and make it personal. Rather than $68,000 to build a school for a 1,000, I asked them to send 10 kids to school for $680, which had hands in the air faster than any $500 ask could have done. I was able to take their mission and make it personal. This allows for an ask that is shame-free and inspiring. Guests left the event feeling accomplished and impactful - which they were.

5. The had very specific goals

   Going into it, they were not just going to “see how much they could raise.” But instead, they picked 3 projects they wanted to fully fund, which came to $80,000. As we got closer to closing the gap, the audience was not willing to give up. As we surpassed our goal during the Fund-A-Need, I asked what other projects we could fund, and used those as new benchmarks for the audience as we moved into the live auction and closed out the evening.

Mission Success

Bringing in a Fundraising Auctioneer and Fund-A-Need expert will most definitely raise more money at your event, but the only way to have true success is to do the leg work first. The room needs to have the right people and they need to be prepared and educated about your mission. So how can you make your next event profitable? Consider these questions:

Does this guest list have capacity (or interest) to give?

How are some ways I can share our mission with them before the event even starts?

Do I have someone who can clearly communicate our mission and make an impactful ask?

Start with these questions and go from there.

As always - Happy Fundraising!

How to know which auction items will sell well at your fundraiser

So you are planning a fundraising auction and you want to stack your event with stellar auction items! But how do you know if anyone will buy them? I know these are the things that keep you up at night, so I’m here to help. You don’t have to go into your auction willy nilly just hoping that you picked the right items. You can be prepared and validate which items will sell at your event.

How to know which items will sell well at your fundraiser?

Look at previous data

The first and obvious thing you can do is to pull the reports from previous events. If you use a mobile bidding system, all of that data will be easily accessible. You can pull the live auction items and see which ones sold the highest and try to solicit items that are similar for this year.

What if this is our first event? Don’t worry, if this is your first event and don’t have the data to pull. This is your first year and you are just getting to know your audience. Instead focus on a varied live auction line up to ensure there is something for everyone. This will appeal to a broader audience and allow you to tap into different donors interests rather than focusing on a few specific spenders in the audience.

CHECK OUT THIS POST ON THE 5 TYPES OF LIVE AUCTION ITEMS YOU NEED FOR A VARIED LIVE AUCTION

Poll your attendees

Send out a Google Form to your past attendees and straight up ask them what items they would like to bid on this year. This is a good opportunity to get feedback and direction on your event in general. Just make sure to keep the survey short. If you have too many questions, you run the risk of people giving up and not submitting the survey. So focus on short form answers or ranking questions to help get guidance from your attendees. This is also a good opportunity to ask them if they have any good ideas or connections for auction items. I had a client do this and it turns out they had a donor on their list who was a Food Network featured chef and they offered a private dinner for their live auction! You never know what you’ll get!

Focus on items with a broad appeal

Auctions raise money by having people bid against each other and the more bidders you have, the faster those bids go up. Focus on finding items that would intrigue many people rather than focusing on niche high-end items. I’ve done events where they have a piece of art valued at well over $10K and have struggled to find even one bidder willing to raise their hand at the minimum bid, while with the same audience sell a pizza party at a brewery for several thousand dollars. Curating unique experiences that would interest many different people in your audience is important.

Consider your audience

What does YOUR audience care about? Focus on what brought your audience together: your mission. A great way to appeal to your specific audience is creating Mission-Centered Experiences. These will appeal to your audience while costing you next to nothing to curate.

Ask your auctioneer

If you are working with a professional fundraising auctioneer who does these events every weekend, they should have great insight into what people in your area are bidding on currently. Every year I put out a post updating what items are selling the best and the auction trends that are popular. They’ll have the best insight.

Questions?

Hey! What questions do you have about your live auction. Pop them in the comments below, because I’ll be checking back to answer those for you! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

This is what happens if you have fewer items in your fundraising auction

Planning a fundraising auction or gala can take a lot of work and the idea of soliciting new items can be overwhelming. I get it! What if I told you that you don’t need as many auction items in your auction?

What if I told you having fewer auction items will actually raise you more money?

How?

Well, there are a couple reasons for this.

Supply & Demand.

