My grandmother turned ninety this year. We went on a cruise with the entire family. My grandmother and I have been involved in the same Jewish nonprofit organization for many years. I clearly remember her telling me about hosting a luncheon at her house in the 1960s for a group of twenty of her lady friends from her network. My grandmother hosted the lunch on behalf of UJA-Federation and then asked every lady to contribute $10 towards an Israel campaign. They raised $200 in one afternoon, which was a lot for the time. In fact, my grandmother has been telling me this story for years and when I became a professional fundraiser I realized that my grandma had hosted a house party.

In today’s world, this type of fundraiser is unique and rarely done. These events seem to have fallen out of style in favor of larger gala events. Many organizations view house party fundraisers as an old-school fundraising method. Despite this popular opinion, these fundraisers are still highly successful when done properly.
 
Why incorporate house parties into your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy?

There are a couple of reasons why your nonprofit may want to consider including house parties as part of your larger fundraising strategy. Practically speaking, this type of fundraiser costs your organization very little in terms of time and dollars. Much of the work falls on the shoulders of the major donor or board member whom you ask to host the event. This relative hands-off approach makes house parties an excellent choice for nonprofits who are already stretched thin.

Smaller events like this are amazing for donor cultivation. At a large gala you will have hundreds of guests in attendance, but at a more intimate house party you may have only twenty or thirty. This makes house parties great opportunities to really get to know your donors. You, or representatives of your nonprofit, can really sit down and talk with them. As you know, strong donor relationships are at the core of any fundraising plan. House parties are an excellent way to build relationships and foster long-term generosity. House party fundraisers are also highly targeted. The attendees at these events know exactly why they have been invited and what is expected of them. Often it's a less stressful environment because it's a small group of people. It is also less formal and shorter than many other events. A new donor may be more comfortable in this environment than at a huge gala where they may not know anyone and may have a hard time networking.

What does a house party fundraiser look and feel like for your donors?

The house party fundraiser involves asking either a major donor or a board member to host an intimate gathering at their home. The host will provide food, drinks, and some type of entertainment for the evening or lunch. Reaching out to a donor with a unique home or garden can be a big draw for the event. People love getting an inside look at unique and fabulous homes. It can also encourage invitees to commit to attending your event and make the evening feel special.

All event attendees should come to the event prepared for your ask. Do not keep this part of the evening a surprise. Make sure it is part of the invitation and language promoting the event. All house parties do not have to be fundraisers. They can simply be informational introductions to the staff who will follow up with your donors later.

The majority of the event is schmoozing, networking, and chatting. This is typically followed by a formal presentation. This is a presentation that you and your team have planned ahead of time. The presentation is followed by a call to action.

This call to action can take many forms:

• An ask for donations
• An invitation to another event
• A request that attendees lobby on behalf of the organization
• An invitation to a meeting with staff from the organization

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Think outside the box and choose a call to action that fits your nonprofit’s specific needs.

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1. Pick a Proactive Host

Your host must be willing to get their hands dirty organizing the event. They should be willing to use their home or other property as the venue. They need to be willing to invite their friends, and they need to be upfront about the purpose of the evening. They should be prepared to cover the costs of the evening, and to make an additional donation to your organization. They should believe in the work your nonprofit is doing. They should be committed to following up with attendees after the event, thanking them for their time and expressing gratitude on behalf of your nonprofit organization.

Not every host is self-motivated enough to pull off an event like this. If your host is not 100% on board, your event will not be a success.
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Likewise, you need to be comfortable being incredibly frank with your host. They need to know, in no uncertain terms, what is expected of them and that you will be asking people for money. If your host is uncomfortable with the process, it is not going to be a success.

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2. Settle on a Stunning Location
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Part of the allure of these events is the location. Your host should have access to a stunning home or property at which the event will take place.

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3. Increase Your Invite List

Generally, the invite list for this type of event includes a mix of guests; people who are already on your donor rolls, friends of the host, and a small handful of people representing your nonprofit. When deciding who to invite, keep in mind that not everyone will attend.
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In general, you will want to invite AT LEAST three to four times as many people as you expect to attend.

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4. Perfect Your Pitch
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Over the course of the evening your nonprofit will give a presentation, sometimes with a video component. The CEO or other representative will give a short talk about the work your organization does in the community. This pitch serves the same purpose as any other appeal; to form that all important emotional connection between your donors and your organization. At the end of this presentation your nonprofit representatives will deliver your call to action.

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5. Be Gracious
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At the end of the evening the nonprofit representatives should thank each guest personally for attending. Thank your host as well. After all, you could not have done it without them. Don’t forget to have the host send thank you cards, or follow-up with a phone call in the days immediately following the event. Use this time to thank the guests for coming and for being generous with their donations.

