The top 10 most exciting lots of 2016

At the end of each year I comb through every auction lot I sold and compile a list of the “most exciting” lots I sold that year. It’s an arbitrary assessment, based on the uniqueness of each lot, the creativity that went into the lot, the buzz generated at the event, and how much it sold for. A lot doesn’t have to be a huge seller to be included here; it just has to be exciting.

In 2016 the Warriors remained one of the best-selling tickets in the Bay Area, Hamilton became understandably hot, and chefs and vintners remained the rockstars of fundraising auctions.

One interesting trend was the continued growth of buy-in parties. As buy-ins gain acceptance at more and more fundraising auctions, committees and donors are becoming better at assembling creative buy-in experiences. This year three buy-in experiences made the top 10, including a SWAT team experience that generated over $50,000!

Once again, the goal of this post isn’t to inspire you to duplicate these lots. My goal is to inspire you to create your own stellar lots, so I can include them in my next best-of list!

So here are my most exciting fundraising auction lots of 2016, presented in no particular order.

On Broadway

Enjoy a trip to New York City to see Broadway’s most sought after show, Hamilton: An American Musical on Broadway.

This package includes two round-trip main cabin seats to New York on Virgin America, accommodations for two people for two nights and three days in New York. A collection of Kendra Scott jewelry to get you ready for the show, and two tickets to see Hamilton on May 13th at 8:00 pm at Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Escape From Alcatraz! 

Experience one of San Francisco’s great unsolved mysteries for yourself! Join Water World Swim and First Graduate’s Ann S. on an adventure that people rarely have the opportunity to explore—an Alcatraz to San Francisco swim. Perfect for those in triathlon training, or just another day in the life of the average thrill-seeker, this package includes transportation by boat to Alcatraz. Before the main event, you’ll receive one private swimming lesson, along with one group practice. Then set out on the San Francisco Bay for the most memorable journey of your life!

Buy-In Lot: Napa County Sheriff SWAT Team Adventure!

This daylong session is as real as it gets without being in harm’s way. Ten adults will live out their fantasies and partake in a day of heart-pounding adventure with tactical training, demonstrations, instruction in the use of special weapons, and SWAT Team assault exercises.

This truly unique opportunity includes Sheriff’s Department transportation from a central point to and from the SWAT training site in Napa County.

Firearms instruction will include a variety of specially selected weapons under the supervision of SWAT team experts. Besides sharpening your aim, our “good guys” will expose you to a simulated SWAT team invasion where you will be asked to play a role that will test your instincts and judgment under pressure.

Travel lunches will be prepared, but water will be the only drink served. Only the guns can be loaded during the exercise!

Following your heroic day on the range and at the assault building, you’ll unwind at a special reception at Trinchero Family Estates in St. Helena. Fine wines and tasty food will be served so that the whole team and your instructors can raise a toast to your bravery and valor! Your performance will be critiqued and awards will be presented by Napa’s finest, including Sheriff John Robertson himself.

We recommend you get a good night’s sleep the night before this exercise!

Opening bid: $5,000 per person

Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski with Peay Wines – Dinner for Eight in Your Home

Chef Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of San Francisco’s James Beard award-winning State Bird Provisions and The Progress will bring their modern, original culinary sensibilities to the table as they collaborate on a five course feast for eight guests in your home.  The unique and delicious dishes are sure to have your guests talking about Old World traditions and New World inventions as if they are natural companions – much like these talented chef-proprietors themselves! And, of course, a special dinner calls for a special wine.  Andy Peay will introduce his handcrafted wines.  Peay wines come from a vineyard ideally located to produce superior fruit to which the Peay family adds their wine making knowledge. 

PLUS! Stuart is throwing in guaranteed reservations at State Bird Provisions for the next year. Any time you want to eat dinner, give them a call and you’ll be in!

