Most nonprofits run raffles the same way they have for decades. One ticket, one price, paper tickets in a bucket, drawn at the end of the night. It feels familiar, it feels safe, and it's quietly costing organizations thousands of dollars per event.
That's the message Dean Crownover, Benefit Auctioneer Specialist of My Benefit Auctioneer, brought to 501(c) Drop this week in conversation with BetterUnite Co-founder Leya Simmons. With 15 years as a BAS and 30 years of entertainment experience behind him, Dean is the first benefit auctioneer specialist credentialed in Georgia, and he's been refining the raffle playbook ever since.
Here's what he wants every development director and executive director to know.
The Benefit Auctioneer Specialist (BAS) designation is awarded through the National Auctioneers Association and requires continuing education, a thesis-style project, and ongoing study of the things that actually move the needle at nonprofit events. Run of show. Revenue stream design. Audience psychology. Audience development.
"90% of my job is all behind the scenes leading up to the event. The other 10% is on the stage."
Dean is typically booked a year in advance and starts working with clients that early because every part of a successful event, from the paddle raise structure to the prize selection, gets shaped well before doors open.
Before anything else, organizations need to know the laws in their state, county, and city. Not all jurisdictions allow raffles. Some restrict them in ways most nonprofits don't realize.
In Georgia, for example, raffles are licensed at the county level, and online raffle play is restricted to in-state participants. That requirement has to be written into the description.
"Nobody's going to have problems if you do your due diligence. The paperwork isn't fun, but it protects you."
This is the foundation. Skip it and nothing else matters.
The old model was one ticket for $100. Dean's data, pulled from years of post-event reporting with his clients, tells a different story.
The most effective pricing structure offers three tiers:
The 1-for-$100 tier remains the most popular. The surprising finding is what comes next: the 7-for-$500 tier consistently outperforms the 3-for-$250 tier in second place.
The takeaway: it's not about how many tickets you sell. It's about how much you make. Let donors decide how much they want to spend, and don't artificially cap ticket sales. Limiting tickets is fear-based marketing left over from the paper-ticket era. With digital sales, there's no reason to leave money behind.
The right raffle prize is a bucket-list dream item. Nine times out of ten, that means a trip.
The most reliable way to get one is through a reputable consignment company like HGA Fundraising or Auction Packages, which package multi-destination dream trips where the winner picks one option (Tuscany, Bali, Costa Rica, Sedona, etc.). The cost runs roughly $2,500 to $2,900, paid after the event.
"85% of your audience should want it. Jewelry and most physical items only excite 10 to 15%. That's not enough."
The four-choice model emerged because single-destination prizes hit a wall. If a donor just got back from Paris, a Paris trip won't move them. Give them four options and the appeal multiplies.
A few non-negotiables when working with consignment partners:
Pre-selling the golden ticket starts roughly four weeks before the event, launched on a Saturday morning rather than a workday. The reason is behavioral: weekday mornings are rushed, but Saturday mornings are when people relax with coffee and check email.
After a couple of weeks of pre-marketing teasers, ticket sales open. Marketing continues through the weeks leading up to the event. Promoters work the room on the night itself.
"If you build it, they will come does not work here. You absolutely have to push it."
When done well, organizations regularly walk into the event with $13,000 to $20,000 already raised on raffle ticket sales alone, before any in-room activity.
For event-night flow, Dean's preferred sequence is:
Drawing the golden ticket between the paddle raise and the live auction creates an emotional pivot from serious to celebratory, and gives the live auction a natural energy boost. It also creates a "buy it now" moment: announce that anyone who lost the raffle can still purchase the trip during the live auction. Sometimes nobody bites. Sometimes 20 people do.
A nonprofit board is leverage, not decoration. Dean breaks the board's role at events into four responsibilities:
"Half the people walking in have no idea who you are. They got dragged there. Your board's job is to make them feel at home, because if they understand the mission and feel welcomed, they'll give more."
Arming the board with a cheat sheet of every revenue stream of the night lets them act as informed promoters without delivering speeches.
Separate from the board, every event needs dedicated promoters who can move guests from awareness to action. The ratio Dean recommends:
Promoters wear visible markers (gold crowns for men, tiaras or blinking necklaces for women, or simple Mardi Gras necklaces). The visual cues do double duty: they're a marketing prompt that draws curious guests, and they signal which guests have already purchased so promoters don't have to follow up.
A few placement rules:
Post-COVID, the data tells a clear story.
Paddle raise and fund-a-need giving have increased year over year. Millennials in particular research nonprofits thoroughly and want to give directly rather than buy items at auction. Live auction revenue is softening as a percentage of event totals because only about 15% of any audience can comfortably participate.
The harder problem is attention. Younger generations talk through programming. The fix isn't a louder sound system. It's audience curation.
"The people who really care about your mission, who can attend and spend, are the people who should be at your gala. Those people don't talk as much."
A growing trend Dean is seeing: nonprofits running two events. A friendraiser-style event geared toward younger audiences and awareness, and a tightly curated gala for committed donors.
One of the most underused tactics: call major donors who can't attend and ask for a pledge.
"These people want to give. They just want you to ask."
A two-minute phone call can secure a $10,000 pledge that anchors the paddle raise. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith couldn't be here tonight, but they're starting us out at $10,000" creates immediate momentum. Most nonprofits never make the call.
When asked for the single takeaway every nonprofit should walk away with, Dean's answer was direct.
"Market, market, market. Market that golden ticket like crazy. Market that paddle raise like crazy. And link every dollar amount back to impact. What does $100 do? What does $250 do? When you've got that connection, the donor does the rest."
BetterUnite's live raffle wheel was built on Dean's recommendation, and it's now a go-to feature for benefit auctioneers running events on the platform. Want to see it in action?
Visit betterunite.com/requestdemo or email support@betterunite.com to book a walkthrough.
Transcript Recording:
Leya Simmons (00:01)
Welcome to the 501c drop. I'm your host Leah Simmons and I am the CEO and co-founder of Better Unite. Welcome, welcome. I'm so happy to have you spending some time with us here on a Tuesday. Let me ⁓ stop my share and talk to you about what we are doing today. We are going to talk about raffles, revenue and results. And we're going to get the perspective of frankly, one of my favorite benefit auctioneer specialists.
his playbook, his do's, his don'ts, how you can increase fundraising at your next event. I am joined today by Dean Crownover of My Benefit Auctioneer. Hey Dean.
DEAN (00:42)
Well, hello, what an intro. Thank you. that, that. I mean, I love, I just love, I feel the love.
Leya Simmons (00:45)
of course.
I'm glad you feel the love. So Dean around the Better Unite parts is actually known for a whole different reason. He's famous among us because he came up with the idea for our raffle wheel. So if you don't know what that looks like, this is my teaser for you to come and talk to us later and take a look at a live raffle wheel that you can have on stage for your benefit auctioneer to use in drawing raffle tickets. So.
Really cool. It's awesome. And it was all Dean's idea. So one more time, I'm going to say thank you to you, Dean.
DEAN (01:22)
You know what? And it really has made my life easier. I don't understand why your competitors don't do it, but my God, it has made my life and my client's life easier. So thank you for doing it. Thank you for listening. If nobody else does.