Simple and straight forward. The fewer auction items available to your attendees mean that the bids will compound on the items that exists rather than being spread over hundreds of items. Not everyone will walk away with an item or spend money in the auction, but that is the magic of it. Those bidders will have more money to spend in your Fund-A-Need. So not only are your auction items raising more money, but you will begin to see more revenue in your Fund-A-Need.

Your mission matters

The second reason is that more and more, people are caring less about getting something in return for their money. When we remove distractions like hundreds of auction items, you can focus on the core of your mission which will lead to a powerful Fund-A-Need. Auctions are still a powerful for building momentum and raising literal thousands of extra dollars at your event, but a Fund-A-Need will capture donations from more of your audience and allow you to develop lasting relationships with them as donors.

CASE STUDY: Campfire MN

I had a first time client this year called Campfire MN (they provide outdoor education opportunities to underprivileged youth in our community). I do not have the official Fund-A- Need totals yet as it was very recent, but am happy to send them once I receive them.

Here is a note from their development person about the live auction,

“And in terms of revenue, our live auction did so much better than last year (6 packages gained $10,400 revenue) whereas this year 3 packages gained $13,000. Our Fund A Need was extremely successful as well! Thank you again.”

We intentionally reduced the number of live auction items to keep momentum high for the Fund-A-Need moment so we could engage more donors. In the live auction, with similar items as they had the year before, I was able to increase the average auction price item from $1733 (with another auctioneer) to $4,333 (with me as the auctioneer). The Fund-A-Need was increased from $28,860 in 2017 (with their previous auctioneer) to $38,550 in 2018 (with me as their auctioneer).

This is not an isolated experience. Time after time, I work with nonprofits who are tired of spending weeks or months soliciting items or paying out the big bucks to consignment shops who are going to take the majority of what they “raised” in the auction.

You can do this too!

How many auction items should you have?

For a Live Auction shoot for 4-6 items. This is enough to build momentum, but won’t be too long to take away from the mission of the evening or lose the interest of the non-bidders in the crowd.

For a Silent Auction try for 1 item per 5-10 guests. I can hear you sighing with relief from here. You. Are. Welcome.

Are you going to try reducing your items this year? Do it! You can thank me later.

4 of best selling auction items for your nonprofit gala in 2021

As a fundraising auctioneer, I get asked two questions more than any other question. The first question is “What auction items are selling best?” And the second is “How do I get good auction items donated?”

Over the next few weeks (heck maybe months… we’ll see where this takes us), I’m going to answer these questions for you and then some!

It is only fitting that we start with the first question: What auction items are selling best?

I have a popular blog post that I wrote called “The 5 types of items you need on your live auction” that goes over the basics that will help you plan a well-rounded live auction, but let’s dig into what is selling best RIGHT NOW, in 2021.

What auction items are selling best in 2021:

Outdoor Experiences

This was something we saw a rise of in 2020 and seems to be continuing in 2021. With all of the restrictions on indoor activity and in restaurants, donors are craving outdoor experiences more than ever. Some examples that we sold this year were:

• Guided Fishing Trips

• Golfing Packages

• Snowshoeing Experiences

• Private Box at an outdoor music festival

• Top Golf Party

• Boat rental

These types of items sold much higher than similar sporting experiences that would be done inside a venue or in a large crowd.

Anything Fitness Related

In a similar fashion, people were looking to get active and move their bodies this year. The experiences that came with exercise equipment or outdoor sporting experiences continued to sell well above retail value. These were things that in the past, I would have recommended putting in your silent auction, but now due to the broad appeal, definitely need to be in your live auction. Some examples I have sold lately are:

• Paddle boards

• Peloton (went for nearly 2x retail value)

• BowFlex Weight set (hard-to-find fitness gear is great)

• Private Yoga class

• Wellness retreat

Domestic and Local Travel

It will be a little while before the international travel becomes the hit again. With another year filled with uncertainty, gala guests (virtual gala guests) have been bid on travel when they don’t know if they will be able to cash in the trip. So when looking for trips to book, think domestic or even a getaway that is driving distance. Many of my clients are in Minnesota so northern MN getaways tend to go well. People don’t know if they’ll take time to go to Italy in the next 2 years, but they can guarantee they can drive 3 hours for 4 days sometime this summer. Some examples include:

