Red Alert! What to do in an Event Emergency

When something goes wrong at your fundraising event (and something always goes wrong) it is best to have a plan in place and be prepared to respond decisively. Most mishaps at galas are minor, and require a small response. But if a true emergency does occur, it is best to be prepared. In a life-or-death situation, every second counts.

Designate a Single Point Person

Make sure one person on your event team is the go-to person in the event of an emergency. Tell volunteers and other staff to let this person know if there is an emergency. Have this person in a visible, accessible place throughout the event so they can be found if need be.

Have a Plan in Place

Equip your Emergency Response Person with a plan, and make sure they have the tools to carry it out. Make sure they have the direct line for local emergency response professionals readily at hand, and that they have adequate cell phone coverage to make the call. It doesn’t have to be a complicated plan, and can be as simple as: “If someone is choking on their food, call 911 immediately.”

If you are doing your event in a hotel ballroom or professional event space, find out who their emergency response team is and how to reach them. For example, the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco has a medical response team on duty 24/7, and respond immediately to emergencies in their ballroom – but only if someone lets them know.

Do Not Panic

Stay calm, keep your crowd calm, freaking out will only make the situation worse.

Act Quickly

Do not hope the situation will resolve itself and do not worry about the optics of what this will look like for your event or organization. If it is a life-or-death situation, every second counts. It is better to over-respond decisively than to fatally under-respond.

Give People Suffering an Emergency Some Space

If someone is experiencing an emergency at your event, do your best to give them space and privacy. Call as little attention as necessary to the emergency. Direct the audience’s attention elsewhere, and encourage the crowd to focus away from the emergency.

Be Prepared to Adapt

Depending on the severity of the emergency, you may have to radically change the course of your event. Engage your crowd honestly, and with respect, and they will help you achieve the most positive outcome possible.  

How to Deal with Competing Events

Planning and implementing a successful fundraising auction is challenging enough on its own terms, let alone when your event has to compete with other events for your audience’s attention. A sporting event that was announced long after you set your date, or another charity’s longstanding event can both have radically different impacts on your event.  

Here are some tips for avoiding unnecessary competition and dealing with unplanned competition:

Check the Social Calendar
If your event is moving to a new date, it is always wise to check the social calendar before you settle on a new date. Every city has a list of non-profit events (here in San Francisco the Nob Hill Gazette is a great resource). And if nine- to twelve-months in advance is too far out for a full listing of events, you can always look at the previous year’s calendar for your date to see what events exist around then.

Network with Similar Charities in Your Region
Establish relationships with the organizations who are in your same space, or who have crossover in your donor base. There are many great resources networking with other charitable organizations – Facebook groups, email lists, etc. Find out where your regional charitable peers participate and join them. We work with many organizations that actively seek to coordinate their events so as not to compete with each other.

Gala or Warriors watch party? How about both…

Message and Engage Your Donors
If you do find your event is in direct competition with another fundraiser that will impact your donor base, be proactive. Reach out to your big donors directly, encourage them to come to your event. If they are not coming, see if you can secure a donation from them to be used at your gala in their absence. We love proxy bids on auction items and gifts of all shapes and sizes for the fund-a-need.

Keep an Eye on the Sports Calendar
If you have any rabid sports fans in your donor base, you need to keep an eye on the relevant sports calendars. Here in the Bay Area we have been lucky enough to often have one or more professional sports teams in the hunt for a championship going back at least 20 years.

Playoff schedules get announced a few weeks before the games, so sometimes it is impossible to avoid competing with a major sporting event. When that happens, make a plan that works for you and the culture of your event. We can’t always recommend setting up screens and watching a playoff game as part of your gala, but we’ve done it.

Reach out directly to your donors who are sports fans and find out if sports are going to impact their participation in your extremely important fundraising. Offer them solutions such as, “we won’t announce any scores during the event so you can DVR it.” Always, always, always offer the opportunity to make donations or bids in absentia.

How to Prevent an Auction Takeover

It is a big challenge for any fundraiser when one person decides to take over an event and make it all about them. It shifts the focus of a gala, has the potential to derail the fundraising and could end up costing the event significantly.

There are no easy solutions for what to do once someone is already onstage, rambling on about their product, personal pet peeves, or other random tidbits. But there are a number of steps you can take in advance of your event to try and prevent any sort of auction takeover.