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I'm starting a new series call Q&A With a Charity Auctioneer. Each week I'm going to answer one question that comes up a lot when working with my clients.
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6. Mix it Up

If you are planning to create a year’s worth of videos, consider mixing up the style and tone to keep things fresh. Here is a list of some simple, easy tips to increase the production value of your videos for free.
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• Voice-over. Record a voice-over on your phone or directly onto your computer. Layer the voice-over over your video footage for a simple and easy video.
• Text overlay. All editing software, including the free ones, offer the ability to overlay text onto your video. Just record the video and add text.
• Source copyright-free music. Use the right music to create emotion in your audience. Use copyright free music in order to keep your video online and keep your nonprofit from a costly copyright infringement situation.
• Source copyright-free stock video footage. Looking to add footage to your video or create a video without recording any footage? There are tons of great stock, copyright free video footage sites. Just remember to give them credit if you use their materials.
• Free tutorials. YouTube is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to free and awesome tutorials. Want to learn how to use iMovie in twenty minutes? Need to learn how to use the fancy lens on your camera? Can’t embed the video in an email? Check out Youtube for free and easy to follow tutorials on anything and everything.

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​Video appeals are an integral part of my clientele's nonprofit fundraising strategy. The pervasive nature of social media and the internet means that more people are tuned-in to technology than ever before. Deciding not to take advantage of this when launching a fundraising campaign has the potential to leave a lot of money on the table.

Get inspired!
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Here are some of my favorite video appeals:

• RainForest Action Network
• Oxfam
• UJA
• 49ers Academy​

​DO’s of Direct Mail Appeals:
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• Do make it familiar. Donors, especially those who have been giving for a long time, are very familiar with being asked to give through the mail. They have seen postcards, letters, brochures, and pamphlets arrive in their mailbox year after year, from nonprofits that they currently support or have supported in the past. It’s not new or scary, and it is a fairly straightforward method of fundraising.
• Do focus on the 50+ crowd. Direct mail campaigns work great with older demographics because they are very comfortable mailing in a check once a year in response to a mail appeal. This makes the direct appeal an effective way to touch base a few times a year with your older contributors, while fundraising along the way.
• ​Do prime the pump. Direct mail appeals are an excellent way to share success stories from the past year. Always include a short story, told from a personal point of view, that details how previous donations helped your organization to change a life or achieve your goals. Not all direct mail campaigns need to have an ask attached. Consider surprising your donors by simply sharing your success stories and thanking them for their participation. Removing the ask from one or two direct mail pieces indicates that you appreciate your donors and want to communicate with them without asking for anything in return. As a bonus, you are also priming the pump for your next direct mail appeal.
• Do run AB tests. Although too long to get into here, you should always AB test your direct mail pieces. For my free ultimate guide on AB testing your direct mail fundraising campaigns click here.
• Do tell a story. When done well, storytelling is the best way to create an emotional response from your donors. Always include a compelling, emotional story told from a first person point of view in your direct mail pieces. This story will create an emotional connection and help build the momentum needed for people to give via a direct mail campaign.
• Do “You.” Remember that this direct mail piece is going to be read by an individual who wants to make a difference. Craft/write your piece as though you were speaking to a single individual donor. Talk about how that single donation, no matter how big or small, can go a long way toward making a big difference in the lives of others and achieving success for the community.

DON’TS of Direct Mail Appeals:
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DON’T THINK IT’S CHEAP. Direct mail campaigns can be anything but cheap. Set realistic expectations of the costs associated with a well-run direct mail fundraising campaign. Consider the cost of a copywriter and editor (if you don’t have one on staff). And don’t forget to factor in printing costs and postage (both ways).

DON’T SET UNREACHABLE GOALS. Direct mail appeals have a very low response rate. According to Mobile Cause, successful direct mail appeals only have a return rate of 6%. So, for every 100 appeals you mail out, only three will be returned with a donation. This is just one reason why direct mail appeals function best as part of a larger fundraising strategy.

DON’T BELIEVE IT’S EASY FOR DONORS. Direct mail appeals are not easy for your donors. Stop and think about how many steps it takes for each donor to complete their donation.

• First, they have to open the mail - and let’s be honest here, not many people open the mail these days.
• Second, they need to read the letter or brochure included in your direct appeal, and they must form an emotional connection to the story presented. This is what prompts them to make a donation.
• Third, donors will need to fill out the response card, find their checkbook,and write you a check.
• Finally, and this part is really important, they need to mail it back to you.

Simply put, there are way too many opportunities for the donor to get distracted and put their donation off until later. When this happens the likelihood of the donation getting made falls precipitously, even though your appeal successfully fostered that emotional connection. At this point, most nonprofits decide to send a follow-up direct mail piece which only starts the cycle all over again.