• Family Disney Getaway

• Stay at a Luxury Cabin

• Colorado Ski Resort

• Guided hunting or fishing trip in Montana

Booze

Yes. This has been the item that have consistently sold above and beyond in the auctions this past year. Whether it is a live auction whiskey tasting experience or a margarita basket in your silent auction, bidders are going nuts for booze this year. We can avoid the question of whether this is a healthy obsession or not, and just recognize that this is what the people want. The best part is that you can get alcohol donated to your gala so that all the revenue goes straight to your bottom line. Some examples for Live Auction alcohol items would be:

• Private wine tasting with food pairings

• Wheelbarrow of Booze

• Wall of Wine

• Brewery/Vineyard/Distillery Tour

If you are looking to stock your silent auction, cocktail baskets are very popular. This is where you would pick a cocktail and add all the fixings and glassware necessary. Popular cocktail baskets include:

• Moscow Mule Basket

• Old Fashioned Basket

• Margarita Basket

What will you try?

Which of these items are you most excited to get for your auction this year? Let me know! It will be fun to see what you come up with!

This is what a million dollar Hybrid Gala looks like - Event Review

Last year we all scrambled to figure out how to host virtual galas, and this year we are on a new learning curve as we try to navigate Hybrid Events.

To plan Hybrid Events, we are taking the best practices we learned from a year of producing virtual events and finding ways to make it work in a hybrid setting with a live event.

In this post you will see a real hybrid event I did last week.

The view you are seeing are what the virtual audience saw from home. As you can tell this event was highly produced by Big Event Pros with a partnership with Ann Plans.

This was an event hosted at a private facility (the school’s very own field house) with 250 guests in attendance. Their normal event would be hosted in this same room but with 800 guests, so this felt very small to them. They had several watch parties viewing from different locations accounting for an estimated additional 400-500 virtual guests.

Below the video, I will cover what I thought went well and what I might improve on going forward because I want you to have access to best practices!

What went well:

So much went well at this event. If you watched to the end, you’ll know that this event grossed over $1,000,000 and our live auction was a hit! However, I will go over some of the things I thought this group did really well.

They started the event on time

Their producers made sure the event started on time. Dinner was served at 6:45 sharp so people had plenty of time to eat before program began at 7:30. For the virtual audience they had a preroll running 15 minutes before the event began and that countdown you see at the beginning of the video was shown right at 7:30.

They had a dynamic stage set up

The 40 foot screen behind the stage may feel huge for an audience of 250 guests, but it made the virtual show so much more dynamic. The screens also helped fill up the room. This event would have had 800+ guests on any other year, but this year they had 250 guests in the room and about 400-500 viewing from home or watch parties.

They encouraged watch parties

For the guests who didn’t attend in person, there were several options for watch parties. One watch party met at another venue with 100 guests in attendance and there were several other watch parties at people’s homes. This encouraged more competition and accountability for people to give. It also allowed people to save money on tickets which they spent on the auction and fund-a-need itself.

They had a plan to engage the virtual audience in the live auction

One thing that suffered with virtual events was the live auction because there is no way to create the momentum that an auctioneer creates in the room (If you go to 1:32, you’ll see me raise $50,000 with one fully donated item). In order to do a traditional live auction, we had to find a way to get the virtual viewers to be able to bid in real time. We did this with proxy bidders in the room. Virtual guests were instructed prior to the event and during the event to call a number to let the organization know they wanted to bid on a certain item, and our proxy bidders would call them just before we sold their item. You’ll notice I featured silent auction items to help fill time between each item to account for any delay. The virtual bidders would be on the phone the entire time and the proxy bidder bid on their behalf. It worked okay, but without having virtual bidders in the room I was unable to read their body language or directly communicate with them which made it more challenging to keep them in the auction. We had about 6 callers from the virtual audience of 400+, and only one item was sold to a virtual bidder.

The event was highly produced

I mean, just watch it. The floating camera work alone added to the production value of this event. They wanted to give it a professional feel like watching the Oscars and I think Big Events Productions and Ann Plans nailed it on the head. They really did a fabulous job with this event. It was engaging and easy to watch. This definitely came at cost due to extra equipment and staff required to put on this level of a production, but it allowed for the event to be extra engaging and if you watch, you can see how much money we raised from that room of 250, and if you do the math you will know that much more came from the virtual audience. So it was worth it to give them a show that was worth watching. This was the first hybrid event for this production team, so I’m sure if you asked them they’ll have some things they’d improve upon, but I’ll go ahead and say that they set the gold standard with this event.