Leya Simmons (01:35)
We love that frankly and all of you better unite users out there. Please throw us your ideas. We listen and we love it. That's how we've built everything and we like to build in collaboration. It's always the best way. Dean, I recently posted that when nonprofits, and you can imagine this happens quite a bit for me, when nonprofits ask me like, what could I do to make my event make more money?
Like my number one go-to response is you should hire a benefit auctioneer specialist. just think that it's like, why would you put up on stage a board member, even a news anchor, anything like that, when you could have in your court on your side, I don't know.
sports so well on your team. There we go, sports team. When you could have somebody that does what you're doing once a year, 40, 50, 60, 80 times a year, and a backlog of, in Dean's case, 15 years of experience. I just have, that's how much respect and admiration and how much frankly, from the data, I know that a benefit auctioneer specialist can help. So.
DEAN (02:17)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (02:40)
I value your expertise, your insights, and I'm so excited to have you here talking about those raffles that we've got our raffle wheel for, but also other things that organizations can do to really increase the revenue at their events. So I really quickly am gonna say a couple of things about Dean. He comes to us with 15 years of experience as a benefit auctioneer specialist based out of the Atlanta area, but I happen to know Dean goes everywhere. And he...
has on top of that 15 years experience a full 30 years of being in the entertainment business. So not only does Dean bring to you expertise around fundraising and fundraising events, but he also has stage presence bar none from all of those years doing, I don't actually know what you did before this, Dean. What was, what it was the entertainment experience?
DEAN (03:29)
I was, I
I eat out of living as a full-time actor in Atlanta. And so I, I went to college, but then I studied acting and went to acting school, many acting schools. And then, so that meant professional MC, a little bit of film, a little bit of TV, a lot of commercials. I was a professional hand model during all this time. I was a lookalike, Elvis and Forrest Gump made me thousands. ⁓ Yeah, I was eating out of living. And then one day,
got sent to an event as a funny Frenchman with two real can-can dancers because Moulin Rouge should come out. But it turns out it was a fundraiser for a school. But part of the gig was I had to do the auction. Now there were no TV shows, YouTube, I don't even think was going on it. And we're like, I don't know how to do this, but I faked it. And I just relied on my comedy improv chops. And I'm sure I was terrible. It was probably the dumbest thing they could ever done. to your point, because I was not a professional,
Leya Simmons (04:14)
What am I doing?
DEAN (04:26)
⁓ But then people started calling over time and then I turned it into this and it's been wonderful.
Leya Simmons (04:31)
I,
it is wonderful. And your lovely wife, Amy, has her own pedigree working with nonprofit organizations. So the two of you with My Benefit Auctioneer, you're just like chocolate and peanut butter for us nonprofits out there trying to raise money. You are the Reese's.
DEAN (04:44)
That's a great one. That's right. We are the Reese's of nonprofits. Thank you. I'm fundraising. Thank you. That is my new tagline.
Leya Simmons (04:52)
But you're a new, you're welcome to it. Thank you. I just make sure I get a little credit line. I'm just kidding.
DEAN (04:54)
I love it. Oh, all of the credit.
Leya Simmons (04:57)
Okay. So let's dive in. I like love talking about all of this stuff and we could go on and on for days. So I'm going to watch the time and get in. And by the way, sorry, if you do have questions while you're watching us live, put those into the chat. Dean and I will try to get to answering a few of those if we can at the end. If you're watching the recording email support at betterunite.com, will show a slide at the end with D-mail with Dean's email address so that you can get in touch with
him as well, but we love your questions and we would love to answer. So throw those in there, but here we go. Here's our first question, Dean, are you ready? All right. For a development director or executive director who's never worked with a benefit auctioneer specialist before, what do you do that's so different? Like I'm raving about you, how would you describe it? And how is that different from hiring an auctioneer without that BAS designation or like a more traditional MC?
DEAN (05:29)
All right, I am.
So comes right down to specialists, right? Because I eat, breathe, sleep, benefit auctions only. In my career, I have never sold or raised money for anything that wasn't nonprofit. So a traditional auctioneer, ⁓ and there are many specialists, right? There's ⁓ estates, there is real estate, there is cars, guns, all that, right? So they have a specialty, and they are a general auctioneer. So...
what the difference is, is I study all the revenue streams, run of shows, trends, ⁓ audience psychology, audience development, all of these things. And through the National Auctioneers Association, we have a benefit auction specialist. It's a lot of words, but it's important because that means we have to do, if you will, a mini thesis to become a benefit auctioneer specialist. And I was the first in Georgia to ever do it, which
was shocking. And ⁓ what that basically means is we do continuing education. I liken it to a teacher that we have to constantly keep our continuing education. So we stay relevant so we can help our ⁓ nonprofits. And so when I come to the table, I'm usually booked a year in advance and I start with a client a full year in advance because I know every single part
Leya Simmons (06:50)
That's cool.
DEAN (07:19)
Cause I've helped develop their run of show, the revenue streams. How are we doing the revenue streams for the paddle rays, for the raffle, know, picking prizes, doing all this. I have a hand in all of it. That's the part I really, really like the consulting. as I like to say, 90 % of my job is all behind the scenes leading up to the event. And the other 10 % is on the stage. And one more thing is that most, ⁓
auctioneers who are not specialists at what we do don't understand what to do if you're thrown into a situation, right? Because sometimes that comes up. Like somebody might stand up and say, Hey, we want to sell this or we have a, like I had a guy once stand up and go, we want to give a hundred thousand dollars. you reach a hundred thousand dollars. Well, that nonprofit had never reached past 30,000 in their funding need. Luckily the training came in. Right. So
Leya Simmons (07:50)
Mm-hmm.
How are we gonna get there? That's a big leap.
DEAN (08:15)
In a split second, you have to decide. And that's the difference is that the experience and knowing kind of what to do. That's what we benefit auctioneer specialists bring to the table.
Leya Simmons (08:26)
Nonprofits are such a unique.
entity, it's that we're not, you know, like any other business that I've ever known. They are truly, truly unique. So I, and I've had the pleasure of going to the benefit auctioneer specialist summit that you all have once a year. And frankly, the education that you all offer to each other around nonprofits, myself as a former development director and executive director, I always find it that I frankly learn quite a bit there. And it's just such a, you guys just have such a robust community as well.
DEAN (09:00)
I think we really all like each other. really isn't. Well, that helps, right? Cause there isn't bad blood. this isn't, ⁓ yes, we are competitors, but the truth is we're colleagues first and we can only do one a night. So, so I can't do three at a night. And the truth is we want to help each other because the bottom line is we're helping those nonprofits who are on the front line. They're doing the hard work. They are the heroes. They are changing lives in whatever form. And when you know that.
Leya Simmons (09:11)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
DEAN (09:31)
every dollar, if I can make them another hundred bucks to help, you know, what they're doing for their clients, that means something. And we all in that ⁓ room at our convention, we get it. That really, we know who the hero is. And so that's fun. That's really fun. And we really do like each other.
Leya Simmons (09:47)
I totally, yeah.
It's so it you're you're just as an outsider looking in the the heart that you all have for nonprofit work and nonprofit organizations is just palpable. You can absolutely see it. OK, let me take us into raffles because honestly, you know, from a better United standpoint as a software, we had had raffle ticket functionality, you know, buy tickets, use the virtual kind of quote unquote buckets pull. All that's great. But you introducing that wheel and making it much more of a showman piece has has really changed the way I see raffles.