 “Sully”– New York Movie Premier and After-Party

Walk the red carpet like a star at the New York premier and after-party of the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film, “Sully,” from Director Clint Eastwood, starring Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney.  Not only was Sully the inspiring keynote speaker at our gala last year, you may also remember him for serving as Captain during what has been called the “miracle on the Hudson.”  This upcoming film details Captain “Sully’s” once in a lifetime experience, and this package is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The winner of this package will receive:
● First class roundtrip airfare for two (2) to New York
● Two (2) tickets to the movie premier & after party, date TBD
● A 3-day, 2-night stay at the Marriott Marquis

Luxuries in the Wild

The ten lucky travelers who snag this lot will escape the realities of everyday life and spend four memorable days floating down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness with the best outfitter in the Northwest, Far and Away Adventures. This unique experience is like a deluxe safari on the river … high-end luxury “glamping” with exceptional, personalized service in some of the most remote and stunning terrain in the country. Accompanying you will be your favorite rock stars of wine, Kosta Browne. Dan Kosta himself will be in attendance to keep you satiated with some of the most sought-after selections from their vineyards.

Start each morning with a tasty breakfast cooked and served by your guides. Spend the day however you wish. Maybe enjoy a few hours each day fly fishing under the direction of an expert guide, or explore the hiking trails and old mining cabins along the shore. Cool off with a swim alongside the rafts. Paddle your own kayak for kicks. Marvel at the wildlife in Impassable Canyon. Or just float along in peace, basking in the pleasures of such an awe-inspiring place.

As the light fades each day and you lounge by the banks of this gorgeous river, glass of your preferred Kosta Browne wine in hand, Steve Lentz, chef extraordinaire from Far and Away Adventures, will delight you with delectable organic gourmet dinners. After your meal and more outstanding wines, share stories and laughs around the campfire before falling into bed under a blanket of stars, tired and fully satisfied, only to wake up and do it again the next day. Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?

[Editor’s note: The Warriors were so hot in 2016 that I had to cheat and include two of their lots, just for contrast]

Warriors #1: Everybody Say...“WARRIORS!” Playoff Tickets!

Make a big splash with Steph and Klay and three of your friends

Head to Warrior’s ground for round 2 of the NBA playoffs with three of your blue and gold wearing friends! Golden State is having an epic, record setting season and is well on its way to another NBA Championship! You’ll take a limousine to and from the game from your home and have awesome lower level seats in the Oracle Arena. And you won’t even have to worry about what to wear—included in this package is an official Steph Curry All-Star Jersey!

Warriors #2: Warriors Game in Style: Helicopter Ride to Warriors Game for Four

Talk about arriving in style! Four people will enjoy a scenic helicopter ride from the Santa Rosa Airport to the Oakland Airport and a short limo ride to your seats at the Golden State Warriors game! You’ll sip on libations from Jackson Family Wines on your way there and enjoy the Jackson Family Wines wine area on the mezzanine.

Name Our Red-Tailed Hawk & Enjoy a High Desert Adventure for Four

The High Desert Museum’s most recent addition to the wildlife collection is a two month old red-tailed hawk that will be part of our stellar Raptors of the Desert Sky outdoor flight show. You can name this magnificent bird and learn about it and other soaring species during a field trip led by our Curator of Natural History and Curator of Western History. They will both accompany you on a two-day journey through eastern Oregon’s sagebrush steppe. It is a landscape rich with history—the ancient homeland of Native Americans once traversed by lost emigrant wagon trains, the scene of conflict between U.S. Cavalry and desert tribes and, for a time, the domain of California cattlemen and their buckaroos.

Naming opportunities often make for extremely engaging auction lots, especially with a program as beloved as the High Desert Museum's "Raptors in Flight".

You’ll venture to Steens Mountain where subalpine landscapes of aspen-fringed meadows rise above the desert, with a spectacular view from the summit. There you will enjoy a picnic lunch overlooking glacial-carved canyons. We’ll visit places like Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, the chain of desert lakes in Warner Valley, the Warner Mountains, and Paradise Valley. This trip will take place during the late spring or early summer of 2017.

Your chosen name will be publicized on the Museum’s website and in our member newsletter. You will also receive a certificate of naming with a photo.

Buy-In Lot: Lunch with the Leading Ladies of Napa Valley

Back by popular demand! Beth Nickel of Far Niente Winery invites 25 ladies to join her and other Leading Ladies of Napa Valley in Beth’s lush garden on the grounds of Far Niente Winery. Joining Beth will be none other than Margaret Duckhorn, co-founder of Duckhorn Vineyards; Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery; and Delia Viader, founder of Viader Vineyards & Winery. Be ready for a lavish afternoon of wining, dining and entertaining tales of their Napa Valley histories. With each course of the meal, the wines will flow and these ladies will dish, divulging wine country secrets and stories.

