Get Everyone to Help Set the Stage for Success

It takes a lot of people to put on a good fundraising auction, and they all have to be in tune with the goals of the event. We acknowledge that we spend a good deal of our time straddling the line between “fundraiser” and “party” and work with our events to make sure we are giving the fundraising aspect of the evening its fair share of the evening.

Often there is one person somewhere in the planning process who is so committed to their vision of the event that they lose sight of how we can best raise money. We’ve seen it all: centerpieces the size of large lamps, blocking the view of 50% of the attendees; actual large lamps as centerpieces; a band that insists on playing during dinner (instead of doing an auction); and now this:

If you see a well decorated stage, bless you and your optimism. I saw a cage that was going to prevent me from interacting with the crowd. Sure, it was a flowery, pretty cage, but it was a cage nonetheless.

The woman who spent hours creating these arrangements and decorating the stage was shocked to hear that I wanted to move the flowers to either side of the stage, and move her well-apportioned podium two-feet back from the edge of the stage. Exactly as I had discussed in a planning meeting with the auction committee the week before.

We managed to work out a plan for moving the flowers right before the auction started, and I took responsibility for not tripping over the podium drape once I moved it back a few feet. But it was all unnecessary drama the night-of the event. It would have been much better if the person in charge of decor was on board with the fundraising goals of the evening, and had been brought in to the loop by the auction committee.

It takes a lot of people to put these events on. It takes a lot of people working as a team toward an agreed upon common goal to make these events successful.