Set Clear Expectations

Tell each speaker how long they have for their speech before they start writing it. As a general rule, very few speeches need to be longer than three to five minutes.

Review All Scripts

It is reasonable to ask speakers to prepare for their time onstage by writing up their remarks in advance. It is also reasonable to ask to see that script in advance.  If someone’s script is too long, or off-message, seeing it beforehand gives you the opportunity to discuss that with them while there is still time to make edits and adjustments. There is little time to course-correct the night-of your event.

Designate a Stage Manager

Someone needs to be able to play the “bad cop” if need be, but it is also useful to have someone who is in charge of getting speakers on (and possibly off) the stage. From a show-flow standpoint, it is a waste of the audience’s time if the emcee introduces the next speaker, and that speaker is still seated at their table. Then the whole crowd has to wait while the speaker gets up to make their way through the tables to the stage.

Don’t let one of your speakers hijack your auction, have a plan in place to prevent podium piracy

Far better is to have a stage manager who ensures every speaker is at the stage, ready to go on when they are introduced, and encourage them to leave the stage if they speak for too long.

Have a Plan in Place

What do you do if a speaker goes on too long? Or launches in to an inappropriate tirade? How do you handle the worst-case scenario? At what point do you turn off a speaker’s microphone? (We’ve seen it happen!)

Create a plan and empower your stage manager to implement it. Hopefully none of those worst-case scenarios come to pass. But if you don’t have a plan in place, you’ll be scrambling to figure out what to do, instead of reacting immediately and decisively.

Should You Print Values in Live Auction Catalogs?

After you have solicited your auction items and written the copy for the live auction catalog, there is still one final decision to be made: Should you include the fair market value of your auction items in your catalog? Most committees see this as a yes or no option – print the fair market value or print nothing. There is a third option that often helps accomplish the goals of the catalog more directly: opening bid.

In addition to being a marketing piece, the catalog helps set bidders’ expectations. Hopefully, the catalog helps bidders establish a budget for how much they think they’ll need to spend if they want to win a particular lot.

If you print nothing in the catalog, you give your bidders no clues for setting their own expectations. Pricing for items with an easily identifiable retail value can be looked up online. For any “priceless” experiences, however, your bidders will be completely left to their own imaginations.

The traditional option is to print the fair market value of each lot in the catalog, and while this has worked fine for many events, there are still two main issues with this practice. First, it has the potential to set a ceiling by stating what each lot is worth. Second, some lots are, by definition, priceless. Guaranteed reservations at a popular restaurant, for example, have literally no declarable value. But the perceptual value is often ridiculously high.  

“Priceless” can be an acceptable substitute for fair market value on a small percentage of your auction catalog. However, if over half of your catalog is an experience that cannot otherwise be purchased, “priceless” and all of its synonyms begin to lose their power.

Printing the opening bid for each lot in your catalog manages expectations, honors fair market values, and accounts for “priceless” auction items. Informing bidders of where the bidding for each auction lot is going to begin encourages bidders to do some of their own math without placing a ceiling on value. It also helps to manage expectations when an auction lot has an extremely opening bid by removing the unnecessary element of surprise.

Printing the opening bids also makes sure your committee is doing its due diligence by evaluating each auction lot to find a fair and enticing starting point. The opening has to be appropriate for the lot – and your crowd.

Finally, if you are going to print opening bids in your catalog, you need to commit to them. The power of the printed opening bid evaporates if your auctioneer consistently drops to a lower price point.

Summer Olympics in Paris, 2024: How to get the Hottest Lot in Your Auction this Year

The auction lots that sell best are those that offer access to your bidders. Access to that which they could not otherwise obtain or access to relationships they wouldn’t otherwise be able to build. Professional sports championships and – every four years – the Summer Olympics usually do exceptionally well in most auctions.

And while the Summer Olympics are always popular, in 2024 the Olympics are going to be in Paris, one of the most desirable destinations in the world. If you could acquire tickets to the Olympics now, and build a package around them for next summer, it would be a huge addition to your auction in 2023.

Obtaining tickets is always a challenge. You can register for a drawing to “win” the right to purchase tickets by registering on the Paris 2024 website. They will be drawing winners until March 15th, and offering each winner a finite amount of time to purchase tickets for various competitions.

