Fund-A-Need Fundamentals

If you have not yet seen a successful Fund-A-Need program in action, you have no idea what you’re missing out on.

A Fund-A-Need program is a means of generating revenues for a specific organizational need. Ideally included as one of the live auction items, the Fund-A-Need is an exceptional way to raise thousands or tens of thousands of dollars (if not more), year after year, in an energetic and often inspiring way.

While Fund-A-Need doesn not fit every event (i.e. conflicts with the organization or event priorities), I have yet to encounter a client who has regretted using one.

As to ‘why they work?’, consider this…

Guests who attend your event either come with the intention of supporting the cause, or are hopefully moved to do so while there. By the time you have neared the end (but not completed) the live auction, you will have many “losing bidders” – whether from the live auction or perhaps a silent auction – who still want a way to support the cause. You may also have guests who found nothing of interest or in their price range, but likewise want to support the cause. This is why a Fund-A-Need works.

Like all business strategies, though, success can be contingent on some basic fundamentals. Consider the following:

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Identify an organizational need. Select a need and describe the need based on the benefit that will be achieved. For example: A scholarship fund would be described in terms of the educational opportunity it will provide the recipient. A building fund would be described in terms of the people that would receive the benefits of the building’s existence.
2. Associate 3 defined funding levels for the need. For example: $1,000 will provide a child with a 6 month enrollment in the program, $500 will provide 10 children with access to a computer workstation, $100 will provide a child with supplies and food for 1 month.
3. Make your lowest level an amount that most people in attendance could participate in.
4. Create levels that cater to quantity bids. For example: When the auctioneer asks for $1,000 to provide a child with a 6 month program enrollment, they can easily ask the bidder, “how many children would you like to support?”. This opens the opportunity to multiply bids at each level.
5. Conduct the Fund-A-Need during the live auction. This ensures people are still in a frenetic paddle raising mindset; conducting it afterwards implies a separate fund raising event and often provides just enough energy shift to dilute results.
6. Include a complete description of the Fund-A-Need in the program as one of the live auction items. Proper sequence within the auction should be determined by your professional auctioneer.
7. Use bidders’ paddles to track bids and to inspire participation.
8. If you have received donations for these amounts prior to the event from those that cannot attend, ask the donors if you can have them represented at the event to help generate initial bidding response during the ask.
9. Invite a poignant and relevant speaker to introduce the ask, but always use a professional charity auctioneer to make the ask. This can be one of the highest revenue generating activities of the night. Use a professional that understands proper implementation of the program and ensure great success!