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You are here: Home / Appeals / Fund a Need / Raise the Paddle / Seven tips to raise more money in a fund a need
Jun 11

Seven tips to raise more money in a fund a need

Sherry Truhlar Leave a Comment

fund a need auction display

This is an fund-a-need display from a hospital foundation gala.

Many auction ideas can help you raise cash, but no other singular activity during your benefit auction will have more financial impact than the cash appeal. It can be such a cash cow that some of my clients have no live auction; they only conduct an appeal.

The appeal goes by various names: fund a need, gift from the heart, or any of these other cash appeal names.   Whatever you call it, there is a strict protocol to follow if you want to be successful.

Here are seven pointers to executing a great fund a need.

1. Select a single item or cause to fund.

You will confuse your audience if you have a laundry list of activities or items. I saw an appeal flop at one school because they insisted on raising money for three items. Some members of the (tipsy) audience became confused and thought they could choose which item they got to fund. Ugh! Keep it simple by keeping it singular.

2. Advertise the appeal.

Just as you would advertise a silent or live auction item, you should advertise the appeal. Talk it up prior to the gala… put it in your catalog … highlight it in your program … ensure it has its own display table in the silent auction (see photo). Showcase it.

3. Describe the need.

This can be conveyed in a heart-wrenching video, a heart-warming live testimonial, or via a short plea from someone close to the need who can succinctly describe its impact. Guests need to understand where the money is going, and how it will help the cause.  As of late, I’ve been asked to convey the need on behalf of the charity.  This approach can work, too, if you’ve got the right auctioneer.

4. Offer several different pledge levels so everyone can participate.

The appeal is the “group gift” of the gala, but not everyone is going to be able to give at the same level. By offering four to six different levels of pledges, you ensure everyone in your crowd can give and feels good about it.

5. Begin by asking for the most amount of money (your highest giving level), and end by asking for the least amount of money (your lowest giving level).

This is simple psychology. Asking a guest to pledge $100 seems a modest request after they have just witnessed other guests pledging $1000.

6. Ask auction guests to raise their bid card to make their pledge public.

With few exceptions, public pledging will raise more money than silent pledging.

Pledges written on notecards and collected by volunteers just aren’t effective. When a guest watches a neighbor raise his bid card, there is subtle pressure to do the same.  (Incidentally, this is one of the ways that e-bidding or mobile bidding devices have failed to work as well.  You need to change your approach when using them.)

7. Announce the total of what was raised.

Guests are always curious about the total, and my experience has been that even when the money raised hasn’t been as spectacular as privately had been hoped, guests don’t know it.

“Wow, we raised $25,000! ” a guest will tell me (even though we hoped for $35,000…).  Announcing the total inspires guests; they feel good about their participation. You’ll likely even collect a few more donations as guests check-out.

Fund a need DVD and bookletAnd now that you’ve got “the basics”down, what about the rest? 

What about examples of great videos that have been used as introductions prior to the Fund a Need?  What about the sample scripts I’ve used in front of groups?  What about the 3 types of Fund a Needs, and learning when to use which? 

You can learn all of that (and much more) in Fabulous Fund a Need Secrets.  Get the details and see a snippet from the content.

 

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Copyright © 2009 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved

About Sherry Truhlar

Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.

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Sherry, oh, Sherry! You were an invaluable asset to this year’s gala. With your assistance we were able to add so many new elements that truly made a difference in taking our event to another level. This year was the most successful yet! Everyone loved you and the amazing energy that you brought to the event. We look forward to having you again in 2018!

Krystal Fenwick
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Thank you so much for the outstanding job you did for us on April 1! I have received so much positive feedback from so many who attended. You even earned Sister Suzan’s (our Vice-Principal) seal of approval! Safe travels to all your many events and thank you for making our biggest fundraiser of the year our best ever!

Diane Albano, Director of Development
St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School (St. Augustine, FL)
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Sherry is flexible and easy to work with. She gives honest feedback and advice throughout the planning and implementation process. Without a doubt, Sherry and Red Apple Auctions has helped take our annual fundraising event to the next level.

Beckie Middendorf, Development Director and Janet Gulla, Development Coordinator
St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)
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Sherry is “on board” from day one of auction planning, works closely with our steering committee and is only just a phone call away. The night of the auction, we toss her the keys and let her drive the event! We are never disappointed!

Charly Ryan, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)
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I was very fortunate to have Red Apple on board for my first auction. Working with Sherry was invaluable. She provided guidance at every phase of planning, from procurement on forward – and she challenged us to make our event more ambitious and more successful at every stage. Thank you, Sherry!

Pete Goldlust, Director of Development
Oak Hill School (Eugene, OR)
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If your auction needs to upgrade, call any auctioneer you find on Google. But if you want your auction to be impressive, meaningful, and profitable, you need to call Sherry.

Erin Banda
2016 NYUMBANI Board member
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The auction was entertaining .. proactive … the crowd was involved and felt a part of it,” he said, emphasizing, “The entertainment value was huge.

Darrell, a long-time attendee
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We plan on booking Red Apple Auctions much earlier for our next event so we can take advantage of more of the pre-event offerings.

Nicole Carr, Director of Grants and Special Events
The Ivymount School (Rockville, MD)
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Sherry, personally, I can’t even begin to tell you the immense amount of positive feedback that I received having YOU (and Darby) there with is this year! Some of the tidbits: You added EXCITEMENT and ENTERTAINMENT… You added EXPERTISE and FUN… You helped the evening FLOW, in a wonderful and positive direction… You were FUN,… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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Aren’t KK and Michael a cute couple? They liked that I “moved the crowd along … kept the crowd engaged but wasn’t obtrusive or invasive. We were able to talk but still keep track of what was going on.”

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You have NO idea of how many people came up to me (I know Julie as well) and said, ‘That auctioneer was incredible … she engaged the crowd, … she got the bidders to bid without being rude/pushing, … I loved observing her, I just watched her, … she did a great job.’ It was… Read The Rest “Staci Meruvia”

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Geri said: “Great job of getting potential donors in the room to step up to the plate and not feel guilty or bad about it. They actually wanted to give more … and that’s not something I’ve seen in many other auctioneers.” The following year, she herself ‘stepped up’ and became one of the gala… Read The Rest “Geri”

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Irene attended one of my New Hampshire auctions and assumed I must be a radio personality — until I started to chant that fast talk. “I’ve been to this event before with a couple of other auctioneers,” she said, “Your ability to get personal with people in a way that isn’t intimidating — men, women,… Read The Rest “Irene”

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Most product & consulting remarks are found on their respective webpages, but I’ve listed two below so you’re assured my products are as spot-on as my auctioneering.   Not only was our 2013 auction a blast, but our Washington, D.C. public school raised $67,000 — that’s $25,000 more than last year! The evening went off… Read The Rest “Carolyn Kahn-Hall and Andrea Del Vecchio”

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As a former Fox News Anchorwoman, I am often called on to perform at auctions. So, I know first-hand that auctioneering can be a difficult job. Sherry Truhlar is one of the best in the business. She is skillful at managing an audience and keeping them focused on the task at hand – which is… Read The Rest “Cynthia Steele Vance”

Cynthia Steele Vance
Guest at The Potomac School 2014 auction (McLean, VA)
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