The Traditional Event Arc

Cocktail Hour

Your guests will arrive at your event in varying states of engagement. Your job is to reel them in. A cocktail hour can allow them to acclimate to your event and leave their daily baggage behind.

This time is also perfect to start getting them to engage with your organization through a silent auction, raffle or wine wall. These activities give guests something to do and start raising your organization money.

Dinner & Start of Program

After this social time, transition guests into the seated dinner and program. A great way to focus them here is to show a “Who We Are and What We Do” video after they are seated. Using a video will help center and focus your room and allow you to educate your audience about your organization.

Live Auction

Dinner is a time when your audience will be relatively quiet and is a great time for the live auction. Order your live auction items by perceived value, each building on the next as a way to build momentum to head into your special appeal. Hire a professional benefit auctioneer, you will make more money as they sell your organization not just the item.

Special Appeal

Your special appeal is your single biggest opportunity to raise money at your event. That is why it needs to be timed at the peak and height of your event’s momentum and your guests’ attention. Your appeal also needs to follow a basic formula about one person on a hero’s journey:

The special appeal has three distinct parts:

The Story: Your appeal story needs to come from a place of why your organization does the work that it does and not this is who we are and what we do. Simplify.

The Ask: To engage your audience with a call to action, you must concisely, directly and actively ASK people to give money.

The Collection: Those who plan for an easy and strategic collection maximize their earning potential. This may be done with bid cards, envelopes, cell phones—but keep it easy and strategic.

Candy

Once your live auction and special appeal are completed, move into the “candy” of your event. This is the perfect time for honorees, awards, or headliner entertainment. Guests will stay around and pay attention, but at a lower level of engagement than they had during your live auction and appeal.

Register for our Elements of Your Event class on April 26 to learn even more about how to structure your event program to raise more money.