In addition, each will bring a favorite wine from her winery to give each guest as a memento of this most magical afternoon. Remember, what’s heard in the garden stays in the garden! This is a $1,000 per-person buy-in lot for 25 women. Date is not changeable.

Buy-In: Wing & Barrel Ranch Clay Shooting and Lunch with Charlie Palmer for 16

Escape to an exclusive and incomparable private hunting club in the heart of the wine country with 15 of your friends for a day of shooting, exceptional food, and fine wines at Wing & Barrel Ranch. Life-long friends Darius Anderson and Mike Sutsos, Jr. have spent their lives traveling the world following their passions, and these experiences are where the vision for this extraordinary club was born—combining a passion for the sporting life and all that surrounds it. Wing & Barrel Ranch brings together the best of shooting, food, wine and the wine country lifestyle. As renowned shooting coach Chris Batha’s only West Coast Sporting Clays Course, it features 15 fully automated fields, each containing three shooting stations. Please note that no experience is necessary and that everything (ammunition, guns and instruction) will be provided for you and your guests.

Guests will also sit down to an unforgettable lunch prepared by the legendary Charlie Palmer, Wing & Barrel Ranch’s Culinary Advisor and one of the most highly regarded chefs in America, critically acclaimed for his signature Progressive American Cooking. Lunch will be accompanied by delicious wines from Kosta Browne and CIRQ. You are invited to embrace a way of life, share the experience and surround yourself in this private setting created to make legendary memories. Join us on your journey towards realizing your finest passions.

Suggested Opening Bid: $1,000 per person

Bonus Lot: Escape to Vegas for Three Nights

Las Vegas and Elton John for Two
Your stylish Las Vegas escape begins at the modern, upscale five star Vdara Hotel and Spa, an all-suite, gaming-free hotel located in the new City Center complex, near the Bellagio Hotel.  Indulge in your grand luxurious suite located on the 53rd floor with a large spa-style soaking tub. The highlight of your escape will be the Elton John concert at Caesars Place on February 18th.  Sir Elton himself is providing you with his personal seats, plus two backstage passes to the green room.  End your escape with a dinner at the award winning Michael Mina Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel, a gift certificate of $250 provided.  Plus we are including a $500 gift card on Southwest Airlines.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!  

Lighting as decor: new technology is budget-friendly

Event design is always a balancing act between intended look and budget. Large, “blank slate” event spaces pose the most obvious challenges for décor. But even the most elegant venues often need a touch of flair to get them to better match an event’s color scheme.

Until recently, the main options for large-scale decorating were pipe and drape and large stage lights; each of had its own set of issues.

This airplane hangar is transformed into a festive party through the use of color and light.

Pipe and drape is expensive, has height limitations, and usually comes in one color: black.

Large stage lights are limited in their flexibility. The use of filters can give you good color effects on most any reflective surface, and custom-crafted gobos enable you to cast whatever imagery you want. But these lights are large, hot, and not capable of rapid change.

In the past if you wanted to change colors for different parts of your show, you needed to rent a different light for each and every color change you want. Not a big deal if you’re talking about a small set, but if you are decorating  an airplane hangar and wanted to do two or three color changes…forget it.

Advances in lighting technology, especially LED lighting technology, have made it easier and more affordable than ever to transform a “blank slate” event space into something special. A single LED light offers every color you could ask for and you can switch between colors with the push of a button.

Many LED lights are also battery powered, eliminating the need for additional power supplies or unsightly cables running throughout the room. LEDs are also compact and powerful, making it easy to cover huge patches of real estate with each small, unobtrusive light.

Possibly best of all, the LED revolution has greatly reduced the price of lighting solutions. The next time you are designing your event décor, be sure to have a conversation with your A/V provider; they have options that can impact your event’s look and feel without impacting the budget.

The dangers of the biennial event

Producing a successful fundraising auction is no small challenge. A successful auction requires hundreds of hours of planning, solicitation, and marketing. It requires leaning on your closest supporters to bring their friends and contacts to support you. It requires a lot of work.

It is therefore understandable that many organizations would perceive holding their auction every other year as the solution – especially if they can raise enough in one night to cover two years of need. What we’ve found, however, is that holding an auction every other year is actually more challenging in the long run. 

