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.

At a recent planning meeting where we were discussing repeat auction lots for an event, it came out that one of the donors felt seriously slighted because their lot was never redeemed. A buyer had paid top-dollar for the lot at the auction, and had yet to cash it in with the expiration date looming. The donor felt slighted, and was inclined not to make the donation again.

According to our calculations, as many as 40% of all auction lots purchased at fundraising auctions go unredeemed. This isn’t a function of the desirability of the lots being offered at fundraising events, but a reflection of the nature of supporting causes through auction purchases. People who make a purchase at a fundraising auction do so first and foremost because they believe in the cause; the desirability of the lot simply justifies getting caught up in the heat of the moment and (hopefully) overpaying.

Buyers assume that 100% of the money is going to the organization putting on the auction: if they don’t redeem the lot they will have still made a good donation to the cause. Most buyers also support more than just one cause, and often have shoeboxes full of certificates they keep meaning to redeem. Buyers aren’t trying to slight donors, they simply lead busy lives and have scheduling conflicts.

It is understandable that some who donate lots to an auction most often do so because they really were looking forward to making their event happen. There are a lot of possible solutions, such as putting the donor in direct contact with the buyer to coordinate the event, but they are all fraught with potential for disaster.

The simple solutions is to assure donors that their donation is loved: by you and the people who bought it. Their donation helped raise significant amounts of money for a cause they believe in. If the buyers haven’t taken them up on their generosity yet, it is not a reflection of how wonderful their lot is. It’s just more proof that we all lead insanely busy lives, and sometimes making time to show up and buy the lot is a major accomplishment, let alone making the lot happen.

Obviously messaging matters!  The trouble is that at times you have no control over what is going to be said.  Two examples spring to mind:

In the last couple of weeks we have done fundraisers for three different enviromental groups.  Each event was introduced by a great speaker.  Two of the speakers worked for the organizations and were conscious that we would be moving from their speech into a fundraiser.  The third speaker has a national reputation and gave a condensed version of a speech he gives around the country.

I want to stress that all three speeches were riveting.  The difference was that at two of them, the two where the speaker was conscious that this was a fundraiser,  their presentation ended with an achievable call to action.  The national speaker, who was the scariest of the three, made the case that to save the environment requires a techtonic shift in our political consciousness and the commitment trillions of dollars.  While that may well be true, it reduces the audience to ineffective bystanders.

A very different example occurred several years ago.  We were doing a fundraiser for an arts organization, and before the auction they wanted to honor a very significant donor.  Whether it was from a fear of public speaking or from a natural proclivity, the significant donor had been hitting the cocktails.  He was also there without his wife who was, I suspect, the true supporter of this organization.  Upon being given his plaque, and the chance to address the audience, the donor took the microphone and started with the immortal words “I hate this **$$%&$%% organization”.  It went downhill from there.

There have been other incidents over the years. Performers who insist on performing a complete set when they have been specifically requested to keep it to 20 minutes.  Others have used obscenity on stage, told inappropriate jokes, or, and this is particularly insidious, just assumed that the audience had the same political sensibilities as themselves.

It’s your event.  The audience is going to assume that whatever is said from the stage has your tacit approval. The more formal or famous the speaker, the more importance will be attached to what is said.  To work effectively for your organization the speech or the presentation must end with a call to action that empowers the audience.  As we say to all our clients, part of their mission is to inform the donors how their donation has “moved the needle”.  you must insist on this.  If the speaker does not explicitly agree DO NOT LET THEM ON STAGE.

Earlier this year at an East Bay Auction an interesting thing happened.  The event included about three hundred people at a beautiful Country Club.  Everybody was enthusiastic and came ready to spend and support and enjoy the evening.

After doing my  normal “can everybody hear me clearly” announcement, I felt confident that everybody could. So I started the 43 lot auction and paddles were going up everywhere. The lot descriptions and numbers were being projected on a large screen behind me and and bids were coming from every corner of the room.

Then, about halfway through the auction the laptop sending the PowerPoint slides to the projector failed and the large screen behind me went black. Oddly enough, people started telling the spotters that they couldn’t hear me! The only thing that had changed was the screen going black.  The sound was exactly as it was for the first twenty lots, no levels were changed, no microphones replaced, nothing changed except… the big black screen,  and now they couldn’t hear me.

