Each year, this nonprofit conducts a fundraiser roast of a well-known local figure. The decor represents the personality and profession of the one to be roasted.
In this case, the honoree (i.e. the one to be roasted) was a banker, so the charity auction themes followed a button-up conservative tone, as seen in these visuals.
The invitation was sent loose-leaf, but held together by a gift – an engraved money clip.
Fitting of a banker, pinstriped dark blue, gray and white were the predominate colors.
The auction bid paddle was sponsored by the honoree’s bank. It was heavy-weight plastic in the shape of a house (because banks give home loans). The bank’s name was on the reverse side.
Placemats used the pinstripe theme and had the honoree’s photo.
Table signs were a $100 bill on one side. The other listed the sponsoring company’s name.
Many $100 bills in both regular and over-sized shapes were scattered on tables.
The event had five roasters, which might have worked had they not spoken for so long. They were reluctant to limit their remarks to the allotted time period. By the time the live auction began, at least two-thirds of the 800-person crowd had left.
I hate that feeling of ascending a stage to an empty room.
Even so, the event chair wrote to me in the days following that,
While I don’t yet know our bottom line, our revenues were up significantly (over 10%) above the prior year. The reverse auction was almost double and the live was up substantially. So although the room cleared after the long running roasts ended, those that stayed were in the mood to bid and you did a great job of accommodating them.
Leave a Reply