What I would change:

Obviously this event went really well. We went above goal, it was their highest grossing live auction ever, they did very well and everything they did worked perfectly for this group. Keep all of that in mind as I share some things I would change. Suggestions will vary from group to group.

Shorten the program

I could almost hear your gasp when you looked the youtube video and saw that it was 2 hours long. I hear you! That’s nuts. One thing we learned from virtual events was how to get to the point with the programs. We had tight 30-40 minute programs and we would let them be on their way. I think the 2 hour long program worked for this particular audience, but I would not recommend this be the standard for every hybrid event going forward.

Ways to shorten a live program:

Have as many parts preproduced as possible. You saw the beginning video and the video just before the “Friends of Hill-Murray” (aka Fund-A-Need) were both preproduced, but to shorten it even more, they could have preproduced the acceptance of the presidents award to honor their recipient. Again, due to the nature of the recipient and that his family and legacy filled 25% of the room, it worked for this event.

Keep the live auction at the end of the program. They did this well. They got through the bulk of the program prior to the live auction so people who didn’t care about bidding on the live auction could log off if they wanted to. Another option is to not stream the live auction at all and just keep it for the audience in the room. You will notice that one of the items did sell to a virtual guest, so for them it was worth it and they made a couple thousand extra dollars by allowing the virtual audience participate.

Overall this event went very well

I always say there is no one size fits all solution for events, but they followed some best practices that allowed their event to be wildly successful. They also followed their gut with the length of the program and allowing their virtual audience to be involved in the live auction and it paid off. It is important to know your audience and talk to your event producer and auctioneer to ensure your event is just right for your donors.

6 Ways you will raise money at your Hybrid Fundraising Event

When my cousin got married, she decided she’d have a small intimate wedding and follow up a few weeks later with a larger reception. My uncle said it was great because he got to pay for two different weddings. Okay, he is very sarcastic, and it was less than ideal for him (but my cousin was so happy and got to wear her dress twice, plus she is still married with a beautiful family).

As you consider planning a Hybrid Gala, you might be feeling like my uncle. Oh, YAY! Now we get to pay for 2 events!

Well, I have some good news and bad news for you.

The Bad News is that your expenses will go up a little bit depending on HOW you approach your Hybrid event.

The Good News is that you are opening up your event to new donors and ways to bring in revenue for your event.

Here is how you will make money at your Hybrid Event

Ticket Sales

Unlike the strictly virtual events we experienced throughout 2020, you can start charging ticket prices. Because the events will be more exclusive, you might even want to raise the ticket prices a bit. If you’re not sure how to price your tickets, make sure you check out this post. They Virtual portion of your event can still be free, which will open you up to new donors.

Sponsorships

You get to involve sponsors in your event, and with your Hybrid event you can offer them MORE opportunities for exposure. There are so many ways to engage them, and if you are not sure what levels should include what perks for your donors, I have this sponsorship guide below for you. Previously this has only been available to the students in my DIY Virtual Gala Course, but I know it will help you so I’m going to give it to you for free. This will break down different sponsorship levels and include recommended offerings for each level. You can copy this directly or add to it add to it as needed based on what your organization ha to offer.

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Grab this sponsorship level guide that was previously only available in my DIY Virtual Gala Course

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Silent Auction

Did you know that in 2020 silent auction items were consistently selling at 150% retail value with my clients. This is a huge increase in what the average was at live in-person events just a few years ago (60% retail value). Why did this happen? With virtual events, more people were able to attend and bid which quickly drove up the auction prices. The mobile bidding technology made it so easy to automate those bids and the push notifications made sure they didn’t miss out on the things they wanted. As we move into hybrid events, I recommend keeping the silent auction open to both the live audience and virtual audience and open the auction about 3-5 days prior to the event to create hype.