So what caused this sudden loss of hearing?  Their eyes!  Having the lot numbers displayed near the stage gives your audience a chance to “track” where the auction is. When a lot that is of interest gets close, the interested parties can stop their socializing and get ready to bid.  Most people have already perused the catalog and know which lots they are going to bid on.  But when you take away their visual reference system, they need to “hear” when a lot of interest is coming up.

“Which lot are we on” and “I wanted to bid on that” is not something you want to hear from the crowd.

I have never had the feed to a projector go out in the past and hopefully will never have one go out again in the future.  I do however, wonder if one of those large pads and a Magic Marker tucked away behind the stage is a ”sound” investment.

The experience attendees have at your event is based upon each and every interaction they have.  From the moment they arrive until the moment they checkout, every volunteer and staff member at your fundraising event is helping set the tone for the evening and shaping your guests’ perceptions of how things went.

And while it is nearly impossible to make everyone in a 300-person crowd happy, it is possible to set an event-wide tone of customer service and success. Good customer service can make people forget the most egregious of errors, while bad customer service can turn the most innocuous of molehills into mountains.

Take, for example, the experience my wife, Michele, and I had on our honeymoon at an eco-resort on the Riviera Maya in Mexico. We knew in advance that our villa came with a CD player and surround-sound system, so we brought a sleeve of CDs to listen to on the trip. One night, well into our trip, we were blasting music and dancing around the main room of our villa.

There was a knock at the door, and when we opened it we found one of the resort staff members flanked by security personnel. He cocked his ear to one side, and then said to one of his compatriots, “Really? This is the right room? Well, I can hardly believe it myself, but one of your neighbors has complained about your music being too loud. I hate to trouble you, but would you mind turning it down a bit?”

Brilliant! I’d never felt so good about being asked to turn my stereo down, and I’d never heard anyone else make such an ask so artfully. I only wish I’d had his example to draw upon back when I was an R.A. in the dorms at U.C. Berkeley.

Contrast that with the sound guy I saw at a recent event. He hadn’t brought adequate equipment to cover the needs of the event, and was forced to crank up the volume on the only two speakers he had. Furthermore, he’d set up his speakers so they were aiming right at the tables in front of them. At head level. And these were potential big bidders.

As soon as one table realized that the speakers were going to be aimed at their heads all night long, they got up and redirected the speaker so that it no longer aimed at them - or anyone else in the audience, for that matter. When the sound guy realized this, he went over and turned the speaker back towards the table without saying a word.

As he was passing their table, someone at the table asked the sound guy if he could turn it down a bit. Without breaking stride, he turned his head and sneered, “No!” and went back to his mixing board. Everyone at the table was shocked. I was shocked. It was a level of rude that no one expected, especially in an event setting like that.

I tried to smooth things over with the table by offering a solution of moving their table away from the speaker and closer to the dance floor. It helped, but it didn’t fix things one-hundred percent. It certainly didn’t change the tone the sound guy had set when he snapped at them.

The screaming sound guy may be an extreme example, but it doesn’t take much to impact a guest’s mood at an event. All it takes is one rude waiter, a volunteer who is too focused on their assigned task to answer a quick question, or bartenders who spend more time chatting with themselves than interacting with attendees to turn one person off. And at an auction, the way people vote is with their paddle - or by withholding use of it.

Empower you staff, volunteers and vendors to create an atmosphere of positive customer service at your event. Each of them has the potential to make your event great for each and every attendee; especially if something goes wrong. The customer service they provide will define attendees’ experience. It will also impact the amount of money you raise, either the night-of, or at future events.

The 2009 Spring Season, which we arbitrarily assign from February to the beginning of June was bookended by two events that were visibly and dramatically down.  With those two glaring exceptions, most events with which we are familiar equalled or surpassed previous years.

The two events that tanked were the Naples Wine Auction and Auction Napa Valley.  Both of these events had raised millions of dollars in previous years and “tanked” is a relative term.  They both made $5 million in 2009. Still and amaxing return.