And so I love your approach to this. do want to talk about, you know, kind of raffles from the ground up. So, ⁓ and I do think that a lot of nonprofits are probably running raffles the way that I had conceived of them as before, you know, just kind of a use the tech maybe as a substitute for the, you know, in-person tickets or keep the paper tickets. And, you know, they're just a thing that maybe takes a little bit out of your silent auction. But what are your most
What would you say are the most common legal or structural mistakes that you see organizations make before ever setting up their raffle?
DEAN (10:55)
Yeah. hands down, you must find out the laws in your state, city, county, find them all out. So in Atlanta or Georgia, ⁓ you have to go to the county where the nonprofit is established and that is, and fill out a license. You're going to find for some of you, you can't have one and you need to know that upfront.
Leya Simmons (11:18)
Yeah.
DEAN (11:21)
And for those who can, you must abide by that law in every single way. for, cause I'm not a lawyer, right? Always consult with your board and whoever's a lawyer. ⁓ but in like in Georgia, you can do the raffle say online, but only people in the state of Georgia can play. Right? So you can't send it to people outside and you should write that. You should put that in the description and, and, and that kind of thing, but know that back and forth because then.
Leya Simmons (11:36)
Mm.
interesting. Huh.
For sure.
DEAN (11:51)
You will have absolutely no problems after that. And that's important, right? So you can run this the way the law was meant. So that's the first thing that most people don't do. They're just haphazard at it because they're thinking heart and profit. And they are, they're thinking with the heart, they're trying to say, how can we make more for this nonprofit? Which I get, right? Just do your due diligence and know the paperwork is not fun. No, there's no simple application. It's not like getting an app.
Leya Simmons (12:09)
Yeah, sure.
DEAN (12:20)
and you put in your name and email address. I wish it was, but it's not.
Leya Simmons (12:26)
Well, that's good to know. And I do know that there are some states where there's like a strange thing where you can only pay in cash for some. There's some states where there's absolutely no, I didn't know that about Georgia that was county dependent. So that's really interesting for me to know too. Texas is less restrictive around them for nonprofits where I am, but.
Again, I echo and we actually in the software, like you have to tick a box saying, yes, I do know my laws of my state and yes, I am running this according to the laws and that should always serve as a reminder, I hope, just to echo your point. So yeah, so then once you're clear, we know we can run it, we've got it, checkbox, checkbox.
DEAN (12:56)
Yes, absolutely.
Leya Simmons (13:03)
How then do you price raffle tickets? This is another question that my team gets asked a lot. And honestly, we have our kind of answer that comes from some data that we have seen and not really from what we've collected, but I would be very curious to know how do you advise your organizations to price them?
DEAN (13:21)
So the old school way was one ticket for one price, say one for a hundred, because a hundred dollars was about about correct. So one for a hundred. And I am not of that fan. I am a fan of tearing it one for a hundred, three chances for two fifty, seven chances for five hundred in my data. And I get this from my clients after we've done the event. We're finding that, yes, the one for a hundred is the most popular.
Leya Simmons (13:50)
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (13:50)
But
I'm talking just a couple of steps below that is ⁓ the seven for 500, which I was shocked that that was the second most popular. then third right behind that is the three for 250. Let and let people decide how much they want to buy. Right. Because that is their adults. That's their right. ⁓ But if you don't offer them, it's not about how many tickets you sell. It's about how much you make. Right. So we want to make sure that
Leya Simmons (14:03)
Interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
DEAN (14:19)
They feel like they're getting a bargain, which they are. They're going to get more chances in ⁓ and let them buy. The second biggest mistake, I think, and this is old school, definitely, and I say before COVID because we all went virtual. ⁓ And so you could do more. You had to do more digital and raise more money. ⁓ The ⁓ limiting the tickets, which I hate. I get it. Back in the day when you were selling the
Leya Simmons (14:33)
Yeah.
⁓
DEAN (14:46)
paper tickets. Hey, the first hundred people, you know, you're right. Well, the first hundred people, you know, it's the fear based marketing that if you don't get in there, you're going to you're going to, well, you'll be in a small pool, which is good for your odds. Right. And so you'll but you're you'll make 10 K. Well, now I say don't limit them, you know, not not too long ago. And these are.
Leya Simmons (14:50)
We might run out of paper.
DEAN (15:13)
happening all the time. I'm a big fan of pre-selling them a month in advance and then sell them at the event. ⁓ I had one just recently. They'd sold $13,000 before the event and another 10 at the event and they only had 175 people. So if you had limited to 100, you just lost a ton. 13 extra K. Yeah, that makes no sense to me.
Leya Simmons (15:17)
Totally.
Man.
$13,000 in that case.
Yeah, it's also too, from a software perspective, it's always great if there's some reason that you can get them in and put their credit card on file. And a lot of times they're buying the raffle tickets through the guest experience link. And that encourages those people that didn't purchase their ticket, but got invited to the event. Now I've gone in, I've pre-authorized my card. The knock-on effect of that is making our check-in lines move much faster, which is the thing that we're very obsessed with. like we love those because raffles are a lot, I mean, to me seem a lot easier
DEAN (16:04)
Well, I.
Leya Simmons (16:08)
than silent auctions.
DEAN (16:10)
⁓ my
energy wise. As I always say, all your eggs in your basket and I'm taking out ticket sales and sponsorships because you're going to be doing that night of your paddle race, AKA the fund to need the fund admission, whatever you call it. That's where you put a ton of your eggs because that is where everybody's giving. However, ⁓ I think now second is the raffle. If you can do one, the raffle, because you're dealing with.
Leya Simmons (16:14)
Totally.
DEAN (16:39)
one prize or choice of prizes, which we'll talk about, ⁓ regardless, you're getting the one thing to focus on and getting everybody, and I agree with you, get everybody over to the mobile bidding website. I forget what you call it. It's the event website.
Leya Simmons (16:54)
Guest experience link, magic
link, whatever you want to call it, yeah.
DEAN (16:58)
But here's where a lot of nonprofits aren't thinking ⁓ they are focused on the people who are gonna be there. COVID taught us, or coming out of there virtual, you now have two groups you're marketing to. Market to the people who cannot be there or are your database folks who, you know, maybe they aren't the right people at your event, but they still wanna participate. When they get over to that website to buy it, all of a sudden they see, here's a fund to need. I can give a few extra bucks here.
I can bid in the silent auction here, right? I can do other things from the comfort of my home and not have to be at the event. So you are targeting two different groups and that's really important to think about.
Leya Simmons (17:40)
That's a really good reframe.
Yeah. I've honestly, as much as we've certainly done that, I've never thought of it in the terms of like, and you can market and now with segmentation and automations, we can actually super specifically target those people that are filtered communications too. So we can like send specific communications to those people that we know aren't coming and then to those that aren't. That's wonderful advice. So then from the prize perspective, like,
The dollar amount, do you have advice on what dollar amount the raffle ticket should be in the case of XYZ prize? Or do you have a ⁓ prize dollar amount that we should aim for? What's your advice there? Okay.