Your Date is Your Date

When you hold an event every year, it becomes established within your support base. People have busy schedules, and getting something on their calendar is a challenge. Keeping it on their calendar is your responsibility. Do you hold your event in one of the two busiest times of year, spring or fall? Odds are, if you take a year off of your event, a good portion of your crowd is going to get invited to another event – and it’ll be up to you to win them back. Every. Other. Year.

Donor Cultivation Suffers in a 730-Day Cycle

Fundraising auctions are an established pipeline for attracting new potential donors. Auction events are a known commodity, and donors understand what is being asked of them when they are invited to a new event. Once a potential donor is “in the room” at your event, it is up to you to engage them and convert them to becoming a long-term donor. Inviting them back to your next gala is one of the more simple means of cultivation. Inviting them back to your next gala – two years from now – lacks imperative.

Institutional Knowledge Retention

One of an auction committee’s many responsibilities is to pass along the institutional knowledge of an event from year to year. Unless you have an incredibly well-documented event, much of the information on how to get it done lives in the heads of your staff and volunteers.  Staff and volunteers that may turn over.

An entire planning committee recently had to start from scratch on an every other year event because I was the only person left who had worked on their last auction, two years ago. All of the institutional knowledge was gone. Caterer? Auction lots? Recording of the previous auction?

The Message of We Make Enough

Every organization holds a fundraising auction out of need. What does it say about your need if you only need to do your auction every other year? There is a good chance that your large donors understand your needs well enough to keep you on their list of planned donations. But smaller, newer donors? The same donors you should be trying to cultivate in the long term? They are more likely to misinterpret your lack of annual event as a lack of annual need.

Auction Solicitation Challenges

Much like cash donors, the people and businesses who donate auction lots often have a finite number of donations they can make in a year. If you let them off the hook one year, you run the risk of losing them long-term. I’ve seen this happen in the most innocuous of ways. A donor who put their Italian vacation home in an every-other-year auction donated it to another event in an off year. And it did so well at that other event that they doubled it on the spot, taking away her ability to donate to the every other year event.

Maintaining Your Venue/Vendors

The competition for venues is extreme, and if you walk away from your venue one year, you better have a plan in place for getting it back the next. Same goes with your vendors. As a company we give our clients the first right of refusal on “their” date on a year-by-year basis. If an event chooses not to hire us one year, we’re going to do our best to fill that date the next year, even if they say they are coming back in two years. Our budget doesn’t allow for a two-year cycle of income.

If you are currently holding a successful event on an every other year basis, my goal isn’t to convince you to change your model. But if your event has become more challenging to produce every other year, or your biennial results are no longer meeting your needs, take a hard look at your goals and why they aren’t being met. More often than not, the challenges of producing an annual event are outweighed by the benefits.

Registration open for San Francisco workshop, October 26

Registration is now open for our upcoming San Francisco fundraising auction workshop: Raise More, Right Now: Advanced Fundraising Auction Strategies
This in-depth fundraising auction workshop will be held on Wednesday, October 26th at the Log Cabin in the Presidio in San Francisco, California. It is presented by Stellar Fundraising Auctions, Beth Sandefur Events, Greater Giving and The Lux Productions. 

This in-depth, highly interactive workshop will provide you with advanced strategies to raise more with what you already have. Learn how to get attendees to commit to supporting you before they arrive, new techniques for marketing your auction, new revenue enhancers that encourage spending, and more. Session topics will include:

• Storytelling for your mission
• Creating successful auction lots
• Revenue enhancers, beyond the raffle
• Strategies to refresh your silent auction
• New technologies to stretch your audio visual budget
• Marketing your auction

Hands-on mobile bidding session
Many organizations are looking for information about the most buzzed about trend in events: going mobile. This workshop session will include an overview of Greater Giving’s Mobile Bidding and Storefront functions. We’ll discuss how mobile bidding impacts your event and how you can incorporate raffle and other multi-item sales into your event using storefront.

Expert roundtables
The workshop ends with a 1-hour series of small group sessions with each member of our expert panel. We will break into groups by organization type, and spend an hour drilling down on the topics that matter to you most. Ask questions and get answers that are relevant to the needs of your specific event with experts in the field of fundraising auction planning, implementation and performance.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016 - the Log Cabin in the Presidio, San Francisco
9:00am – 3:00pm
Check-in begins at 8:30am
Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Click here to register.