The list of available sports and rounds of competition are varied and very few Gold Medal opportunities are going to be offered in this drawing. But you could still easily build a very compelling Summer Olympic package for as little as $30/ticket.

Tickets to the Olympics may also be available to high-level Visa card holders. It is worth exploring perks and offers to see if any of your supporters are able to get tickets for you.

Once you have the tickets, accommodations are the next obvious challenge. As of this writing (2/15/23), AirBnb had not implemented surge pricing yet for Paris. I was able to find a number of flats and apartments available in very reasonable price ranges. Hotels are currently only booking through June of 2024, so pricing remains to be seen .

Is this all a long-shot? Yes. Would it be worth it if it came through? Absolutely. The best auction lots, after all, offer access to the otherwise unobtainable, and the Olympics are the pinnacle of hard to get events.

Gamblers like to know the odds

Raffles are an important revenue generator for most fundraising events. They provide a low-cost entry point for attendees to participate while simultaneously helping raise significant amounts. We consistently see raffles that raise $5,000 - $10,000 and occasionally see them in the $15,000 - $25,000 range.

Most people think the prize is the most important piece of a raffle and focus all of their attention on finding something they think will have universal appeal. While the prize is important, I argue that the number of tickets you are going to make available is even more crucial. 

Gamblers like to know the odds before they put down their money. When you limit the number of available tickets for a raffle, you are giving people a clear understanding of their odds. And a perceived “good chance” encourages people to pay a higher price to play.

Unlimited $25 raffle tickets aren’t as appealing – from a gambling standpoint – as 1 of 100 tickets at $50 each. Who knows how many people are going to buy one of those $25 tickets? But the $50 ticket? There are only 100 of those, and odds resonate with gamblers.

By limiting supply you also enable your staff or volunteers to create a sense of urgency: “Do you want a 1 in 100 chance to win this trip to Hawaii? There are only 50 chances left…” Tickets will run out. Buy yours now. For a limited time only.

There are a number of calculations that go into deciding how many tickets you should make available for a particular raffle and how much you should charge per ticket. First and foremost, you need to determine how much you want to raise in your raffle. Our recommendation is that any raffle should raise at least double the value of the donation.

Then you have to calculate how many tickets you think you could sell. If you’ve never done a raffle before and have no data to rely on, just know that you can’t expect 100% of your attendees to buy raffle tickets. Between 15% and 20% of your attendees is a reasonable assumption, if the raffle is compelling.

It is always preferable to have more demand than supply, so people will rush to get their tickets next year. Limit the number of tickets and increase the amount you raise in your raffle. People who participate in raffles are gamblers, and every gambler likes to think they are getting good odds.

Tall centerpieces hurt fundraising auctions

Everyone wants their event to look great. The challenge is to strike a balance between form and function, especially when it comes to the centerpieces.

Even though they are see-through in the middle, the paper planes on these center-pieces are obscuring the podium.

As auctioneers, our ability to engage a crowd is dependent upon two things: the crowd’s ability to hear us, and our ability to see them. It isn’t just the bidder’s paddles or numbers that we need to be able to see: we need to be able to look people in the eye, because it reveals a lot about their personality. Do they want to be played with? Do they want recognition? Are they smiling? Do they look to their spouse for the go-ahead between every bid? Are they looking to see who is bidding against them?

There is a lot we need to see from the stage, all of which enables us to raise more money for you in your fundraising auction. Tall, bulky centerpieces that block the line of sight from the stage to attendees’ faces hinder fundraising. They wind up costing you money – usually much more than you paid for them – in lost auction revenue.

If I can’t see the bidder as auctioneer, it means I have to move around on the stage until I can see them. Provided I know they are there, and know that they are trying to bid. But when I’m working around tall centerpieces, I usually just get to see the paddle number, jutting out over a mass of flowers.

If a bidder feels like they aren’t being seen, they either stand up or put their paddle down. Either are sub-optimal ways to get your crowd to engage.

Short, theme-appropriate centerpieces work best. They enable the people in charge of décor to flex their creative muscles without their vision literally getting in the way of raising money. If a designer insists on doing tall centerpieces, make sure they are as transparent as possible.