DEAN (18:22)
Yeah, actually not a dollar amount. It's,
⁓ what I like to say it's a dream item. So it's a bucket list stream item and it normally filters down to a trip. would say nine out of 10 times we use it. It's a, it's a dream trip. So, a lot of times nonprofit don't have this, right? But sometimes they do. And I'll give you examples. The typical way to find a trip like this is through a consignment company.
Leya Simmons (18:29)
Okay.
DEAN (18:52)
And a consignment company where they package these dream trips, you buy it after the sale, you pay them a certain price. ⁓ let me just use, ⁓ like HGA fundraising. They have a, ⁓ I forgot what we call it. I think it's called the golden ticket, but it has four different choices. It has like Tuscany and I think a Kentucky bourbon trail and Sedona and Costa Rica or something like that. Right. It's got.
Leya Simmons (19:10)
Thank you.
DEAN (19:20)
different things for different folks. It's got four choices, but the winner only gets to pick one. Now, most nonprofits can't put all that together themselves. You're going to pay about $2,900 for it or $2,500 after you've made the money, right after the event. So typically, people get emotionally excited about this dream trip that they could win for $100. And that's what you want. And you want to make sure that a
Leya Simmons (19:35)
Right.
Alright.
DEAN (19:48)
I like to say 85 % of your audience would want it. So sometimes I'll get, well, what about this great piece of jewelry? Jewelry are things like that are so subjective that that brings it down to about 10 or 15 % may want to do it. And that doesn't work. You need something where everybody goes, I really want that. Now, sometimes they do have access to it. I had a school last year.
Leya Simmons (19:53)
Okay.
Right.
DEAN (20:17)
One of the parents owns a home in Hawaii. And so they, you know, that was a no brainer. We said, okay, let's put that in because you, own that outright. you don't have to pay the fee for it. And they made 20 K walking in and another 20 on the floor with about 300 people. So that worked really, really well, but it is, it is against the norm. Most nonprofits don't have it. ⁓ I'm a huge fan of use consignment for this.
Leya Simmons (20:19)
⁓ that's cool.
DEAN (20:45)
For the live auction, that's a whole different conversation. We look at it, see if it makes sense. But for this, it's kind of a no brainer.
Leya Simmons (20:45)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, I can totally see that. And especially with that four choice, mean, you're you're expanding the ⁓ pool of interested people by four, like, you know, we're now not, yeah.
DEAN (21:04)
And do you know why the
choice in the last couple of years became A, the consignments were putting them together. And I will use HGA on this one. They were the first that I know of to put it together. If I just got back from Paris and you are offering a Paris trip, like Auction Packages has one with like Paris, Greece, Bali, Thailand, and Tuscany. Tuscany being number one, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, in any of these, Tuscany is number one.
Leya Simmons (21:14)
I love it, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (21:33)
If I just got back from Paris and you're only offering Paris in this, then I'm not going to buy pretty, pretty good chance. I'm not going to buy. Right. However, now I've got four, three or four other choices. And most of these, get what a year to use it a year to choose it two years to use it. So something like that. Yeah. So it just works and they have all the marketing materials you're going to need to create posters and, and, know, media for this.
Leya Simmons (21:39)
Yeah, totally.
It's, they're surprisingly flexible. I've always been impressed by that as well.
DEAN (22:02)
But do your due diligence and see what they have out there and get reputable companies. There are lot of fly-by-nighters. Get the reputables and read the fine print. If it says your guest has to pay $150 per person per night extra, don't do it.
Leya Simmons (22:09)
who was that?
Totally. That would upset me. I'm so glad you mentioned that one. Really.
DEAN (22:23)
The worst. they're everywhere. Those show up free.
Those show it all of a sudden, if they find out you're having a nonprofit, you get these. Well, that could add another 2k to this that they weren't planning to pay. Read the fine print. A reputable consignment company, they don't do that.
Leya Simmons (22:34)
Yeah.
Right. And a huge shout out to HGA Fundraising, who's actually in Better Unites Auction Item Store. We have a direct integration there. Auction packages we work with, we're bringing them in as well. Mission First, there's just, there are some really good ones. And this is another thing that I would say, talk to your benefit auctioneer specialist, because I know you know which ones are the ones to look for. Okay. So now we're, we've picked our prize. We've decided on the price with you in consultation. So we're in the timeline of the event. Like, how are you using this?
DEAN (22:57)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (23:09)
for donor energy. I've heard you talk about this a little bit before and I'm fascinated by like you use this as a tool. Yeah.
DEAN (23:16)
Yo, yeah. So
on the timeline, let's say it's three months out, you've started selling tickets three to five months out ⁓ to the event. One month out on a Saturday, the month out, 9 a.m., somewhere in there, you open up ⁓ ticket sales for the golden ticket.
Leya Simmons (23:25)
Okay.
DEAN (23:42)
right for the raffle. By the way, golden ticket, a lot of people, we just call it golden ticket. You can name it anything you want, ⁓ any way that you want to brand it. But golden ticket is what a lot of us say. And I like it because they wake up on a Saturday, don't put it out on a Monday or even a Friday. And I'll tell you why. Because most people are in a rush at work. And most people are going to work, school, you know, what have you. If you do it on a Saturday, most of us
Leya Simmons (24:03)
Yep.
DEAN (24:09)
not me and you, we're up, we're working, but most people that is our Monday. Most people are, ⁓ waking up, relax, grab their coffee, check their emails. Now you've done a little bit of about a week or two of pre-marketing saying it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. And here's what the trip is. So get them excited. Then you launch it on that Saturday. they're going to buy over the weekend and then you're going to keep, keep marketing it throughout the weeks. And then, ⁓
Leya Simmons (24:13)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (24:37)
the night of the event, of course, you're going to close it that night. But you are now having sellers or what I like to call promoters that are in the room promoting it right in front of them. So so open it a month before. Now, again, check the laws, make sure you can do all that. But I find again, that's when I say, you know, my clients are making not always, but like 13, 20 grand sometimes.
Leya Simmons (24:53)
Right.
DEAN (25:06)
If they don't push it. ⁓ and if the, if the price costs three grand, you've already walked in in the black, but it is on you. Cause sometimes a client, if you build it, they will come does not work here. You absolutely have to do the pushing. You know, I've had clients, you know, I'll check in with them. Hey, did you open up four weeks before? no, we're going to open it up tomorrow. Well, the events tomorrow.
Leya Simmons (25:06)
Literally doubling, like more than doubling.
Hmm.
Yeah, now we've lost out on that huge, yeah.
DEAN (25:31)
⁓ We just lost. Yeah, you're making
it about what's happening in that room now, and that is old school thinking. You don't have to do that anymore. Unless the laws say, but here we don't. For most part, you don't have to if you get that license. But double check.
Leya Simmons (25:42)
Right. Yeah.
What about the, where in the night are you gonna pull the winner? Like when is all of that gonna happen? And use our famous raffle wheel. When does, when, where, like I know that you're working with the energy of the room. So I'm curious how that plays in.