Live Auction

One thing that did not do well with virtual galas was the Live Auction. Those large ticket items that normally go far above and beyond retail value were selling for value could not gain the momentum they normally do in a live crowd. Partially because during most of 2020 people were hesitant to bid on travel or group experiences when they didn’t know if they could use them, but also because there is no perfect way to reproduce that energy in a live event. So the exciting thing about Hybrid events is that we’re anticipating seeing the silent auction items stay high due to the broader audience reach while the Live Auction revenue will be increasing again. Make sure you check out this post to see what 5 auction items you should be having on your Live Auction

Fund-A-Need (Open Donations)

This is likely going to be your largest revenue generator of the night. This is the moment your event is working towards. Your whole program should crescendo to this moment. The speakers you choose. The stories you tell. All your pre-event marketing materials will be designed to set this moment up for success. In the live portion of your Hybrid Event, you can go back to a traditional paddle raise OR opt to have your live audience enter their bids through their mobile device with the at-home audience. My preference is the traditional paddle raise with a live audience because it creates an unbeatable energy and holds donors accountable and allows for public recognition among their peers. While the live audience is raising your paddles, your auctioneer can also recognize donors who are giving from the comfort of their homes.

Revenue Generating Activities

Now that we’re going back to in-person events, we can bring back in-person activities like the Wine Pull, Raffles (check your local laws about how to integrate these with the at home audience), Golden Ticket, Heads & Tails and other games and activities that will boost revenue at your in-person event. With the smaller head count, I recommend picking one or two activities rather than stacking the night with games. Remember, we want most of the focus to build up to your fund-a-need.

In summary

You’ll have lots of great ways to bring in revenue at your event, and when you add the virtual option to your in-person event it opens up your event to new donors or out-of-towners who attend and are able to give.

How much should you charge for tickets to your Hybrid Fundraising Event?

Events are coming back, slowly but surely. However, we will not be seeing ballrooms filled with 1,000+ guests for a while still. So, the events that used to have 1,000 in-person guests are probably going to be sitting at 250-500 guests in person, with everyone else attending virtually.

We know that not everyone will be able to attend your in-person event. If you aren’t sure who to invite, make sure you check out this post on who should be attending your in-person event.

With fewer attendees, but similar expenses, how do you know what to charge?

The good news is that fewer guests, means fewer people to feed. However, you’ll still be dealing with the cost of the venue, AV, staff, etc, which means ticket prices will need to go up.

How to know what you should charge for tickets to your fundraising event?

Have a clear budget and charge accordingly

Make sure you know how much your event will cost. If your event will cost between $50,000-$60,000 and you plan to have 250 people attend, you should aim to charge $250/head. Simple. Take your budget and divide it by the number of attendees and make that your ticket price. If you don’t want to charge as much for your event, you will need to cut your budget and find ways to save money at your event. I know in the past, your event may have cost $100,000 and with 1,000 guests you could charge $100 a head, but now you are creating a more exclusive event and the ticket prices will need to reflect that.

obtain sponsors

I always tell my clients to aim to have the ticket prices cover the cost of the event, but to set a goal of having the same amount raised by sponsors, so that you start your event profitable. So if your event costs $60,000 to put on, and you have 250 guests at $250 ($62,500 total), you should also aim for at least $60,000 in donations from sponsors. This way your event is profitable from the beginning.

Have a FREE virtual option

The virtual option for your event will be FREE. This will allow anyone to attend your event even if they cannot afford to come in person. In hybrid events, the in-person portion will be more exclusive and the experiences there can reflect that, but the virtual option can still offer a great experience and a way for people to get involved with your organization. In 2020, we found that by offering free admission to virtual events, nonprofits were seeing a significant increase in new donors (up to 70% in some cases). I recommend bundling the cost of the virtual event in with the overall budget so that the ticket prices and sponsorships can cover the cost of the events.

Start the event profitably

These are just guidelines and recommendations for where to start with pricing. Based on your location and demographic you might find you can charge more or you may have access to even more corporate sponsors. The goal is profitability at your event, and starting with charging enough for tickets is a great place to start.

Which guests should you invite to your Hybrid Fundraiser?

Live events are starting to come back and you are excited, I’m excited - we’re all excited. However, we know that it will be a while before we can hit the scale of events we had prior to 2020. Many event venues are still only able to accommodate 25%-50% capacity in their spaces. So this means your gala that used to be 800 people is now shrinking down to 200-400 people, but you and I both know we can’t afford to raise half the amount of revenue at your event. So what do we do?

