Almost every event has a series of speakers who make their way to the podium pull out a crumpled sheet of paper and “make a speech.” Some are dynamic presenters and some…not so much. Sometimes the flow of the evening is determined by these people, instead of the other way around. And what your speakers say is critical to the success of the evening.

At an event last year three people - a CEO, a board member, and a celebrity - got up before the auction and proceeded to hammer out a message of “the economy sucks…..we’re all broke….we need to tighten our belts, etc. etc.” As I stood off to the side of the stage, I could feel the energy in the room drain and actually saw people put their paddles on the floor. I do not suggest that anybody pretend that things are peachy keen, but there’s no need for three consecutive speakers to take the wind out of anybody’s philanthropic sail.  A message of needed support and acknowledgment of difficult times can both be addressed.

Along with content, length is also a concern. One painfully long thankyou speech by an honoree at a large event in San Francisco actually delayed the evening by 30 minutes! The following year the organization video-taped the acceptance speech for that year’s recipient. Then they projected it on the large screens and let the honoree come up on stage, get the award, say thank you and return to his seat.

It’s obviously a tricky matter when it comes to editing or controlling people’s speeches. But your guests will appreciate it if you take the time to offer your speakers a well placed word about brevity when discussing their speeches.  Everyone’s goal should be for the audience to still have plenty of energy and enthusiasm left by the time the auction starts to keep those paddles waving.

As a profession, auctioneering has long had performance tied to compensation. Auctioneers have based their worth, literally, on their ability to market and sell assets for their clients. This makes complete sense in the world of antiquities, fine art, liquidations, estate sales, vehicle auctions, real estate auctions and the like, but it is unconscionable in the world of charity fundraising auctions.

A good collectibles auctioneer, for example, has an established system of creating a market for the extremely niche goods they bring to auction, and it is the capability of the auction house to create that market that earns them a commission. Sellers take their high-end antiques, art and collectibles to Bonhams and Butterfields because Bonhams has an established reputation and client base. Bonhams earns their commission on each and every piece they sell because they create a market within which they can sell each and every piece for top dollar.

The logic of paying a commission breaks down, however, with fundraising auctions. Fundraising auctioneers don’t single-handedly create the market at charity events. We don’t advertise the sale, nor pretend to be able to bring the bidders to the table. As fundraising consultants we work with clients to help hone best practices of bidder and donor development, and we put on an engaging show that raises top dollar at the event. But we would never attempt to claim that we are solely responsible for the bidders who come, or the attitude they bring with them.

Bidders at charity events support causes: they overpay for things they don’t need because the money is serving the greater good. Consider the bidder we frequently see at Bay Area events who will often indicate that he wants to pay more than the final sale price on an item, because he didn’t think it sold for high enough. As we’re announcing his paddle number and the amount he bought the item for he will shake his head and indicate that he wants to pay more than that, often jumping his own bid up a thousand dollars or more.

No auctioneer deserves to earn more because of a bidder’s commitment to an organization.

Charging a commission also muddles the motivation of the auctioneer. My goal at each and every event I do is to make as much money as possible for the charity, while maintaining a sense of goodwill with the bidders. That last part is crucial, because for an event to be successful the big bidders have to want to come back and do the event again next year. I could easily get more money out of each crowd I work with, but any crowd that felt as if they’d been bled dry would never want to come back and support that organization again.

Furthermore, there is no way of knowing when two big bidders are going to show up and battle it out over a particular auction lot. There are a few philanthropists in the world who are prone to showing up at various fundraising auctions willing to bid heavily through the auction, often spending more than $25,000 on  single lots.

If one such philanthropist happened to show up at an event I was doing and drove the overall price of the auction up $100,000 it does not mean I am inherently worth $10,000 more that particular evening (But it would be awesome for the charity!). Perhaps the greatest affront of all is the fact that there are auctioneers out there who charge commissions on the “Fund a Need” portion of an auction, but that topic alone is worth its own post, coming soon.

When the economy took a nose-dive in 2008 it made fundraising an even greater challenge. In 2009, it was clear that message that was king. As donors began making choices between potential events, cutting back on the number of auctions they attended, it was the events that effectively communicated their message in advance of the auction succeeded.

Successful events in 2009 were able to empower an audience to make a difference in the world by attending their event. Highly effective messaging led to highly motivated crowds who came prepared to help change the world, one bid at a time. But any event that took its audience for granted last year suffered dire consequences.

2010 is barely underway and the spring fundraising auction season has yet to arrive, but it is obvious that  organizations are going to have to work harder than ever to create meaningful and profitable fundraising events. Message will be important this year, but it will no longer be enough just to get a solid message together and use it to bring potential donors to your event. Successful events will need to create and celebrate a community that comes together to make something positive happen in the world.

Schools have an advantage in this respect because they have a built-in community, and they make the easiest example upon which to draw. Parents have a deep-rooted belief in the value of their children’s school, and most understand how important the auction is to the school. Successful school auctions are a chance for the parent-body to come together, party, and make something good happen for the school. At successful school auctions the big bidders are celebrated and the fund a need is the emotional high-point of the evening.

If your event doesn’t have a built-in community it simply means that you have to work harder to create a community. Community can exist year-round, it can come together for one night or an extended event. We’ll drill down into more specifics on how to succesfully create community at an event in upcoming posts, but the grand overview is that you have to find a way to bring people together to help you.

You have to make your attendees feel that they are an important part of your “family”, no matter what size check they write that night (the power of the fund a need is its ability to turn a mass of small pledges into incredible change, after all). You have to make attendees want to come back and do it again every year, and hopefully bring more friends. They need to look forward to the event, the gathering of people it represents, and the difference it enables them to make in the world.

In other words, donors not only want to make a difference, they want to surround themselves with people who are committed to making that same difference - at least once a year.