Register now for October 25 East Bay workshop

Registration is now open for our upcoming East Bay fundraising auction workshop: Raise More, Right Now: Advanced Fundraising Auction Strategies
This in-depth fundraising auction workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 25th at the Lafayette Veteran’s Memorial, in Lafayette, California. It is presented by Stellar Fundraising Auctions, Beth Sandefur Events, Greater Giving and The Lux Productions. 

This in-depth, highly interactive workshop will provide you with advanced strategies to raise more with what you already have. Learn how to get attendees to commit to supporting you before they arrive, new techniques for marketing your auction, new revenue enhancers that encourage spending, and more. Session topics will include:

• Storytelling for your mission
• Creating successful auction lots
• Revenue enhancers, beyond the raffle
• Strategies to refresh your silent auction
• New technologies to stretch your audio visual budget
• Marketing your auction

Hands-on mobile bidding session
Many organizations are looking for information about the most buzzed about trend in events: going mobile. This workshop session will include an overview of Greater Giving’s Mobile Bidding and Storefront functions. We’ll discuss how mobile bidding impacts your event and how you can incorporate raffle and other multi-item sales into your event using storefront.

Expert roundtables
The workshop ends with a 1-hour series of small group sessions with each member of our expert panel. We will break into groups by organization type, and spend an hour drilling down on the topics that matter to you most. Ask questions and get answers that are relevant to the needs of your specific event with experts in the field of fundraising auction planning, implementation and performance.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - the Veteran's Memorial in Lafayette
9:00am – 3:00pm
Check-in begins at 8:30am
Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Click here to register.

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.

Creating desirable packages for your live auction

Procuring enticing packages is one of the most challenging aspects of organizing a fundraising auction. Solicitation committees often get hung up on comparisons to other events and focus on the lots they see doing well at other fundraising auctions.

And while there is value in learning from one’s peers, we never encourage our clients to focus on specific auction lots. It can be frustrating, and it seldom yields results.

For example: I’ve sold “Breakfast with Bo Derek the morning after the auction” for over $20,000. This was wonderful for the event that had Bo as a supporter, but it is useless to the rest of you reading this right now (unless you are good friends with Bo as well).

Instead, we encourage our clients to focus on the types of lots that sell best and then work to find the most desirable packages in each of those types. There are three levels of desirability across all types of auction lots: Retail, Access, and Relationship:

• Retail is the ground floor of desirability in an auction lot. If your attendees can find a price for it online, they’ll bid accordingly. There are types of auction lots that do fine when sold as straight retail, such as trips. Generally speaking, however, it is the least desirable.

• Access denotes an experience bidders could not enjoy otherwise, something that is not available through retail channels. Lots that offer access engage your crowd to spend more, and make your auction more memorable. 

• Relationships are the hottest selling lots in any auction we do. “People support people” is one of the oldest adages in fundraising, and nowhere does this prove more true than onstage. Relationship lots offer access to a “celebrity,” and the definition of celebrity varies.

Creating attractive packages for the live auction is one of the most crucial elements of the pre-event planning we consult on, and one of the areas upon which we focus the majority of our consulting. As such, we’ll be discussing this and brainstorming desirable auction lots in person at our upcoming workshop: “Raise More, Right Now: Advanced Fundraising Auction Strategies.”

One way the election will impact your fall auction: communications

Last week we explored the upcoming presidential election’s impact on fall fundraising auctions, and concluded that the popularly held beliefs are misconceptions (see our blog post on the topic for an in-depth analysis). But there is one area where the fall election cycle is going to impact fall events: direct mail, mailing houses, and the sheer volume of communication people will receive.

The first week of November is consistently one of the top three busiest weeks of the year for mail. If you are planning on sending an invitation or direct mail to your attendees between October 1st and November 4th, make sure that your mail house is not going to be inundated with political work. One event planner we work with only contracts mailing houses that don’t do any political work; she wants to ensure her clients are top priority.

Non-profit communication always faces stiff competition for recipients’ attention, and during an election year that competition is much fiercer. It is no longer limited solely to direct mail, either. Since the 2010 election, political campaigns have come to rely more upon email, social media and other electronic outlets. For events in November, this means that your two-week prior touch-base with attendees to confirm their attendance and get them a copy of your auction catalog is going to be competing with a lot of other noise.

