The run-of-show checklist

Six weeks out

• The fund-a-need has its own dollar target, separate from the event total.
• The ladder is written: top level, number of gifts expected at each rung, where the body of the room lands.
• The lead gift at the top of the ladder has a name next to it, and that person knows they are going first.
• The live auction has five or six items, not fifteen. Everything else went to the silent auction or was packaged.
• Every live item is an experience a table can picture itself inside, or has been packaged into one.
• Any item a donor can deliver twice is flagged, so the underbidder can be offered a second sale.
• The mission moment is one story, told by one person, four minutes or less. Not a video and a speaker and an award.
• The auctioneer has seen the draft run of show and the item list.

The order of the fundraising segment

• Welcome: ninety seconds. The board chair thanks people and sits down.
• Mission moment, early, before any ask.
• Fund-a-need immediately after. Nothing in between: no sponsor slide, no thank-you, no transition.
• Live auction next, while the room is loud and paddles are already out.
• Awards, sponsor recognition, dessert, and the band on the back half.

Event week

• Rehearsal with the emcee, AV, and the auctioneer. The mission-moment speaker has practiced the last line, because the ask starts there.
• Table captains briefed: the goal, which rung to raise at, and that they go first at their table.
• Bid spotters or volunteers assigned and told where to stand.
• Paddles at every seat before guests sit down.
• Screen graphics for each ladder level built and tested.
• Someone other than the auctioneer is recording pledges by paddle number, in real time.

Doors open

• The auctioneer has walked the room and knows where the lead donor is sitting.
• The chair has confirmed the ladder one last time.
• The welcome is still ninety seconds.