By: Scott Jones, CFRE & Fundraising Auctioneer Connected Hearts or Connected Minds-Which is Most Important? We’ve all heard the suggestion that to fundraise effectively, a connection needs to be established between our mission and BOTH the hearts and minds of our donors. For fundraisers who are naturally influential and charismatic comes naturally. For most [...]
By: Shannon Eason, Fundraising Auctioneer Many organizations are planning to be going live for their fall events, but with the dreaded virus rearing its ugly head again, we know there may be donors that may decide to back out of attendance and some that won’t even fit in the room with the new restrictions. [...]
By: Dan Campbell, Fundraising Auctioneer In the past 12 months, our team has completed 81 virtual events. The grace of your donors has been incredible, as in all but a couple of those events, we saw an increase of NET revenue compared to the previous year Pre-Covid. Dissecting this result shows that this NET [...]
By: Shannon Eason, Fundraising Auctioneer We’re hearing nonprofits say, “We don’t want to lose our traditional donors that enjoy the sit down gala, but how do we engage our younger guests that aren’t excited about that event?” We say, “plan another party!” Okay, before you roll your eyes and say that you don’t have [...]
By: Shannon Eason, Fundraising Auctioneer How about, back to live events! Yes, we’re back. As that thought is crossing your mind, what questions are concerning you? Here’s a few questions that organizations are asking. Do Donors Comfortable Attending a Live Event? We say, yes! According to studies, 70% of Americans are ready to not [...]
By: Jack Alotto, MA, CFRE I recently joined a group of donors who were creating a giving circle in the Coachella Valley of California. Giving circles are one of the fastest growing giving mechanisms in the United States. A giving circle is created when individual donors come together to pool their money to financially [...]
Chat Is Where It's At! By Dan Campbell, Fundraising Auctioneer Remember all the times at your pre-Covid galas, when your audience was a bit too chatty and sometimes became a distraction to the program you worked so hard to put on? You probably just wanted to “SHUSH” them, but of course, this could backfire [...]
Best Practices to Increase Virtual Participation Events By Scott Jones, CFRE, CAI, BAS As we continue planning for fundraising special events, there are still so many unknowns. Many non-profits successfully executed their first virtual event and are setting their sights on the potential second. We have witnessed the transition from the basic Zoom webinar [...]
A good question was brought to my attention by an existing Non-Profit Client: “Are there standard practices for recognizing companies and individuals who make auction donations?" I know in the past we've included donors' names on the signs displayed with silent auction items and on the PowerPoint slides about each live auction item. What are your [...]
“It's all about that BASE, ‘bout that BASE….” Building something special requires a strong foundation, something that can sustain tough times and allow for continued building. Your BASE of supporters has to become strong and resilient. A small foundation can be mighty, but it is also taxing and can teeter with just a few [...]
