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!

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.

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.

How One Little Girl Changed the Course of a Fund-A-Need

This weekend I had the honor of working with the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance. When you first walk in to their Black, White and Teal Gala, you instantly feel the love. Every single person in the room was in one way or another touched by Ovarian Cancer. There were survivors, spouses, children and friends who had lost someone to this disease. Everyone was decked out in the colors of the evening...Black, White & Teal. The room was a sight to behold.

The live auction was lively and the fund-a-need started like all others. They showed an inspiring video (which I always recommend) about a young girl and her dad who had lost her mom to ovarian cancer earlier that year. After losing her mom, she wanted to do something to make a difference. So this brave 8 year old girl, went door to door asking for donations to give to MOCA. It was a beautifully inspiring story and we were blessed to have her at the event. I started the fund-a-need like most others: $5000, $2500, $1000, etc... I got down to $100 & $50 and fewer hands were rising than normal. At this point, I asked the young girl how much she raised going door to door: $35.77. Instead of stopping at $50 donations, I turned to the audience and asked who would like to honor this young girl and her mom by matching the efforts she had done to raise funds. In a crowd of 400 people, nearly every bid paddle went up to commit to give $35.77. 

While the cause of the night, ovarian cancer, is an inspiring and personal cause that everyone in the room felt led to give financially. At the end of that fund-a-need, people weren't raising their hands for MOCA (I mean they were), but they were raising their hands for one girl who wanted to make a difference in honor of her mother. They stood behind this young girl who had a vision of making a difference and dreams of a day where no other boys or girls will have to lose their moms to Ovarian Cancer. This one girl's efforts multiplied beyond tenfold (more like two hundred fold). It was an honor to facilitate this group effort to make a difference. I pray that this sweet girl, will remember it forever.