DEAN (25:58)
So two things, if you are doing the live auction, I like to do, so let's just say, whether it's a seated dinner or food stations, once the program begins after everybody's eaten, right? Once the program begins and they're gonna do a couple of wards and what I call the state of the union of the nonprofit, I like to go into the paddle race. When we are done with the paddle race, then pull the golden ticket.
then do the live auction because it's a great transition from the more serious overtones into the fun and frivolity. But what it also does, that winner can now know that they can spend in the live if they want to, right? ⁓ which I think is a great way to do it. And by the way, a big thing I do is we turn around in the live auction and tell everybody
Leya Simmons (26:30)
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
DEAN (26:53)
Hey, you can buy this trip at a buy it now price because this is a great way to use it. They all had their hearts set on it. I will literally go, hey, how many people just lost the golden ticket when I'm in the live auction? It makes some noise. You know, it's 99.9 % of them. And I say, good news. You can now buy this for $39.95. Anybody wants it. know, so sometimes you sell zero, sometimes you sell 20. So, you know, it's,
Leya Simmons (27:13)
sequence.
That's amazing.
DEAN (27:20)
It's a perfect place to put it. But so,
so that's route one, put it between the paddle race and the live box. yeah. Live auction. If you're not doing a live auction, hold it until after the paddle race. It's the emotional roller coaster. want the serious. More important part. Cause a hundred percent of that room can give in the paddle race. is your number one revenue stream. Pretty much, you know, besides sponsorships hands down, it's number one. And so.
Leya Simmons (27:48)
Absolutely.
DEAN (27:50)
end the night with this, this, this, this big reveal. And it's a great, it leaves a wonderful taste in their mouths because they're going to want to come back. Most people remember if yours was boring, had too many speeches, that it wasn't executed well, your event, but they're not going to come back. Right. But on this, if they had a great, great time, they will remember you and they want to come back. They'll put you on their calendar first.
Leya Simmons (28:20)
I'll tell you Dean, no, it was great and I can validate it. Here's my weird validation of this that is, so I was presenting about BetterUnite and our software and using your data to follow up with your event. And I had this beautiful presentation that I did at the Nonprofit Power Conference. So two nonprofit folks. And again, it was smart. I talked about all this, like, make sure that you're in touch with your.
DEAN (28:20)
That's a long answer. That's a very long answer to this.
Leya Simmons (28:47)
guests and attendees, you know, months after your event. And anyway, all this stuff. And at the end of it, I did, I showed the raffle wheel and I re-drew a winner for like a, I don't know, $200 Amazon gift card or something. No one talked to me about any of my super smart stuff.
They only talked to me about that raffle poll and the winner was thrilled. I mean, like you could just feel everything in the room, just totally. So one time I got my small auctioneer moment and it totally rocked. And it frankly stole the thunder from everything else that I had done. And the poor guy that had to follow me.
DEAN (29:19)
it's so much fun, but see, they'll remember. Yeah, they're going to remember
you. And it was, it's just so much fun either way. And I really play it up. have game show music and, I play it up. We will, one of my favorite things to do if I can is bring up the winner up on the stage. And I say, Hey, you don't have to choose right now, but of these choices, if you had to go today, where would you go? But before I get their answer, I get the audience. will.
Leya Simmons (29:36)
Ugh.
DEAN (29:46)
do the list by applause and I always hold Tuscany for last. I'll go, who would want Bali? You know, clap. Who would want, this one happened recently. Who would want Nashville or, ⁓ was it Nashville? Yeah, Nashville. Two people clapped. Then I went, who wants Tuscany? And the whole place erupts. So, and then I asked that person, what do they want? Right? So it just becomes a fun game show moment. And it's something that the guests,
Leya Simmons (30:00)
I'm sorry.
Awesome.
DEAN (30:13)
Remember, remember what our job is, is to get these guests to convert to patrons for life. And this is the gateway.
Leya Simmons (30:14)
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I love that. So then how...
⁓ I know that I've done this in the past with organizations I've worked with where I've encouraged my board members or the committee to sell tickets in advance. How would you encourage an organization to do that so that it doesn't feel super transactional or like they're like a Girl Scout at the door? It's not too pushy. What would you say for me, development director, what do I say to my board to get those sales going?
DEAN (30:55)
So let me be clear, if you're talking about you're bored to help versus having promoters in the room. So.
Leya Simmons (31:03)
Well, I think the
board helping prior to maybe, and then I love the promoters in the room.
DEAN (31:08)
All right, so this is something that that I came up with that your board is not a decoration at these events, right? They are leverage. So they've got four things that they need to do to help your gala or your fundraiser be a big success. Number one, attend, of course, if they can, they must attend. Invite number to invite qualified guests and to be blunt, like minded, like walleted people.
Leya Simmons (31:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sure.
100%.
DEAN (31:36)
Who will come to
this and give that's very, important. They themselves, if they can give at this event there, what they're going to give, because I think they all have to give something through the year. If they're going to give, if they can do it there, great. ⁓ and then the biggest one, what we're talking about, not biggest one, but number four engage. They are ambassadors on the floor. They're there to network, to talk up the nonprofit.
Leya Simmons (31:54)
Okay.
DEAN (32:03)
⁓ so I tell, ⁓ my clients, if you need to give them a cheat sheet of everything we're doing tonight and how it's running, here's what the live auction items are. Here's how the, ⁓ funding need is going to work. Here is how the golden ticket's going to work. Yada, yada, yada. That they can now talk, they're an ambassador for the cause. They're a promoter for everything that's happening that night.
Leya Simmons (32:09)
for sure.
DEAN (32:31)
course, they're trying to get these new guests and making the new guests feel welcome. part of the ambassador job. that's so important. And because there are going to be a lot of guests who just, you know, got drug there and they don't 100 % know who you are.
Leya Simmons (32:36)
I think that's a huge one too. I love that you said that.
100%.
kind of sitting at the table,
they're not really looking at anybody, yeah.
DEAN (32:51)
And I watch these tables all the time, right? From the back, especially during dinner. And I will see when somebody will come and shake hands with everybody at the table. So if a board member comes and says, I'll see this. Hey, thank you. Here's what I do on the board. This is what we do. They're not giving a speech. It's just a hello, this is who I am. It's to make you feel at home and to make everything feel warm. Because if you understand the nonprofit more and you do feel welcomed,
You're going to want to give more. And by the way, this is all authentic. This is not ⁓ just a dog and pony show. This is, I see the warmth and the real. And that's their best, best, best thing. You know, that's the four things they need to do. But having separate promoters is my, is the other thing too, really outgoing people who are not in your face trying to make a sale, say for the golden ticket. They're just making you aware because half the people walking in have no idea.
They haven't been reading the emails. They don't know. They don't know what we're doing. when you have, used to call them sellers. They're now promoters because you can buy everything on your phone. Thanks to your software and other softwares. Now it's, do you know about it? Can I show you?
Leya Simmons (33:58)
promoter.
too sometimes that they'll like you know buy your raffle ticket and you see them do it and then they'll give them like a blinky ring or a beaded necklace or things like that you you like it okay
DEAN (34:14)
A necklace. Necklace are the best. Men
will wear the necklace. They won't wear the ring. And I like things that are shoulders up that I can see pretty easily. Because here's what happens. Even if they're not, I like the blinking necklaces, a certain amount of those, because that really works. But even the simple cheap Mardi Gras ones, what happens without a doubt? When people start getting them for everybody buys, because the promoters have them, somebody will come up to me and go,
Leya Simmons (34:19)
Ooh, interesting.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (34:43)
Hey, what's with those necklaces? How can I get one for my kids? And I, and I'll go, cause that's what it is. And I'll say, we'll go buy this. by the way, have every board member, whether they're playing or not, cause, cause internally they usually decide, can the board members play? Right? So once they've decided that whether they're playing or not, have them all wear a couple of necklaces, have your executive director before they go up on stage, where I'm have anybody that's associated.