Has your board ever brought forward the idea of crowdfunding? If they have, it is most likely because a board member saw something via social media and got excited. And now, at your board meeting, they are touting the benefits of crowdfunding and ensuring everyone that this “could go viral.”
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Most people look at crowdfunding websites as a magic panacea for nonprofit fundraising. To the untrained eye, this certainly seems to be the case. As someone familiar with the philanthropy and fundraising spheres, I know that this is anything but true. Successfully raising money on crowdfunding sites requires an extreme amount of dedication both from the organization and from their board, staff, and volunteers as well as active, engaged social media networks. According to a recent study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, more than 90% of GoFundMe campaigns never meet their goal. Sadly, the more immediate and tragic the need, the more successful the fundraising campaign usually is. If your nonprofit is playing around with the idea of utilizing crowdfunding sites as a part of your larger fundraising strategy, you need to be honest with both yourself and your board about the reality of these campaigns. Here are both sides of the crowdfunding coin so that you can accurately explain to your board the pros and cons of hosting a crowdfunding campaign for your nonprofit. ​

​I'm pregnant. Like, super-duper pregnant, ready to pop pregnant. When I stepped on stage last weekend at a large San Francisco Gala, the crowd didn't know what to think. And quite honestly, neither did I.
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It turned out to be a record-breaking night of fundraising for my long-time client. I'm not sure if it was the new program style, the room layout, or my enormous belly that made the difference - but it was amazing! It turns out, this crowd loved a big, pregnant auctioneer unafraid to put it all out there.

Proper timing is critical to the success of any Fund-A-Need auction. Your Fund-A-Need should be scheduled to begin no later than 8:30 pm on weeknights and 9:30 pm on weekends. Nonprofit fundraising events can involve a bit of drinking and scheduling the Fund-A-Need earlier in the evening insures that your event attendees have not yet lost their ability to focus and donate with purpose. If you wait too long people will either be too bored, tired, or drunk to pay attention to, or remember, what is happening on stage. Additionally, when scheduling the Fund-A-Need portion of the evening it is imperative to make sure nothing else is happening in the room. You do not want your auctioneer to be vying for attention with dessert, or be interrupted when an important guest arrives late.
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I once had to conduct a Fund-A-Need auction after the Mayor of Los Angeles spoke. The minute he stepped off the stage all the major donors in the room got up to shake his hand and introduce themselves. Not only did this create a cacophony of chatter that the Fund-A-Need had to compete with, none of our big givers were seated or paying attention. Let’s just say that the Mayor of Los Angeles totally killed our Fund-A-Need.

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​2. Failing to Keep Track of Donors and Donations
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Another common mistake is not including every potential donor in the event. Make sure to have contribution levels that all attendees feel comfortable with. Only having big money levels means you are potentially leaving a lot of money on the table. Encourage everyone to donate by going lower than $500 during this portion of the evening. The last level in the majority of my events is $100, no matter if we start at $1000 or $100,000
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Deciding to do a Fund-A-Need means committing to carving out the time in your event “Run of Show.” Cutting your Fund-A-Need short means losing out on dollars as well as donors. If you are going to have a Fund-A-Need as part of your special event, make sure that everyone can participate. Time is the main reason why many of my clients have cut their live auctions. They do this in order to make time in the schedule for a Fund-A-Need with levels for all guests, and the results are well worth it.

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4. Having a Need That is Too Specific or Hard to Explain

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Last year I attended the Association of Fundraising Professionals Conference out here in San Francisco. I paid $600 to attend for the day and spent four hours in my car just to get there. I attended numerous sessions, but was it worth it? ​

In the week after any major fundraising event, like your annual gala or fundraising charity auction, many people associated with the event feel a sense of paralysis. The Development Director and event planners may feel as though they have spent a lot of time and energy to meet their fundraising goal, and at the moment, there is no other goal in sight. Here are some small goals you can set to help keep that momentum and make sure you stay on track to meet your next fundraising goals.

Shortly after the event, call everyone who came to the event, regardless of whether or not they made a donation. Thank them personally for the time they took to come to your event and for their contribution, if they made one. Use this opportunity to start a conversation. Ask them why they chose to attend your event, what interests them about your organization, and offer to give them a tour of your facilities.

Send a video Thank You message. Videos are powerful and engaging tools. Plus, with most smartphones they are cheap and easy to make. Have your clients, staff, or board members say “Thank You” in a video and embed it in an email. Emails with videos get a much higher open rate than text emails. Taking the time to put together a creative Thank You video creates a memorable moment for your event attendees, and the more personalized you can make the video, the better. According to statistics available from Hubspot, people are more likely to watch a video all the way to the end if it has been personalized in some way. One easy way to create these personalized videos is by using Thank View - a customized video email company. They are a simple and reasonably priced tool for creating personalized messages as a way to thank donors.

