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.  

Making a Quantum Leap

One of the greatest joys in our world is seeing a fundraising auction make the leap to a new level of success. As charity auctioneers and fundraising event consultants, we have been part of many success stories, seeing auctions double or even triple their revenue in a single year.

How do these auctions achieve such success?

Have a vision for where you want to take your crowd

They start with a vision of where they want to take their event. From there, they develop very specific goals and formulate strategies for achieving them.

“Raise more money in the fund-a-need” is a goal that most events would love to achieve, but alone it lacks direction. Starting with a vision of “engage our crowd on a deeper emotional level so they feel more connected to our mission” leads towards the goal of raising more in the fund-a-need.

Be willing to take risks. We’re not advocating risk for the sake of risk, but you are never going to make a quantum leap by embracing the status quo. It can be a large risk, like changing venues, or a smaller risk, like changing the flow of your program or embracing a new theme for your event. Any risk you take should be in service Identify a way to achieve your goal.

Embrace change and get your audience to buy-in to it by communicating with your crowd in advance to manage their expectations. Engage directly with key supporters to get them to commit to your vision, then reach out to your larger audience with their support. Fundraising is a conversation that takes place year-round, and your closest supporters should always feel like they have a stake in your event.

Train the crowd to embrace this new status quo and establish The Way for subsequent events. Momentum in a fundraising auction is a fascinating thing, and crowds have a way of remembering how an event was the year before. Highlight your successes in post-event communication, and carry that momentum forward to next year.

Finally, believe that you can grow. Your faith and optimism will inspire your committee, your board and ultimately your crowd to help you make your own quantum leap.

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.