Leya Simmons (34:44)
How can I get one? Yeah.
I'm sure.
DEAN (35:12)
with the nonprofit wear it because they become a marketing tool. If I'm talking to you and you're wearing one and I'm going, what, what's with all this necklace? Well, let me show you, come over here to the golden ticket table where there's some outgoing promoters. This is all by design. It works well and it should be built that way.
Leya Simmons (35:23)
Here we go!
The psychology
of it too is just fascinating, right? Like it's so, these are such simple tweaks, but they're, the impact is so huge.
DEAN (35:40)
Yeah, I just had a call ⁓ yesterday and this really, really, really disappointed me. The board opted not to pre-sell them, but they don't know why we pre-sold them before. And we made a ton of money walking in and somebody said, we don't want to tax anybody to pre-buy. I was like, well, why? Nobody can give me a good answer. And I was like, so is that going to limit how we sell them there or how the board, you know what I mean? So became, the board can make or break. The board can make or break.
Leya Simmons (35:58)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
So then what we've kind of talked about some of these small tweaks that again are not expensive and increase the energy in the room, make your job easier. Are there other things you can think of that are like a really high leverage change that you wish that more nonprofits would do?
DEAN (36:27)
⁓ pass the golden ticket. Yeah. Okay. Two things with the golden ticket. Make the golden ticket. ⁓ one thing I would say is have a home base for it. A table, a high boy with a huge poster, have a bunch of information around that room. ⁓ yes. So, so have a, what I call home base. That's got the big poster, a couple of people working at it can see, be seen overheads. your sellers.
Leya Simmons (36:43)
wondering that actually so a good display yeah
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (36:55)
wearing either ⁓ some kind, the men will wear a gold crown, the ladies will wear gold tiara, the ladies will not wear a hat, they won't, because of the hair, so know that. But ⁓ over a sea of heads, these are easy people to see, and me on the mic go, hey, see any of our promoters wearing this, they can help you out, right? So that makes it easier. Put signage at every bar and in the bathrooms, in your program,
Leya Simmons (37:03)
Okay, nope.
Mm-hmm. ⁓
DEAN (37:23)
have a signage at check-in, don't sell them at check-in. That'll back you up. Get them in the room, let them get a drink, then sell them, right? No.
Leya Simmons (37:27)
No, please.
Also, don't slow down check-in with selling anything
other than getting people into the room and getting their credit cards on file.
DEAN (37:37)
Have a couple of signs there. Don't use QR codes. We don't want people doing it there. Don't use QR codes in any of this unless, ⁓ and you'll have to tell me if your software, if it sends, if they're already checked in and it sends them straight to it to buy it.
Leya Simmons (37:39)
For sure.
Yeah.
It does. Here's
how it goes. Yes, if they've clicked, this is what we have to have. They have to have clicked through their link on the device. So if they've gone to the silent auction raffle page at home on their laptop, that doesn't count. need them. So you can say this verbally at check-in, you know, just texted you your magic link.
click through that link so that you can see our live auction, you can bid in the silent and you can buy raffle tickets. like anything you can do to kind of get them to click through that link right there in front of you helps us because when we put those QR codes up, we've planted a cookie on the device and we're able to direct them to their guest link. So instead of going to some public page and re-entering my credit card information, which guests don't want to do, can go straight to their own page where their card is pre-authorized. So easy, easy, but we need them to click through the link.
DEAN (38:27)
Right. They hate it. Right.
So what I would say to that is ⁓ give the check-in people just a small script, exactly what you said. Hey, we just texted you. If you will walk over here, have a couple of volunteers who are there to help them open it up before they go into the room. Because once those are open, tell them, now you can bid, you can buy the golden tickets. Because by the way, everybody buys it on their phone. You don't have to write it down. You don't have to have people with ⁓ iPads only. No.
Leya Simmons (38:41)
It's easy.
Yep, totally.
You're a thief!
DEAN (39:02)
have the guests wherever they are buy it at any point and make it the first thing people see ⁓ on your device. Like I think yours is a separate raffle, right? Sometimes it.
Leya Simmons (39:12)
There's
like a gavel for the silent, there's a person talking for the live, there's a dollar sign for items for sale, there's like a hand giving for the Bundaneed or giving levels that you've decided to show, and then a ticket for raffle ticket purchases, and then they can see the prize there as well.
DEAN (39:29)
make it so easily accessible like that, where your guests know and give your, all your promoters a cheat sheet with the prize information and show them in, know, I trained them on how to talk it up. ⁓ but then we will turn it over to someone from the software that will show them how to show the guests how to buy it. Right. So they need to understand just a small degree, how to work the
Leya Simmons (39:52)
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm sure.
DEAN (39:57)
the homepage or, yeah. Do you call it an app? What do you call it? I call it an app because I'm old.
Leya Simmons (40:00)
It's, I know you got
it. It's not an app because we don't want people to download anything and then have to log in and all these things. want them to go right to it. So it's a link and we call it the magic link or the guest experience link is technically what it's called in the system. But I shorthand it to the magic link. And we love when we love doing that quick training. takes five minutes to teach people. Here's what you ask them to click. Here's where they need to go.
DEAN (40:05)
Bye.
I love it.
I'm in it.
Leya Simmons (40:24)
I mean, less than that. mean, honestly, you could do it in those many words. And, but you know, it's, it's surprising how, how rarely the, the events that we support will think to ask us to do it. If we can catch it, we go do it. But it's, you know, sometimes they're left out there kind of to the, or they have them writing them down, like on a manual piece of paper, which then just causes more data entry for us. And then we might not hit the timing. And I mean, everything you're saying, Dean, is like the way to do it.
DEAN (40:41)
I make it part of.
And
I love convenience because I myself shop convenience. So when I'm at a table talking with my friends and I, and me as the auctioneer, cause I always do ⁓ countdowns on the mic. Hey guys, buy it by eight o'clock. And this is when we open then it's, Hey guys, we are five minutes away. And maybe a text goes out from you guys at the same time. This is your last five minutes. Well, I, the guests do not have to get up. I simply, if I haven't bought it yet.
Leya Simmons (40:55)
same.
yeah.
Mm.
Mm-mm.
DEAN (41:19)
go and buy it. Now, what I usually say is when you buy it, find one of our promoters, they will give you your necklaces. And by the way, guys, if I'm a couple and I buy just one, three or seven, give them each one a necklace because now and here's why though, here's the real reason. Your promoters now know with that necklace on, I don't have to go and bug them again. They have bought.
Leya Simmons (41:35)
Don't be stingy.
Sure.
DEAN (41:47)
It's a marketing tool, but it also tells us who's bought and who hasn't. ⁓ Yeah. And if you pre-bought it, I'll say, Hey, just, we trust you. Go over and, you know, tell them you bought. A lot of times I'll get the question, shouldn't we check and check their ⁓ history? Yes, you can. But if I'm going to lie that I bought a ticket cause I need a 10 cent, five cent Mardi Gras necklace, you got bigger problems. So give them one and let them go. Right.