Naples was down because everyone was still tring to grasp the extent of the financial downturn and they are also located near the heart of Bernie Madoff country.

Auction Napa Valley shot itself in the foot.  Attempting to manage expectations they announced in advance that they would be happy with 50% less than the previous year.  Talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy!

The lesson everyone in fundraising needs to keep to the fore is that audiences are less forgiving.  If you give them an excuse NOT to give you money they will take it.  The well-to-do are being hit up for donations more than ever.  If they don’t make a donation to you, they are not going to keep the money, there is a whole list of potential charities out there waiting to earn that donation.

I BELIEVE THAT, TO A GREATER EXTENT THAN EVER BEFORE, YOUR EVENT HAS BECOME THE AUDITION THAT PROVES THE EFFICACY OF YOUR ORGANIZATION.

If you fail the audition they will find another cause.

I mentioned that most of our events this spring have equaled or surpassed last year.  This is bucking the National trend.  As far as I can tell most fundraising auctions are reporting a decline of 20-30%,  with the exception of school auctions which seem to be holding their own.

One reason our events are doing better than average is simple evolution.  We have been in this business for many years working with every concievable type and size of fundraising auction.  Every year over 80% of our events are repeat business (It would be even high except for bringing in new auctioneers).  If a charity has a problem with their event, bad sound for example, and hasn’t fixed it in two years, we will probably stop working with that event.  It turns out that we have been in the excuse reduction business all these years.

Do not be afraid of putting on your event.  It has all the potential it ever had.  It will just take hard work.  On the other hand it was never easy.

Like everywhere else, Sonoma charities are feeling the double pinch of an increase in demand at exactly the same time sources of funding are drying up.  Sonoma is being particularly hard hit because there are several major fundraising events that have taken a break in 2009.  Most of the cancellation or postponements were implemented before the economy tanked.

Sonoma Paradiso, the biggest fundraiser in the county simply posted a message on their website, with no indication of future plans.

The Hospices of Sonoma website says that they are rebranding as the Pinot Society Wine Auction with the plan of holding their first auction in early 2010.

The Sonoma County Showcase auction was merged with the Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction in 2008.

The Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction announced earlier this year that, in a break from past practises, they would ask their beneficiaries to apply for grants AFTER the auction.

In combination these events raised several million dollars for charity, particularly childrens’  charities, every year.  It is just happenstance that it all hit at once, but the combination of circumstances and the tough economy means harder times.

If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that it is always better to own your own event.  Raising money through an umbrella organization may leave you open to unexpected twists and turns.

After viewing one of the “Kitchen Sink Dramas” that ruled in the West End after WWII, Noel Coward was asked what he thought of an actor’s performance that was famed for it’s spontaneity and improvisation.  “The only improvisation I like”, Coward replied, “comes with three weeks of rehearsal.”

I was reminded of this recently.  I was just starting the Fund-A-Need pitch when the popular and charismatic Director of the Organization walked by the stage.  I called him up, and asked for his input.  After a few seconds it became apparent that he did not know the where the F-A-N money was going.   OUCH!  I backtracked and gave my original pitch.  I don’t think that it cost the organization any money but the director feels bad, I feel bad and the reputation of the organization was ever so slightly tarnished.

It was my fault.  I had forgotten the golden rule.  On stage everything matters.  What would be insignificant in casual conversation becomes heightened when said on stage.

Everything needs to be rehearsed or at least planned.  At one event I watched a local anchorman start to tell a joke, realize that it was inappropriate, try to back track, dig a deeper hole for himself, and eventually end up revealing some things  that I am sure he would rather have remained private.

A microphone without a script is a dangerous tool.  The classic was a big donor who was being honored by an organization.  On taking the stage to receive his plaque, the donor, who had obviously fully appreciated the free Martini Bar, proceeded to tell everyone that he hated the organization and only gave the money to placate his wife, who, unfortunately could not be there that evening.

One of rules at Reynolds & Buckley is that we avoid “gunslinger” events, where we just come in and do the auction without the prior consulting and planning.  I hope this portion of our service is of use to our clients, but I know for a fact that it is essential to us.  If we do not assimilate your message and goals, a process that takes time, and then practice repeating them in our own words, we will not be able to communicate them clearly and believably to your audience.

