Podcast – Episode 18: The Gala Checklist: 10 Things That Make or Break Your Fundraising Night
In this episode of Auction Is Action with U in It!, Bobby D. Ehlert walks through the 10 most important things every nonprofit needs to have locked in before gala night.
Not performance tips. Not stage tricks. A real, strategic checklist built from years of standing in rooms where missions live or die by what happens in a single evening.
Whether you're a nonprofit executive, development director, board member, or event planner, this episode will help you avoid the mistakes that quietly cost nonprofits thousands, and build the kind of night donors talk about for years.
Key Takeaways
Run of Show Is Everything
A tight, intentional program keeps energy alive and giving momentum moving. Boring speeches and poor placement of your auction and paddle raise can quietly kill generosity before it starts.
Your Live Auction Needs the Right Items and the Right Auctioneer
Items should match your audience. Marketing them before the event, displaying them during cocktail hour, and putting them in front of donors multiple times before the bidding begins all drive results.
The Paddle Raise Is Your Most Powerful Fundraising Moment
Auctions are exclusive. Paddle raises are all-inclusive and transformational. Know your starting point, your storytelling lead-in, and your system for capturing every dollar in the room that night.
Additional Revenue Generators Belong in Your Plan
Mystery boxes, golden tickets, 50/50 raffles, fishbowl raffles. There are dozens of ways to layer in revenue before and during your program. Don't leave them as afterthoughts.
Curate Your Silent Auction
More items is not better. A simple formula: take your total attendees, divide by two for households, then cap your silent auction items at 30% of that number. Quality and strategy over volume.
Sponsorships Tap Three Different Wallets
Individual philanthropy, corporate marketing budgets, and corporate social responsibility programs are three separate funding sources. The right sponsorship strategy reaches all three.
Market the FAB: Fundraising, Activities, Benefit
Tell people it's a fundraiser. Tell them what's happening. Tell them who benefits. If your marketing doesn't set those expectations, you're walking into the room at a disadvantage.
Your Board and Committee Have to Be Engaged
They're not just there to show up. They're there to help hit your goals, whether that's raising money, cultivating donors, or showcasing sponsor relationships.
Audience Development Is a Revenue Strategy
Three hundred people with connection and capacity will outperform a thousand people who are just filling seats. Who's in the room matters more than how many.
Your Gratitude Process Starts at the Event and Doesn't Stop
Phone calls within 24 to 48 hours. Handwritten notes. Post-event social content that keeps the energy alive. The gala doesn't end when the lights come up.
Bonus: Own Next Year's Date Before You Leave
Send the save the date. Lock the day. Give people a reason to come back and bring someone new.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Bobby D.: Well, hello there everyone. Bobby D here with the Auction Is Action with You in It podcast. I want to thank you so much for joining me today because today we are talking about the gala checklist. The top 10 things that you need to be focusing on to have a fantastic success at your next fundraising gala.
So here we go. We're going to get into it. You need to be talking about your run of show, your call to action paddle raise, your additional revenue generators, your silent auction, sponsorships, marketing, board of directors, committee engagement, audience development, and gratitude process.
Did you get all that? Okay. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll see you — no, just kidding. Just kidding.
We're going to go through each one of these.
So our first opportunity for success, probably one of the most important pieces that you have for your fundraising gala, is your run of show. Making sure that your run of show is tight. It is not boring. Doesn't have boring speeches in the middle of it. Has your live auction and your call to action paddle raise put in the right place. And making sure that you have your storytelling and putting your focus upon your mission and your impact, but also making it friendly, making it fun, and making it exciting and engaging so that your audience never forgets the great time that they had and the amazing impact that they're having on your organization and those that you serve. Run of show is absolutely so important to make sure that you are maximizing every moment and every opportunity that you have within your program.
Now you have your live auction, which is going to be one of your biggest revenue generators. Making sure that you have the right items for your audience. Making sure that you've got the right auctioneer for your audience and for your items and for your mission. Making sure that these items are out there, they're marketed, people know about them. Making sure that you have a live auction display in your cocktail hour. Making sure that your live auction items are emailed out beforehand, they're in the program, they're on the back of the paddles. Whatever you need. But yes, live auction — that is your number two item that you need to be thinking about.
