What could your organization do if you raised 2x or 3x
more money at your fundraising gala?

 
 
 

Minnesota Wild Foundation "Wild About Children" Event Supporting Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota

 
 

The Minnesota Wild Foundation hosts an exclusive event every year to benefit the Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. The Minnesota Wild Players woo the guests and their foundation team curates Wild Hockey experiences that are truly once in a lifetime. After seven years of building their event, they finally decided they should hire a "real auctioneer" and asked me to work with them on their event. Year over year their donor base remained the same, the types of items remained the same and the number of guests remained similar. The changes we made were reducing the number of items on the live auction (you read that right, we had fewer live auction items and raised way more money), they had me conduct the auction, and they let me do a hard ask for their fundraising appeal.

Their guests responded with enthusiasm and generosity bringing in over 3X more than what they had previously raised at this event.

 

I didn’t get a chance to see you before you left on Thursday, but THANK YOU! We’ve heard nothing but good things about your services, specifically that you knew so much about our mission and were able to express it with ease.
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.
— Hannah G. - Campfire MN
Words cannot express our gratitude and appreciation for your work on Saturday night! I received countless remarks of praise for your work ... the crowd loved you! Even those folks in the back tables said they were able to hear the auction for the very first time this year, despite the other chatty folks in the back and despite the distance. That says a lot for our crowd! We do hope you’ll mark your calendar for next year!
— Katie W. - St. Joseph's School
Thanks so much for being a part of the event! We loved having you and have heard such great feedback on you from our Guests.
— Allie L. - Muscular Dystrophy Association
Thank you SO much for taking a chance and exploring a new world of possibility with us! It has been truly refreshing and emboldening to work with someone who “gets it” and knows what really matters is providing people with authentic and meaningful opportunities to connect and make change. Thank you for being amazing!
— Jenna M - American Refugee Committee
Everything was amazing yesterday! Thank you for making our event such a success! So many People told me how wonderful you are...you have such a gift at making fundraising fun and personable and our guests noticed!
— Jen W. Keystone Community Services
Thank you so much for all of your help Saturday night. The committee is thrilled with the results and all of the feedback from attendees has been outstanding. I can’t remember seeing an auction where every item went above published value, some well in excess of published value.
— Mark P. - Saint John The Baptist School
It was a pleasure working with Sarah for Wingspan Life Resource’s 20th Annual Power of Love gala at international Market Square. She reviewed our live auction list in advance, made sequencing recommendations and arrived early so she could observe our event from start to finish. She is high energy, charismatic, and was very engaged with our audience. Feedback has been very positive and we had a very successful evening with both our live auction and fund-a-need ask. She is terrific to work with!
— Darolyn G. - Wingspan Life Resources
Sarah’s expertise and personality made all the difference for our fundraising event! She helped us exceed our goals and made the process fun for everyone.
— Joel L. - Luther Park
Sarah Jean did a great job as an auctioneer and speaker at our Prior Lake Rotary Valentine Gala. She was very personable and engaging with the audience. I would highly recommend her!
— Adam B - Prior Lake Rotary
You did such an amazing job! WOW thank you so much. I received a lot of comments on what a wonderful change you were compared to other auctioneers folks had seen in the past.
— Yvette M. - Aim Higher Foundation
Sarah Jean was hired as our auctioneer for a first-time fundraising gala and she helped us raise more than $200,000 just through the auction! She was able to engage our audience right away and creatively encouraged their participation. She is confident, poised and has a wonderful stage presence! I heartily endorse Sarah Jean!
— Blaine T. - Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare
Thank you so much for a great Live Auction and Fund-A-Need! As I stated at the Gala, we more than DOUBLED our numbers from last year ... Everyone LOVED you and I don’t think we could have raised this much money without you!
— Sharon P. - Ontario Society of MN
I can’t thank you enough for the TREMENDOUS job you did for our Ruby Anniversary Gala on Wednesday night. We are all over the moon at the total amount we raised and everyone was pleased with the way you did it - warmly, with real knowledge of our mission and such positive energy. Thank you so much.
— Leslie J. - Graywolf Press
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the outstanding job you did last night at our auction. I had several parents come to me following the event and tell me what a great job you did and the rapport you had with the audience, the fun that you had with them and the great job you did.
— Ginger V. - Notre Dame Academy
Everyone is still raving about you Miss Thing!!! You rocked the house and they all want to know “who was that auctioneer?” So I am a tellin’ them! Thank you for helping us so so much! We raised a total of $50,000 for our first little gala event...wonderful for PRISM!!!
— Lisa J - PRISM
THANK YOU for doing our event again - we’re so thrilled to have you, and you always do such a stand-out job!!!!
— Leah D - Training to Serve
Hey, bidder, bidder, bidder! Sarah not only gets great results, it is so much fun to have her auctioneer our event. Her wonderful personality and always appropriate sense of humor have made her a “must have” for our annual Foundation dinner and auction. We count on Sarah to get people in the right mood and to bid with their hearts. She doesn’t fail.
— Jean W. - Mount Calvary Lutheran Foundation
Our live auction and fund-a-need was a great success! Thank you! You brought a new energy for the auction.
— Carl J - Holy Spirit Catholic School

Aim Higher Foundation | American Refugee Committee | Amplatz Hospital | Art Gaze | Ascension Catholic Academy | Bel13ve Foundation | Bethany Academy |Big Brother’s Big Sisters of Central MN | Breck Academy| Burroughs Community School | Campfire Minnesota | Cantus | Chapel Hill Academy | Children's Museum of Minnesota | Children's Palliative Care | Children's Surgery International | Cotter Schools | Division of Indian Work | Duluth Art Institute | Excelsior Elementary | Fairview Hospice | Family Enhancement Center | Faithful Shepherd Academy | FOCOS | Free Arts | Fridley School Foundation | Friends of MN Orchestra | Gillette Children's Hospital | Graywolf Press | Hand-in-Hand Elementary | Healing Haiti | Highland Catholic Elementary School | Holy Spirit School | Hope 4 Youth | Hopkins Rotary | Junior League of Minneapolis | Kenwood Elementary | Keystone Community Services | Kingdom Undone | Lifespace Communities | Luther Park Camp | Madison Claire Foundation | Magic for Macy | Matter | Minneapolis Heart Foundation | Minnehaha Academy | Minnesota Boat Club | Minnesota BoyChoir | Minnesota Children's Museum | Minnesota Wild Foundation | Miracle League | Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance | MN SNAP | Mount Calvary Lutheran Foundation | Muscular Dystrophy Association | My Health Teen Clinic | No Time for Poverty | Notre Dame Catholic Academy | Our Lady of Grace | Pacelli Schools | Pawsative Perspectives | Perpich School For The Arts | Prior Lake Rotary | PRISM | Prodeo Academy | Rein in Sarcoma | Reiser Relief | Saint Francis Regional Hospital | Second Harvest Heartland | Singers Community Choir | Southwest Minneapolis High School | Saint Joseph’s Catholic School | St. John The Baptist School | St. Stephen Church | Train to Serve | Tubman | Tulsa Junior League | Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus | University of Minnesota Foundation | Valley Outreach | Viva Coro Gala | Wayside House | Wayzata Family Learning Center | West Suburban Teen Clinic | White Bear Lake School District | Wildcat Sanctuary | Wingspan Life Resources | Women in Business | World Savvy | Wounded Warrior Project | Yellow Tree Theater | YMCA