A great improv group creates spontaneity through playing theater games.  As a group you learn each others strengths and weaknesses.  You have the time to develop characters and skills that the group learns to depend on.

In other words improvisation can improve with three weeks of rehearsal.

At more than one recent event, I have been handed a catalog with inflated values on the live auction packages. There is an inherent danger in this, as it stretches the boundaries of trust with bidders. The desire to establish a high value for the auction packages one works incredibly hard to obtain is understandable, but extremely high lot values can have a chilling effect on an auction. Especially in this economic climate.

A fundraising auction is in many ways an exercise in building and maintaining trust. Attendees come because they trust they will have a good time. They give you money because they trust you honestly need it and that you’ll do good work with it. You have to trust that your crowd will show up and support you at the level you need.

The latter is probably harder to do, but it is also the most important. It takes a big leap of faith to put yourself out there, to put all of the effort into making the event happen, and to trust that your crowd is going to come support you at the level you need. The moment you start inflating the values of your live auction lots, however, you violate that trust. It seldom pays off.

When the values of a live auction are inflated, a couple of things can happen. At best, people feel priced-out of the auction, and start paying less attention. This is bad because we need everyone to feel like the auction is somewhat inclusive, at least until we do the fund a need.

The worst thing that can happen if you inflate the values is that the audience turns on you, because they think you are being greedy. A few summers back I did an event that was lucky enough to have one of San Francisco’s most wealthy and highly-regarded philanthropists in the crowd. The people putting the event on wanted everyone in the room to rise up to said philanthropist’s level, and insisted on inflating all of my opening bids.

Our opening lot was a winemaker’s dinner for 12 people at a then soon-to-open Winery. At the client’s insistence, we changed the opening bid from $2,000 to $4,000 - thereby also changing the implied value of the lot from $4,000 to $8,000. Ridiculous. And I wasn’t the only person who thought as much.

One of the tables was filled with a bunch of bidders I see at many wine auctions in California and beyond. This crowd comes to spend money at an auction. I could see the looks on their faces immediately change when I announced the opening bid, as they all got pissed off and put their paddles down. That same table of people had spent over $30,000 at an event only two weeks before. That day, they didn’t bid once, not once. They turned on the event and sat on their paddles from the opening bid.

It affects my credibility as your auctioneer, as well. If I’m telling a crowd that the lots are worth X and everyone knows they’re worth less than that, people start to doubt what I say. And when people start to doubt what I say, they start to spend less, ultimately having the exact opposite effect of the original intent. There are many keys to getting people to spend more at a fundraising auction. Simply saying the stuff is worth more than it is isn’t one of them.

Due to current budgeting considerations more events are turning to the “buffet line” to cut costs.  Some events are even using scattered food stations and high boy tables.  Both are seemingly cost effective, but raise timing and technical issues.

First, the “grazing” method.  Guests roam freely from food station to food station and then search for some space on those small high-boy’s or stand in a group and practice their juggling skills.  Your invited guests will be carrying a drink, a plate and hopefully their program and bidder paddle. “Tasty food, wonderful wine…hey, where’s my program?”  The best fix for this is open table seating so at least they can sit, eat and bid!

Buffets on the other hand usually come with assigned tables.  Which helps if you choose to call the tables up to the buffet by number, as opposed to opening the buffet and standing back! The big issue with buffets are, the first people through the line are done with their dinner but those at the end are still holding empty plates.  Those who have finished will only sit so long before their up and roaming around again which means you have to sit them down again before you can start the program.

So what do you do?  You start the program when the majority of your guests are through the line.  If any of the folks in line are interested in one of the first lots then they will either bid from the line (it’s true) or send their significant other back to the table to join in the bidding.  It may seem a little curt for those in line, but for the majority who are done and waiting around it will be greatly appreciated.

And here’s a little technique that made a difference for a 500 person buffet.  I had the silent auction tables set so they paralleled the buffet lines.  “Boy, am I hungry….ooohhh a dine around town package!”

So if you’re going to go the buffet route think about where your people are going to make camp. Take into consideration the only money you’re saving on a buffet is the cost of the wait staff.  Which could in the long run be costing you bids!