Enter Hybrid Events

A hybrid event is a live event that has a virtual component streamed for viewers at home, similar to the successful virtual galas you may have hosted last year. Your organization would get to have a live in-person event, but could include people who didn’t feel comfortable attending or who can’t typically afford the ticket price. Here’s where it gets tricky…

Who should you invite to your hybrid fundraising event?

Who makes “the cut” for an in person invite and who will be welcomed as a virtual guest?

First let’s take a look at Types of Gala Guests:

The Corporate Sponsor

These are the big wigs from who helped sponsor your event. They gave thousands of dollars of towards your organization and in return got their name on some things and a bunch of tickets to the event (which they hand out as rewards to their staff). Sometimes sponsors are personally involved in the organization and have a close tie to the work your organization does. More often than not, they don’t. It is usually a charitable write off for the organization and, like mentioned above, they tend to send their employees to fill their tables rather than their C-Suite executives.

Should they be invited to your in-person event? It depends (see below)

When they should get an invite to the in-person part of your event: When your corporate connection is because of someone who is personally involved in your organization (I find that they tend to also be a board member though) and they are passionate about the work you do.

What should you offer them instead of extra tickets or tables at your event? Get Creative! Give them more visibility. Name a volunteer award after them. Name a fundraising game after them. Name the virtual program after them. Publish their logo on the bid cards. The list could go on and on. There are so many more ways to add value to your sponsors that is more visible than a table and tickets.

The Corporate Sponsor Guests

These are the people that the corporate sponsor’s actually fill their front seat tables with. When I’m not at the employee table, this is usually where clients stick me, so I’ve spent a lot of time talking to these guests. What I’ve learned from them is that they are excited for a free date night out, they love the open bar, they have no idea what the organization does, about 30% of them give during the fund-a-need at the $25- $50 level and more often than not, they leave the event early.

Should they be invited to your in-person event? Nope. If you can avoid filling your precious seats with these guests, that is best. These are “cold” prospects who probably won’t donate or bid and you’ll have a hard time building a long term donor relationship with them.

What to do instead? Encourage the sponsor company to host a watch party at their company and get their employees involved this way. They could even send a company video or stream in from their site to say hi (hello, sponsor visibility).

Board Members

Board members are usually asked to sponsor a table and fill it with their most influential friends. These are people who are personally invested in the growth of your organization and have already invested time, knowledge, energy and money in the work you are doing. Some organizations will have more involved board members than others, but we can all agree they are valuable to your organization.

Should they be invited to your in-person event? Yes! Absolutely! They are going to be some of your most invested people in the room, and are likely to be some of your higher donors or even volunteer to be momentum donors for the evening.

Big Spendas

You know who these people are. These are the guests who give large donations year after year and are often the ones throwing their paddles up in the air to raise the bids on the auction items. If you don’t know who these people are , simply pull the last 3-5 years of reports from your events and take a look at the names and you’ll be able to see who is consistently winning auction items and giving at the higher donation levels.

Should they be invited to your in person event? I’m sure you know that the answer to this is: Yes. These high level donors are worth inviting and bringing to your in person event.

Low-level Consistent Supporters

These are people who consistently give to your organization and believe in the work you do, but they never give more than $500. They are probably active in the revenue generating games like heads and tails or the wine pull and definitely bid in the silent auction, but can’t spare much more than that at your event.

Should they be invited to your in-person event? It depends. These are loyal supporters and are committed to making an impact through your organization and that is worth celebrating and they should definitely be nurtured as if they are high rollers, because someday they may be your biggest donors! However, what this group lacks in financial resources they make up for in passion so another option would be to….

Personally invite these donors to be virtual gala ambassadors. Their role would be to host a virtual watch party and invite people to join them FOR FREE to watch. They are your organization’s hype people. Ask them to share on social media prior to the event, during the event and after the event. Ask them to forward the link to loved ones. Ask them to share in advance WHY they care about your organization and feature them in the preroll for your event or in the slide show at the personal event. This is a high honor position for them and will do a lot for your organization.

Employees and Volunteers

God bless the people who make your organization work day-to-day. They are the heart and soul of what you do. They deserve to be honored and I’m sure they deserve a night on the town, but the question is should they get a seat at your in-person event?

Should they be invited to your in-person event? No. I hate saying this, because they are so valuable to your organization, but when your goal is to raise as much money as possible, these are not the people to be filling your seat.

