Adding a Paddle Raise at Your Lunch

One of the biggest differences you can make in your appeal is to move it from a passive ask to an active one. With breakfast and lunch events—which don’t usually have some form of live auction—it might not come to mind to have bid paddles.

But bid paddles enable you to tap into two of your donors’ biggest drivers for behavior: to be seen and to be a part of something. Raising a paddle is a very visible way to both show your support and to be recognized in the room. Energetically it also changes the landscape of the room, creating an active and visible show of support instead of donors just quietly filling out envelopes.

Black Parent Initiative has seen tremendous success at its Circle of Growth Luncheon shifting their appeal from inactive envelopes laying in a pile in the middle of the table, to bid cards for every guest. They did the usual work of collecting guest names in advance but then instead of just nametags, they also gave each guest a bid number at their seat. This expedited check-in, as guests still just picked up a nametag in alphabetical order with their table number. But then when they got to their table they found their seat with their bid card already there.

BPI then fashioned an active appeal facilitated by a benefit auctioneer after the special appeal video. They had pre-determined levels of giving that the auctioneer worked through in reverse order. The bid cards allowed pre-committed donors to be recognized in the room and recorded all of the donors’ giving. This allowed the organization to collect on pledges at a much higher rate than envelopes as they have already matched the bid number to the guest information they have on file.

The activeness of the appeal endows the giving with momentum and maximizes the potential of the appeal. More donors in the room engage, and everyone can be a hero.

About a Special Appeal

The appeal should be placed at the top of your event arc after you have educated guests on the issue and have connected them emotionally to the cause. A few keys to success:

Identify a speaker who can connect to the audience emotionally. Be sure that their story directly relates to the work of your organization and the mission.
Talk to your major donors to arrange for some pre-committed giving. When you know giving levels in advance it becomes much easier for us to be strategic about your collection.
The ask should be compelling—it should be a call to action.
We recommend a special appeal video.
Set a goal and only inform the audience of the goal at a time when it will generate more giving.
Identify other ways that people can contribute if they were unable to give in the special appeal.

Telling an Appeal Story

Tell ONE story. The moment you start telling the story of MANY, your audience starts to use the statistics against you. The emotionally compelling story of ONE will get your audience to emotionally connect to your work. They will automatically extrapolate that you do work with more than just one person.

Tell the story of that ONE person’s journey, from who they were to who they are now. Getting them to talk about the past—especially if it was difficult—can be challenging. But doing so will show the full scope of their journey and change.

Situate your organization as the CHANGE AGENT in this person’s journey. You were the component that they met that got them from who they were to who they are.

Get them to articulate what their situation looked like before you, what your organization provided them and what their life is like now. You want to show your impact through the story of their change. You standing on the roof declaring this is far less effective than someone who is strongly and personally impacted by your work telling your audience their story of change.

Multiple voices can tell one story. Your story should focus on ONE person’s trajectory, but you can use additional people to make your case. Make sure they are speaking about your featured speaker and supporting the story of their journey.

This is not the time for talking heads. This is the time for creating a heart connection between your audience and you. This is the time for telling ONE compelling story of change with your organization planted at the center of that change.