In addition to sending personalized thank you messages, consider using a survey tool like Survey Monkey to ask for feedback from all guests. People will be more willing to give their opinion if you attach an incentive. Consider including a $10 gift card to a local coffee shop or iTunes. Ask simple yes/no questions about topics like the food and entertainment to make sure your next event reflects the wants and needs of your guests. Keep your survey short, less than ten questions, to increase the chance that people will actually complete it.

Take the time to debrief the event with your Board of Directors. Set up a meeting and have an honest conversation about what worked well and what didn’t. Talk about which elements of the event you would keep, which elements you would change, and how you would change them. At this board meeting, you should also lock in the date for the event, venue, and fundraising auctioneer for the upcoming year.

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Did you know that serving dessert could be costing your nonprofit donations?
This quick and easy fundraising video will show you why stopping serving dessert will raise your nonprofit more money. For any organization holding a fundraising event - this video is for you.
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Looking to maximize your fundraising through a raffle? Many of our charity auction clients are stuck with the same old raffle that makes roughly the same amount of money each year. If you are looking to invigorate your nonprofit raffle or want to make the most money ever try our 2 best raffle ideas which many of our clients use to bring in over $10,000.

Hi Fundraising Family!

Welcome back to the Generosity Auctions Blog! So excited to be back after about a 6 month hiatus.

So, you may have been wondering, where have I been. Well, it is a long story. But I wanted to share my trials and tribulations over the past 6 months. Some of it I am no proud of and some it is hard for me to discuss especially on video.

I thank you for your love and support and am looking forward to bringing you more fundraising ideas, fundraising tips and suggestions for your nonprofit during 2018. I hope you enjoy the below video and understand why I have been MIA for a hot minute. 

Hi Fundraising Family!!!
Super excited to share with you a new video series all based upon real Client Testimonials!!

Way back in December 2017, I had the honor to be on one of the top Nonprofit Fundraising Podcasts. If you don't already listen to 'Nonprofits are Messy' you should and I'll leave a link below. The podcast is hosted by Joan Garry, aka the Dear Abby of Nonprofits. Her podcasts are always informative, interesting and well produced. When I got the call that Joan wanted to chat with me, I was honored. She had never had a Charity Auctioneer on her show. However, she didn't want to talk about Fundraising Events and Charity Auctions and Fund-A-Need. Nope. She wanted to talk about 'Engaging Millennials'.

One of the biggest parts of being an expert in fundraising is all the consulting that I get to do with amazing Nonprofits doing fantastic work. I often am hired by Nonprofits looking to engage millennials, bring 21st century technology into play. create fun and unique ways to raise money using technology.

Joan tapped into this knowledge and shared it with her audience. I am proud and honored to have been on her show. If you have a moment take a listen to our conversation. 

Your board is a powerful tool, but you may not be engaging at your charity fundraising event. While board members may want to socialize with each other and their guests, they should have expectations of specific roles and responsibilities both during the night of and after the event. Here are 4 ideas for Board Members that not only get phenomenal results, but are easy asks that board members will enjoy undertaking.

1. During the dinner break or a break in the program, ask board members to leave their table and visit with guests at another table. The board member should then introduce herself to everyone at the new table and personally thank them for coming. If you have more tables than board members, assign board members 2-3 tables each. This personalized introduction makes new guests feel welcome, existing guests feel special, and makes all feel important and valued.
2. If you board hosts or purchases tables, ask your board members to write a personalized note to all guests at their table. The note doesn’t have to be long but it should thank the person for attending and let them know why the organization is special to them. Customarily, board members will purchase a table for your fundraising gala and invite their friends and neighbors to join their table. These notes will be easy to write and makes each guest feel special and compelled to support financially when the time comes.
3. Create a target list of donors in attendance who have a capacity to give. Assign board members the task of  connecting with/talking to 1-2 of these donors during the cocktail hour. This should be a natural introduction & conversation and not an interrogation. Ask the board member to introduce themselves, welcome the potential donor and get to know them a little better. Ask them where they work, why they’re at the event, and other general donor cultivation details. The board member should report their findings at the post event debrief.
4. Make sure you ask your board to follow up with everyone who was at your event and offer a personal thank you. They should thank the target donor with which they spoke, the guests at their own table and the guests at the tables they visited.

Using your board effectively at your next fundraising charity event will help build relations among your donors and raise money.

For more Fundraising Charity Auction ideas and helpful tips on planning your next charity fundraiser, follow Generosity Auctions on Facebook or Instagram @GenerosityAuctions. Abra Annes is the leading Charity Auctioneer based in California. Abra is the owner and founder of Generosity Auctions, the premier choice for Non-Profit Organizations looking to maximize their event fundraising.

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