Leya Simmons (41:50)
of Visual Queue.
There's a bit of karma coming at you, my friend. I think like,
let karma have its way. I agree. Okay. So walk us through a well-sequenced fundraising, a Dean crown over well-sequenced fundraising event from your perspective, like give me the whole flow for maximum energy for you to do your job as best as possible.
DEAN (42:16)
right.
Okay, so doors open. You've already been selling it online at least four weeks. Doors open. You have, by the way, be ready a good 15, 20 minutes before people are showing up early, at least in Georgia. Oh my Atlanta, you would think we're all late, but no, we're early. You've got, based on how many guests are coming, I like to say if you've got 200, you've got four to six promoters. I like at least six. And then,
Leya Simmons (42:38)
Mm-hmm.
DEAN (43:05)
increase all the way up, right? So if you've got 500, you might want 10. ⁓ You've got two working the home base, the golden ticket home base. You've got the rest working in pairs with a bunch. One of them has a bunch of necklaces. ⁓ The other is, you know, I find teams in teams, they they are less ⁓ timid. First of all, don't don't book timid people to do this. Wallflowers, they're lovely. We don't need them for this. We need people who are outgoing.
Leya Simmons (43:28)
Yeah, totally agree.
DEAN (43:35)
⁓ and who are not afraid. And if you don't have those kinds of people go find a sales group. Real estate agents are the best. See if they will volunteer their time. They're so good. ⁓ I once was doing a gig early in my career and they were selling it like crazy. And I went, see you guys all have the same name tags. You're not with the organization. go, no, we're Keller Williams. have a, nonprofit, ⁓ our own nonprofit. do a certain amount of hours from this day forward. I preach. Thank you. Keller Williams, but wow.
Leya Simmons (43:44)
⁓ my god, good idea.
DEAN (44:06)
They know they're not afraid of people. And by the way, dads, if you're a school group, a small school group, dads kill it. They aren't afraid either. And that's not being sexist.
Leya Simmons (44:06)
That is a
Because a lot of times
those events are very feminine driven, know, and they're built for the whip ladies. That's right.
DEAN (44:20)
Yeah, they're doing the they're doing the they're doing behind the scenes, the really important stuff, right? They made it happen.
They drugged dad there and dad. This is his one thing and he kills it. Right. So that's important. I would say do not if you're especially at school, don't book parents for the whole thing. They just leave their post. I've seen that happen many, many in schools many two times. Or if it's ⁓ I don't like a chairperson here, I want them and bored. want them.
Leya Simmons (44:30)
Great idea. Love that.
DEAN (44:49)
hobnobbing and doing other things, but get really good salespeople. So ⁓ about an hour and a half. So if doors open at six, we're selling up till about seven 30. Now we get them seated. We do the welcome. But now we have been saying you have until X clock. Put it on paper that you think, okay, we're going to stop selling this during dinner. That's how we pick the time. If dinner starts at seven 45 and we know
Leya Simmons (44:51)
Mm-hmm.
Gotcha.
DEAN (45:15)
The show, the second part of the show is going to start at 8 15. I like to close it at eight. It's an easy number. Don't say seven 55. Don't say eight 10 call it eight. Right. Because if they're not, if they haven't bought by then that last five minutes, isn't going to matter. So what you do is you publish, you don't have to publicize that on paper, but we, uh, tell all the volunteers and we are also, if there's bad traffic, if there is some reason food is behind some reason and we can buy extra time.
Leya Simmons (45:19)
Okay.
You
DEAN (45:45)
Then we change that time, but get your, your, your auctioneer or your MC to say, buy it by eight, buy it by eight. Now that gives time for ever, for the backend for them to get the wheel ready. In your case, it goes like this, but for most, have to take that data, put it into an outside wheel, wheel of names.com. And then, ⁓ we do the welcome or sorry, we do, ⁓ the show.
Leya Simmons (46:04)
⁓ okay.
DEAN (46:13)
And when we get to the time for the wheel. So my perfect is maybe in a word or two, get right into the state of the union from the executive director or CEO about who you are, what you're doing. Five minutes, set up the fund to need with one story. And then, ⁓ bring up your auctioneer or whomever is going to do this, do the paddle race, pull the, wheel of ticket with that. You know, you set it up. Here's what the prize is. Then you go, you know what we did?
We took all your names and how many you bought and we put it on this big wheel. Boom, the wheel shows up. You get the whole place to do a drum roll on their table. And I yell, spin that wheel and music is going nuts, right? The name pops up, bring them up if you have time, you know, do what I said, find out where they want to go, give them a big round of applause and then move into your live auction. And then end the night. However, they end the night, the band or people go home, whatever it is. But that's my perfect night. And that's the
even with a food station, would run pretty close.
Leya Simmons (47:12)
That's great. That's great. Do you have, know, I like, well, I just lost my train of thoughts. I'm so sorry. Okay, I'm gonna refer to my notes because I completely, you did. I was like, I'm just like lining it up and completely picturing it in my head. So I'm gonna ask you then, have you seen that, cause you mentioned, you know, of pre or pre COVID post COVID and that there's certainly some things we've learned, certainly some differences. can tell you QR codes now are great. We never need.
DEAN (47:21)
Did I overwhelm you?
Leya Simmons (47:40)
text to bid or anything like that and that was really becoming a big thing prior to. ⁓ Has donor behavior changed in the past few years that you've seen?
DEAN (47:52)
Yes, and okay, here's a good news, bad news situation.
Leya Simmons (47:56)
You might have a book about this actually. I'm gonna, you know
what, as you answer, I'm gonna put a link so people can get your book about this. you're so sweet.
DEAN (48:03)
yeah, Paddles Up. That's it. Yeah. I'll give that away free. ⁓ Just send them to the
site and I'll get it's called Paddles Up. I wrote it right out as COVID about 2023, right? So, but since then things have changed as far as donor behavior. And here's the good and bad of it folks. Number one, all through COVID and up to now, paddle raise, fund and need giving has increased and increased and increased. And that's generational. I do research on ⁓ millennials.
Soon, hopefully, there'll be data coming in on Gen Z. Millennials, 61 % of them will read everything about you. They just want to give. They don't buy. They're not big into the silent auction. They're not big into the live because the wallets may not be there yet. And the live is actually coming down a little bit. It's still powerful, but it is not an end all because only about 15 % of that audience can afford it. However, for the generations, millennials, me, Gen X, boomers, ⁓
Leya Simmons (48:36)
Sure.
Mm-hmm.
Sure.
DEAN (49:03)
They are tired of buying stuff for the most part. They just want to give, give, give, right? So the giving's gone through the roof. It's like even this weekend, I did two events and both of them broke numbers because people just want to give. ⁓ there's a lot that goes behind that for your marketing and all that. That's a whole different webinar, but here's what I have seen that is not good. Their attention spans all generations, but especially the younger ones coming in.
