The Five-Point Plan for Fundraising

The single most important part of your annual charity benefit auction will be your Fund-A-Need (FAN). Hands down. There is absolutely no better way to use your available time and resources. With a live auction, you generally only need a few people in the audience to make it a success, but with a Fund-A-Need, you want mass participation from the mega-donors who may give $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 or more all the way to the $100 donor sitting in the way back of the room. If you do it right, 100% participation is completely possible; a Fund-A-Need appeal that generates 50-90% support should be considered successful. 

You can spend months procuring perfect auction items, hire the best caterer in town, hire a celebrity to provide entertainment, or do any number of things you hope will make a successful event. But all the time, energy, resources, and attention you spend on all of those things combined will not, in the end, matter nearly as much as what you invest in your Fund-A-Need appeal.

That’s why I advise my clients to use the following 5-point plan, which will help make the Fund-A-Need the cornerstone of their event.

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1.  Pick a great need: Your need must elicit an emotional response from your audience, and it must be clear how donated funds will specifically and directly impact the need.

2.  Pre-auction work:

a.  Pre-event promotion: Let people know (via email communications, social media, flyers—however, you communicate with your donor base and attendees) before your event that a FAN is coming, and they should be excited about it.

b.  Pre-committed bids: You should get at least one at the highest level, but multiples at several levels are even better.

c.  Matching Donations

3.  Conditioning the Room:  Introducing the speaker/video to an attentive room.

4.  The Appeal: Speech, video, or both to make an emotional appeal to your audience. This is the most important 3-5 minutes of your evening.

5.  The Ask: Auctioneer does a quick transition and then asks for the money.

6.  (Optional) Runaround/Last Paddle Battle Game: Taking a Fund-A-Need to the next level.

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Following these steps in this general order will ensure that your event is set up to make the most of the evening, capitalizing on the flow of the program and encouraging a successful showing.