When in doubt, sit facing the stage at a table and ask yourself, “Could I look the auctioneer (or any other speaker) in the eye?”  If the answer is “no” you have to decide if there is anything you can do about it that night, or if it is an issue you’ll need to address the following year.  Because our goal is to lower barriers to supporting your cause, not build them.

Create your own traditions for your fundraising auction

2016 marks the 35th year that the Sun Valley Center for the Arts has held its annual wine auction. 2016 also marks the 22nd year that Atkinson’s Market has donated a collection of seven 3-liter bottles with an image of Sun Valley etched and painted across all seven bottles.

It is a big, impressive, beautiful lot. It is a definitive collector’s lot, and you see previous sets on display in major donor’s homes all over Sun Valley. And over the course of the past 22 years it has raised one million dollars.

The Atkinson's Market annual collection of etched and painted 3-liter bottles is one of many traditions at the Sun Valley Center for the Art Wine Auction.

Every year the image on the bottles changes, making each set unique. Discussions about the art on the bottles, who bought it last year, and who is interested in it this year are all part of the fabric of the weeklong event. Over the course of 22 years, the Atkinson’s Market lot has become as much a tradition as the Wine Auction itself.

I see lots of other examples of traditions like this: the dinner that takes place every year in the same supporter’s home, the trip to Italy to stay in one of the biggest donor’s vacation villa, the chilled magnum of champagne to open the auction. Whatever it is, traditions are a valuable part of any fundraising auction. Traditions provide a sense of continuity, and hopefully make things easier for your solicitation team by not requiring a major revamp of your auction every year.

Whatever your traditions are, acknowledge them, embrace them and make them a part of the fabric of your event. And if you don’t have any traditions yet, now is a great time to create your own.

Get attendees to (willingly) give you their contact information

Does your event face the challenge of getting attendees to give you their contact information? Do you have a lot of guests who sit at purchased tables who give you nothing more than their name and the name of the person whose table they are sitting at?

One creative solution we’ve seen to this challenge is to incentivize attendees to give their contact information by offering “free” entry into a raffle in exchange for their contact information. Use pre-printed slips that are handed out to every attendee, asking for name, email address and telephone number. Make all information mandatory in order to be eligible to win.

Then use a small prize from your silent auction, or solicit a small prize specifically for this raffle. One year an organization used a fine bottle of wine. The next year, they offered up a weekend getaway at a local resort (see the photo below). Their fish bowl of entry slips was full to the brim. And so was their contact database.

You can’t cultivate donors if you can’t get in touch with them. And donor cultivation is one of the three main reasons to hold an auction, right behind raising money and tied with messaging. So if you find yourself struggling to get contact information from your event’s attendees, give them good reason to give you their information. Then follow-up and give them even more good reasons to give you their support year-round.

Use a chair to make your fund-a-need more successful

The fund-a-need is the single most important element of the majority of fundraising auctions we conduct. The fund-a-need usually makes as much as or more than the combined total of the rest of the auction lots. In many cases, the fund-a-need generates three to five times more than the rest of the auction as a whole.

Statistically speaking, more people participate in the fund-a-need than the rest of your auction combined.

An item this integral to the success of your event and your organization deserves its own committee chair.

Typically, the fund-a-need falls within the purview of the live auction chairs. However, these are the people who have been tasked with soliciting auction lots, creating packages out of them, writing up their descriptions and then marketing them. They have a lot on their plate, and often they simply want to know what the staff has decided to do the fund-a-need for, and where to put it in the auction.

Make one person the chair of the fund-a-need, and enable them to focus on all of the small details that will help make the appeal more successful. The fund-a-need chair can:

• Work directly with staff to determine and define the fund-a-need;
• Identify ways to quantify the need so that it maps to every pledging level;
• Write the description for the catalog;
• Coordinate the testimonial for the night-of the event, including either the creation of a video or working to identify appropriate speakers; and
• Identify and solicit lead donors for each level of the fund-a-need.

With or without a fund-a-need chair, each of these steps is integral to the ongoing success of your fund-a-need. Putting one person in charge of all of them ensures consistency across the myriad tasks' timeline to help make it successful. Creating a fund-a-need chair also elevates the importance of the fund-a-need among those planning your event and auction.

A successful fund-a-need takes work, it seldom “just happens.” Getting other committee members to recognize that will change the perspective of the fund-a-need within your community, all of which will help make it more successful

It is the single biggest moment of your event, work to make it so.