They're, and I'm not blaming a whole generation. I'm sure I was the same way at their age. They're coming into these events. if what's happening on stage doesn't, if they're bored or if their table is far out or if the bar is right there, and I'm not against the bar, you I like that open during all this, but they talk because they don't care. And I tell you, I just had a...
talk on Sunday, I was in an event and there was an event in this venue the night before and the same sound team was doing both. And they said, no one would stop talking. It was a school through the principal, through the PTA president. I've seen talking through celebrities and I mean, it's gotten bad. I, and you, part of this is you need to make sure the run of show is short and sweet.
Leya Simmons (50:18)
I, it is so painful to sit and
DEAN (50:28)
They don't want to hear these. When's the last time you went one of these and went, man, I hope more speeches. No, no, this is not a seminar. This is not an educational thing. They know why they're there, right? Get to it. But, but generational wise, and this is probably it's, it's, it's becoming a big problem is the talking. You can put in the best sound system in that world and they can only go up so far. So, ⁓
Leya Simmons (50:51)
Yeah.
DEAN (50:55)
This is where audience development comes in. Those who really care about your, those who can attend and spend, who really care about you are the people who should be at this. If it's a friend raiser and it's not as big about fundraising, it's about awareness, that's one party. And I say that's where you can do younger generations. And that's starting to happen. A lot of nonprofits are having two events, one for younger, one for older, but a very curated.
Leya Simmons (50:58)
Yeah.
See you on.
DEAN (51:25)
cultivated audience for their gala, right? And I find those people don't talk as much.
Leya Simmons (51:31)
That is incredible advice. And honestly, Dean, I gotta say, and I listen to a lot of experts speak about this piece and generational giving and the trends and all of that. That is just an incredibly, that's incredibly sage advice to really target the right people.
coming into your event and the right people being people, the knock-on effect of that is that those folks are going to pay attention and those folks are actually going to listen. And you know, the content needs to be snappy and it needs to be good and entertaining because no matter who we are, all of our attention spans have lowered in the TikTok world that we live in. Yeah, probably true. Yeah.
DEAN (52:06)
and now that came out of COVID and Zoom. We became a Zoom generator. We're doing it now. Yeah. it,
it, now here's one thing I say, for what's good about this is you can reach a lot of people, right? And they can, so the generational wise, the millennials were getting older and that's why the golden ticket I think became so popular. They love gamification and most generations do. So gamification is fun.
Leya Simmons (52:21)
Yeah.
Mm. Yeah, totally.
DEAN (52:35)
And that, so that became more fun than a silent auction or a live auction and it's affordable. So there's a lot of things happening and why it's. Say again.
Leya Simmons (52:45)
and it engages every last person.
I was saying, and it engages every last person, just like you said your fundanite at the end does, but like the whole raffle experience is everybody being able to be involved.
DEAN (52:52)
every person in that room.
Yep. Every body can, for the most part afford a hundred bucks or if it's a little less fine and everybody can give in the paddle race. Everyone. And by the way, big, big advice. ⁓ Same thing with the golden ticket. Like we said, people who can't be there, if your laws allow it to let them buy in the paddle race. I get this a lot now. ⁓ Hey, our big donors aren't coming. So we don't know if we're going to do this well this year. And I said, well,
Call them. Call them and say, sorry, you can't be here ⁓ and get a pledge from them. If they give 10,000, ask them again, do you know how many nonprofits don't do that? They don't call them, they just take the loss? No, don't take the loss. These people want to give, they just want you to ask. Call them. Can we put you in a pledge at one of these amounts? And then let us say, know, Mr. and Ms. Smith couldn't be here tonight, but they're going to start us out at 10,000 or if they want to be anonymous. Anonymous is starting us out at 10,000.
Leya Simmons (53:41)
Yeah.
DEAN (53:59)
Those calls will make you more money than any silent auction stuff you were doing in you, you know, a two minute call to get you $10,000 because they gave in the past. So I would look at all your data and I know I'm sidetracking, but call them. If they can't be the event, ask them for a pledge. It counts and it's important. Sorry, we went on another one.
Leya Simmons (54:13)
No.
100%. I love
it because, well, you know, my soapbox is getting people to talk to guests well in advance, in all of the intervening 11 months between your events. Like there's so many opportunities that we need to talk to. And now we have so much tech that's...
that just supports it, not that does it all, but we have such an ability now to like really engage everybody at their level all year long and through segmentation and automations and all of those pieces that I just, I love this Dean. That's totally exactly what I'm always saying.
DEAN (54:55)
I know we can talk about this
all day. You know, that is great.
Leya Simmons (54:57)
I know, I know. We've got a couple
questions as well in the chat, but I do want to, I mean, we've only got four minutes. So let me ask you my last question that I just have to end with, that I always end with. If somebody's listening today and they take one piece of advice of yours away from this, what would that piece of advice be?
DEAN (55:18)
Market, market, market.
Market that golden ticket like crazy and market that paddle race like crazy. Couples make decisions at home. Arm them with this information. And by the way, and link it all, including the golden ticket, link it all back to how it helps your nonprofit. All of it. What could that $100 do? What could that $250 do? What could that $500 do, right? You could do that with any part of this, the live auction, any of that, but
How does it help us help our clients? And when you've got that connection and you don't have to preach it, you don't have to do a seminar on it, it gives me, when I'm buying that $100 ticket, I'm going, wow, that'll feed 10 people? Hmm. It's just that little extra food for thought.
Leya Simmons (56:10)
100%. Dean, thank you so much for all of your, I mean, this was just jam packed with words of wisdom, guidance, data driven information, which I love. I've put the link to your book, Dean's book in the chat. And we do have a few questions. I promise you we will get those answers to you. I'll get Dean to send over an email or we will reply with Dean's sage wisdom on everybody's. And again, if you're watching the recording.
DEAN (56:35)
Yeah, I'll answer anybody. I'll
answer all of you. So feel free.
Leya Simmons (56:37)
I love it.
You are absolutely the best. Okay, so thank you. Thank you, Dean. Thank you, thank you. The link right now is in the chat. It's also gonna be in the recording that you're watching. Let me show you that next week we are going to be joined by Linda Medina Lopez of Con Mi Madre, which my Spanish accent is terrible. I'm so sorry, but they have... Okay, thank you. I speak French and I have like a terrible ability to roll my R's, but anyway.
DEAN (56:57)
It was good. That was really good.
Leya Simmons (57:04)
Con Mi Madre, an organization here where I live in Austin that has been around since the 90s, has done incredible multi-generational work. And she is going to talk about ⁓ raising two generations, Con Mi Madre, on relationships, storytelling, and growth. An incredible story. I really, really recommend anybody that is listening or watching to.
to join us and scan that QR code for next Tuesday, May 5th. Is that right? Is that next Tuesday? Yeah, May 5th. Gosh, it's the end of April at 1.30 Central Cinco de Mayo. my gosh, that's wonderful.
DEAN (57:35)
Cinco de Mayo. Yeah. Cinco.
Leya Simmons (57:40)
Cinco de Mayo. ⁓ And we would love to see you again. And if you have questions for us and you would like to see the raffle wheel that we could not have promoted more, please scan this QR code and we will show you around Better Unite and you will see the Dean inspired raffle wheel, the Dean wheel as we affectionately call it here, or email us at support at betterunite.com. Thank you again for joining me and joining Dean today. We so appreciate your time.
Let's go do some good. Bye, Dean. Thanks so much. Bye.