Number three, probably the most important part of all of your fundraising, is the call to action paddle raise. Now you need to know where you're going to start. You need to know where you're going to end. You need to know what your storytelling is leading into the call to action. You also need to make sure that you've got someone — it can be your auctioneer, could also be someone else — to help you with the actual pitch and the collection of the funds within that call to action paddle raise. And then making sure that you've got the right system in place so you can capture all of those paddle numbers and all of those dollars on the night of the event. The call to action paddle raise is 100% an opportunity to engage 100% of your audience. Auctions are exclusive, but paddle raises are all-inclusive and are transformational.
Then we've got to talk about your additional revenue generators. Maybe you're talking about your mystery box, your golden ticket, a 50/50 raffle, a fishbowl raffle. So many different things you can do to create other revenue opportunities in your cocktail hour and within your live program. Making sure that you're talking with your fundraising auctioneer or reaching out to me. We actually have a resource coming out talking about 50 revenue generators, so stay tuned for that.
Your next opportunity is your silent auction. Yes, silent auctions are still a thing, and they can be super successful when done right. I call it the curated silent auction. It's not just gathering up all the stuff you can find. It's being purposeful and strategic. Here's the formula: take your total attendees, divide by two for households, then cap your silent auction items at 30% of that number. So if you have 200 people, that's 100 households, which means 30 or fewer silent auction items to make sure your silent auction is as optimized and maximized as possible.
Next: sponsorships. Sponsorships is probably the biggest revenue generating opportunity you have beyond your call to action paddle raise. Your event is a campaign from right now all the way through the event and even beyond. Sponsors aren't just sponsoring the night. They're sponsoring the entire campaign. And when you look at all the different ways you can raise money, you're tapping into what I call the three wallets of philanthropy: individual philanthropy, corporate marketing budgets, and corporate social responsibility programs. If you can tap into all three, you are maximizing your sponsorship potential significantly.
The next one is marketing. You need to let people know about your fundraising event. And I always like to say, put the FAB in your fundraising marketing. F: you are fundraising. Tell people this is a fundraising event. A: activities. What's happening that night? Auctions, paddle raise, raffles, storytelling. B: benefit. Who does this gala benefit? Make sure you're being clear about the mission it supports. Put the FAB in the marketing.
Next: board of directors and committee engagement. Making sure your board is on board. Making sure your committee is focused on what you're there to do and what your goals are. Fundraising goals. Experiential goals. Donor cultivation goals. Sponsor showcase goals. Your board and committee need to be actively working toward all of it.
Then audience development. Your board of directors and your committee are helping make sure the right people are in the seats. You could invite a thousand people, but if they don't have the connection or the capacity to give, they are not the right people for your room. There have been times where I've raised hundreds of thousands from 200 people. There have been other times where we raised 50,000 from a thousand people. Who is in that room and the motivation they carry matters more than the headcount.
And then the final component is your gratitude process. How are you saying thank you at the event, after the event, and immediately following? 24 hours, 48 hours. Phone calls. Handwritten thank you notes. Post-event content on social media, email, YouTube, showing the success and the energy and the inspiration you created. Keep that gala high going.
So these are the 10 — count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 — pieces. Run of show. Live auction. Call to action paddle raise. Additional revenue generators. Curated silent auction. Sponsorships. Marketing. Board of directors and committee engagement. Audience development. And your gratitude process.
And then number 11: the invite to next year. Put that save the date out there. Own your date. Own the day. And be so amazing at your gala that people say, "That was the best gala I've ever been to," and they bring their friends back with connection and capacity to give.
If you need help with this, please reach out to me at calltoauction.com. I want to thank you all for the work you are doing, making an impact in the world, and dedicating your most valuable asset — your time and your energy — toward the nonprofit that you serve. By listening to this, it shows me that you care about how great your fundraising event is. Let us help you make it even greater.
Thank you again everyone. Bobby D with Call to Auction and the Auction Is Action with You in It podcast. We'll see you on the next episode. Bye everyone.
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At Call to Auction, we specialize in turning galas and fundraising events into mission-driven, revenue-generating experiences. From paddle raises to live auctions, our team knows how to excite donors, engage audiences, and inspire generosity in the moment.