Your most ardent supporters will know who you are and open your emails to them – but their guests might be another story. Relationships rule development, so leverage all of the connections you have. Utilize your network of supporters: have table captains reach out to their guests directly on your behalf to market your auction (see our blog post on the subject). And start now: I am a big fan of expectation management through clear communication. If you get your supporters committed to making your event a success in advance, they will help continue that tradition every year.

Save the date: two Bay Area fundraising auction workshops in October

Stellar Fundraising Auctions, in conjunction with Beth Sandefur Events, Greater Giving and Lux Productions is producing back-to-back fundraising auction workshops in the East Bay and San Francisco this October. Raise More, Right Now: Advanced Fundraising Auction Strategies is an in-depth fundraising auction workshop focused on maximizing your event’s existing potential.

Mark your calendars now for either Tuesday, October 25th at the Veteran's Memorial in Lafayette, or Wednesday, October 26th at the Log Cabin at the Presidio in San Francisco. The cost of either workshop will be $50, which includes a continental breakfast and lunch.

Session topics will include:

• Selling your story 
• Creating successful auction lots
• Revenue enhancers
• Silent auction
• New technologies that stretch your audio visual budget
• Marketing your auction
• Mobile bidding

Registration and more information coming soon. 

How will the election impact your fundraising auction?

Arguably, 2016 is the most contentious presidential election in my lifetime. The emotional impact is extremely high, and very few people in my network are unaffected by it.

Charitable giving infographic created by Beth Sandefur.

The majority of the spring fundraising season was complete before either party had finalized its candidate. We didn’t see events suffer negative impacts that we could attribute to directly the presidential campaign. But now that the candidates are set, the conventions are over and the fur is starting to fly, how will the election impact events in the fall?

The commonly held “wisdom” is that charitable fundraising falters in an election year, for a variety of reasons. The predominant theories being that donors give to campaigns instead of charities, or donors are scared away by uncertainty or fear. A recently released study by Blackbaud sheds interesting light on both of these theories.

The report is based on data from the 2012 election, and focused on 143 national 501(c)(3) organizations. Blackbaud found that donors who contributed to political campaigns also increased their 2012 charitable contributions 0.9% compared to the previous year. Donors who were engaged in the political process increased their donations to charities.

Donors who did not make a political contribution in 2012, however, gave 2.1% less to charitable causes than in 2011. Donors who were not engaged in the political process decreased their donations to charities.

Charitable fundraising as a whole was up 1.7% in 2012, but mainly because contributions to religious organizations was up 6.1% and contributions to education was up 1.6%. If you take those two categories out of the mix, charitable giving as a whole was down 1.7%. Individuals donated an estimated $258.51 billion to charitable organizations in 2014 (results for 2015 have not yet been reported). So a 1.7% swing at that level could wipe out numerous organizations.  Unless you were a school or a church, your category of charity saw a decline in charitable giving during the last presidential election.

Blackbaud doesn’t offer any deeper insight into their numbers, but we can draw a few conclusions. Obviously, unless you are a religious organization or a school, you are going to have to work harder to make the same amount of money as you did last year.

If your support base is energized by this election, it is a good sign for your event. People who are engaged in the process are more likely to engage with your cause. I would theorize that this is because people who engage in the political process believe in it and believe that they can make a difference in the process; and then that “actionable optimism” carries over to their charitable beliefs. 

According to the statistics, the potential problem for charities is the donors who are not contributing to politics at all this year – because they’ll be contributing less to charity as well. There is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding this election, and it is easy to imagine people cocooning until Thanksgiving. If your donor base buries their collective head in the sand, you and your clients will wind up paying the price. But only if you can’t effectively communicate you and your clients’ needs.

It always comes back to messaging, communication, and conversations: Establish why you are asking for money and empower people to help change the world by supporting your cause. You always have to compete with a lot of external noise to get the attention of your donors. This year that noise is much louder than usual, and you’ll have to work harder than usual to make your case.

Cultivation is a conversation, not a one-off ask that happens only at your event. Engage your donors. If you are worried about the election, discuss it with them. Work with your biggest supporters to formulate strategies specifically for your donor base. Engage, engage, engage. This year and every year.

Statistically speaking, the election is bound to have little impact on your event. But from a practical standpoint, it is best to assume the election will impact your donors, and then work hard to make sure it doesn’t.