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.
