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.

Use your board as a sounding board

Many of our clients have a large board involved with their event and one of them uses the twenty or so board members in a very interesting and productive way.  They assemble a list of probable live auction items and send the list out to each board member and ask them to rate them from most interesting to least.  The results were not only interesting, but they represented a good portion of the attending crowd and even i was suprised by what they liked and what they didn't.  

The other result from the inquiry was that it got board members to suggest enhancements that they could add and even got a few of them to suggest entirely new auction lots that they came up with after seeing what other people donated.  

All in all anything that gets the board more involved and gives them the opportunity to participate is a win-win situation.  It also starts the "buzz" from the top down as the board members start talking up the great auction lots at this years event to friends, family and other supporters who will be or should be attending .  

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.”

Personalize your paddle raise

The paddle raise is the most important component of most fundraising auctions, often raising more than the rest of the auction combined. The way it is introduced is crucial to engaging the crowd and ensuring success.

A good paddle raise pitch tells stories that connect your audience to your mission on a personal level. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be overly dramatic, it just needs to be honest and engaging. Like this video of Trent Yaconelli, associate executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of St Helena and Calistoga, at their BIG Night gala.

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.

Tip your teacher

For the past several years, I have auctioneered for a school that utilizes a ‘teacher tip contest’ in a way that’s fun, honors the school’s hardworking teachers, and generates good revenue for the fundraiser as well.  Here’s how it works:

During the reception the teachers take turns as ‘bartenders.’  At this K-5th school, the K-1, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade teachers each take 20-minute group shifts at the bar. They chat with parents as they serve them beer and wine, while the parents fill the teachers’ tip jars, either with cash or “tip slips,” on which parents can simply write their paddle number and a tip amount.  Friendly competition between the grade levels is encouraged.

During the live auction, usually at the beginning of the Fund a Need, the totals and winners of the tip contest are announced.  The teachers then ‘donate their tips’ to the school; and in a nice touch, the total of all teacher tips (this year it was over $4000) serves as the highest bid level for the Fund a Need.  “Who can match your teachers’ generous $4,218 donation this evening?” 

Note:  Just as with classroom art projects, there is often much more interest/action on the part of the newer parents (in this case the K-1 parents) than those of the oldest, one-foot-out-the-door students (here, the 4th-5th grade parents).  If there are more grade levels than time shifts, it’s usually best to put extra teachers together at the higher grade levels to give them a fighting chance in the competition. 

Also, revenue enhancers like this require a learning curve and buy in from the community over time.  Especially the first time out, it’s good to explain this contest clearly, and repeatedly, to the crowd.  Once they do buy in, though, it can make for a fun way to unite a school’s parents by grade level, honor its teachers, and raise money at the same time.