Erin Williams

Erin Williams BAS, PRI

Fundraising Auctioneer

Erin’s mission is to help you maximize your fundraising events and create memorable donor experiences.

Erin Williams is a key Partner at Raising Paddles. She is a resident of the St. Louis Metro area and is a dedicated Auctioneer and Fundraising Consultant with a mission to help clients maximize fundraising events and create memorable donor experiences.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Greenville University and a Graduate Certificate from Texas A&M University in Nonprofit Management with an emphasis in Fundraising. Erin has also completed training at the Professional Ringmen’s Institute and graduated from World Wide College of Auctioneering.

She is an active National Auctioneers’ Association member and 1 of only 250 auctioneers globally to hold the prestigious Benefit Auction Specialist designation. Each year, Erin speaks at numerous Midwest seminars and workshops and supports 40-50 nonprofit clients in achieving their fundraising and development goals.

Known for her dynamic stage presence, authentic passion, and inspiring energy, Erin connects deeply with audiences, ensuring impactful and successful fundraising experiences.

Testimonials

As a first time chair for the biggest annual fundraiser for our Academy with very little time to plan, I was blown away by not only Erin’s professionalism and ability to do her job effectively, but the care she showed. She consistently demonstrated true care for OUR mission and OUR values. She took the time to get to know US as a family with a unique culture so she could cultivate language that spoke to the hearts of our donors. As an organization steeped in faith and family, it is important that we focus on fellowship and the meaning of each gift, large or small. Erin took the time to learn about us so that she could reflect this spirit. She also came to each of our preparation and debriefing meetings with innovative ideas that allowed us to develop an event that capitalized on the strengths of our Committee, Board, and donors. I have received many, many compliments for her work from our community. She will be sought by our family for years to come!

Julia, Event Chair

Erin Williams was an outstanding Master of Ceremonies and Auctioneer. I was so pleased by her professionalism and her desire to help our community. She knew our mission and provided us an experience that celebrated what makes Holy Cross Academy a great school. Her work with us made us feel like she was a part of our community. One attendee responded, “The way that she is speaking made it feel like she is a part of the Holy Cross Academy community.” That is the best compliment I could give her. Erin is a big reason why our Gala was so successful.

President, Holy Cross Academy

I interviewed many companies and auctioneers for this position and truly felt compelled once I spoke with and interviewed both Dan Campbell and Erin Williams. They offered insight into how to make our evening a great success and walked us through many details that aided in our party raising significantly more donations than expected. Raising Paddles provided us limitless access to every detail from the paddles, the audiovisual layout, the live auction package line-up, the layout of the tables, and even aided in our personal speakers for the evening.

The night of the event Erin Williams provided an energy in the room that was electric. She drew the crowd in and made the night an overwhelming success. She is a charming, warm hearted, organized, and an extremely professional auctioneer with which to work. Numerous attendees approached me and my co-chair about how great she was and the energy she created for the event. I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend the job that Raising Paddles can do.

Erin, Event Chair , North Shore Country Club Foundation

Erin, a most sincere thanks for facilitating such a successful paddle raise during our 50^th Anniversary Summit Gala. Through your energy, enthusiasm, and expertise, the mood of the paddle raise was fun, upbeat, and most importantly, inspired our supporters to give generously. Thank you for helping us create a most memorable 50^th Anniversary celebration!

Atul Tandon, CEO, Opportunity International

On behalf of Opportunity International and myself, I want to extend our sincere gratitude to you for leading the paddle raise at our 50^th Anniversary Summit Gala this weekend and helping us achieve a record-breaking success of $600,000 and counting! Our experience working with you was exceptional.

Thank you for helping us create such an valuable and moving experience for our guests. We were honored to have you and Raising Paddles as part of this momentous celebration in Opportunity’s history.

Please also know how much I personally and deeply appreciate all of your support, consultation, flexibility, and generosity throughout the entire planning process. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into working with us through every single detail to ensure our donors had a top-notch experience. You are a truly amazing performer. Thanks to your partnership and support, so many people opened their hearts, their Rolodexes, and their wallets to our mission and enabling us to transform the lives of thousands more living in extreme poverty around the globe.

Erin R. Doherty, Opportunity International

Erin and her team helped us to increase our revenue at our big annual event by over 60%! We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our guests about their giving experience. Raising Paddles helped make it fun and easy for them to give. A big thank you to Erin and her team! Highly recommend!

Dani Smith, Development Director , Cornerstone Center for Early Learning