What to do instead? Volunteers and employees who will be at the event, should definitely be fed! I actually usually prefer the food that’s offered for the volunteers over what is served in the ballroom anyway. In the volunteer room, create a mini watch party that fits the parameters of the event. As the fundraising host of an event, I personally would give them and all the watch parties a shout out, “Give it up for all our watch parties who couldn’t be here with us, especially our amazing volunteers watching down the hall!”

If they aren’t at the event, I recommend an employee/volunteer appreciation event. Something of a smaller scale that costs less per head and celebrate them. Offer awards and prizes. This will cost your organization far less than the opportunity cost of giving those seats away in your in-person fundraising event.

Everyone else

Then there is everyone else. Maybe they donated once. Maybe they just found themselves on your email list or follow one of your social media channels. Whoever they are, they are likely cold to luke-warm donors.

Should they be invited to your in-person event? Nope. These all make great candidates for the virtual viewing. Invite them to join virtually. One amazing benefit we’ve learned from virtual events, is that they are great for people who wouldn’t normally shell out the big bucks for the ticket for the in-person event, but they are willing to take an hour out of their busy life to watch and can afford to bid in the silent auction or give at a lower donation level. Virtual events are great for obtaining new donors or education cold prospects on what your organization does.

Hybrid events force us to focus on quality over quantity.

With headcount restrictions, we can’t have the same number of people we used to, so make sure you are inviting donors that are invested in the success of your organization.

5 Things to plan your Hybrid Fundraising Gala

Exactly one year ago, I opened up my inbox and found it full with emails from my contracted clients telling me they needed to cancel their fundraiser due to the pandemic. My heart sank, first for me as I watched my entire business disappear in an instant, but I knew I wasn’t the only one suffering a loss. All of my clients were having to give up their biggest revenue generator of the year, so I knew we couldn’t let that happen. For many of my clients fundraising galas are the only way they are able to do the work that they do. We had to do something - anything - to help them.

Enter Virtual Galas

Over the past year my clients have successfully transitioned their in-person events to Virtual Galas. It was scary and overwhelming for them at first, but then as we continued to see more success and figure out the tried and true processes for what made them work, it became a breeze! I even launched a course to help smaller nonprofits produce their own virtual galas on a shoe string budget!

Will virtual gala’s replace in person events?

Absolutely not! While we learned that virtual galas had many MANY benefits to them (lower overhead, more attendees, similar or increased net revenue, increased sponsorship opportunities, ability to attract new donors, less volunteer management, etc), nothing can replace the energy of a live event. We saw a lot of success with virtual galas last year, and they will continue to be profitable going forward but at some point as vaccines are rolled out, and people start to take off their masks, guests and event planners alike will be ready to party.

Enter Hybrid Events

What is a Hybrid Gala?

A Hybrid Event or Gala is similar to a live in-person event that offers a virtual option to engage guests from home.

5 things you need to know when planning for a successful Hybrid Fundraiser:

1. Choose a venue with GOOD and reliable internet. Live streaming an event takes up a lot of bandwidth and will require reliable internet for it to work.

2. Invest in a good event producer. Having a professional who can call the shots and keep the program on track and flowing well will bring your more money than you will ever know. Or maybe I should say NOT hiring aa professional event producer will to cost you more money than whatever their fee may be.

3. Hire a professional Fundraising Host (hint: that’s what I do). A traditional emcee or a volunteer charismatic emcee will not know how to engage both a live in-person audience while also engaging an audience through a screen.

4. Focus on Quality over quantity during the in-person event (and let the ticket price reflect it). Because the event can be open to anyone virtually, don’t be afraid to make it feel exclusive and charge a premium ticket price. Then, allow the people watching virtually join in on the event for free.

5. Find ways to engage your at-home audience in the live event. They want to be recognized and they want to know that the in person audience knows they are there! Thank virtual gala attendees by name during the fund-a-need! Involve them in the raffle. Work to engage them in the live auction.

Hybrid events are going to be the trend through at least 2022

So it’s time to start brainstorming and get planning on the event.

Was this helpful? Sign up to be the first to receive my FREE Hybrid Fundraising Event Guide when I release it! My Virtual Gala Guide helped THOUSANDS of nonprofits plan profitable virtual galas over the past year, and trust me when I say that the Hybrid Guide will be just as jam packed with tactical tips and tricks.

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