Benefit auctioneer George Franco on gala timing, the three-hour energy curve, auction items guests cannot buy in a store, and the team behind the paddles.
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Same room, same donors, same cause. Why does one gala raise double what another does?
On the latest episode of the 501(c) Drop, George Franco joined BetterUnite CEO & Co-founder Leya Simmons to answer that minute by minute. George is an Atlanta-based benefit auctioneer specialist who spent 30 years as a television news reporter, more than 20 of them in Atlanta, 10 in Sacramento, with stops in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and San Jose. He was the guy knocking on doors saying "open up, it's Fox Five News," and one morning he had a story to do, bolted, and said out loud, "I need good news." The moniker stuck. Someone once asked if the Good News Auctioneer thing was a shtick.
"No, it's real. I've seen enough death and destruction that last ten lifetimes."
Now he calls about 40 fundraisers a year, in English and Spanish, for children's cancer groups, technical colleges, animal rescues, and anti-trafficking work as far away as Medellín. What follows is what he reads, what he fixes, and what he refuses to let happen.
What George reads before the first paddle goes up
Leya asked what tells him, on site, whether the fundraising is going to be good or bad. His answer was that it is never one thing, and then he listed a lot of things.
High-top tables. If you are having a gala, stay away from them. Three or four people stand around a tall table, speak into the center of it, and the sound shoots straight up. Ten high tops in an echoey room and the acoustics are gone, and every one of those guests has their back to the auctioneer.
Sponsor tables full of people who do not know why they are there. When 60 or 70 percent of the room is sponsored and a company fills its table with eight people the boss sent, those eight have no concept that they came to a fundraiser. Somebody has to tell them.
A room that showed up for something else. Car shows, fashion shows, pet parades. People come for the pet parade, and then there is a fundraiser attached to it.
"If some other activity is taking center stage and fundraising is to the left or to the right or to the bottom of the stage, then it's gonna hurt."
Schools get a pass on this one, George and Leya agreed. Schools are going to have a party.
Speakers who go on and on, including the sponsor who is allowed to speak about their sponsorship, which has nothing to do with the cause.
Who is holding the microphone and the clipboard. Are volunteers doing registration and scribing, or professionals? Is the auctioneer a professional, or is it dad, who tells Bill he knows he is loaded so cough it up? George has three rules for whoever is up there: never embarrass people, never cajole people, never use the wrong kind of leverage to get the money.
Underneath all of it is the word he came back to all hour.
"If you don't respect your nonprofit, they're not gonna respect it."
Respect is not a feeling. It is seating set up properly, check-in that moves fast, and a room arranged so that the people in it can actually pay attention.
Are you doing a chef's night or an auction?
Three hours before the episode, George took a call from an organization planning a chef's event with an auction attached. His first question was which one they were doing.
His recommendation was to get the board on the same page about the mission for the night, then carve out a window and protect it. Shut the food down. Shut the bars down. Stick to the fundraising, and if you need to move fast, move fast.
"To have everything continuing and trying to do fundraising at the same time, it's a disaster."
And when the room gets loud anyway? George does not like to shush a crowd and Leya pointed out that nobody likes being shushed, either, like a kindergarten class on their night out. His version puts the weight on the cause instead of the guests: "Ladies and gentlemen, I respect this nonprofit far too much to let this room get out of control." Then he asks everyone to turn to the neighbor on their right and give a gentle nudge. It buys about five minutes. You can only do it so often, which is why the real fix is upstream.
If you don't have a strong board, you don't have a strong nonprofit
George talks to boards more than he used to, because the development director he works with is often not the decision maker. Sometimes it is the board chair, sometimes the founder, sometimes a committee, and finding out which before the night of is how you tame what he called a crazy wild horse. Boards that go into a fundraiser in disagreement bring it into the room with them.
"I think an audience can feel these vibes. There's a vibe to it."
Leya said the same from the other side of the room: you can tell almost immediately when the money is going to come in and when it is going to fall flat, and the feel of the room is most of the signal.
The voice of God and the four announcements
On the night, George said, the executive director and the board should be flitting butterflies, touching base with everybody in the room. They should not be running the program. Which means someone else has to guide the guests, because an hour and a half of unstructured time adds to the chaos, and the worst way to end it is a nervous volunteer at the microphone saying "Hello? Can you hear me?"
George's answer is a theater term, the voice of God: the announcement before anything happens on stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third annual gala. Tonight we're gonna honor our technical students. We've got a live auction coming up, you can go to Costa Rica. Silent auction is coming up, now's the time to bid. Our MC tonight is Jonathan Stacey of Fox Five News. I'm George Franco, the Good News Auctioneer. Welcome everybody."
He does four of them. A welcome. Fifteen minutes to go, find your seats. Ten minutes, five minutes. Then a countdown, ten, nine, eight, and welcome the emcee. By the time the emcee takes the stage, the room has heard that name four times and been asked to sit four times.
"85% of the people will sit. And then when he takes the stage, the other 15% are gonna sit faster."
Compare that to an emcee walking out cold and fighting for attention. George's point was blunt: people do not know what to do if you do not tell them. Leya's version: all of us are just looking for an instruction manual.
Goldilocks energy
Leya asked what happens when a program stalls, and George told on himself. Early in his career, maybe his fifth or seventh auction, he opened a fund-a-need by asking who could join at $5,000, and a woman in the quiet room said, "$5,000? Are you crazy?" He got serious. He told her this was not a joke. He knew instantly it was the wrong move. What he should have said was yes, crazy for this nonprofit, and thank you.
His first time on camera in Yakima, Washington, he was scared to death. Thirty years later, in front of a million people in Atlanta, he knew exactly what he was doing. Any trade takes the 10,000 hours, and benefit auctioneering is a trade.
Two things he does now. He reads body language, so he knows which guy in the back is going to be a problem. And he runs games like heads or tails, which people assume is about the money.
"I don't think of it that way at all. I like to get people out of their seats, break the ice, break the mood."
There is an endorphin rush and adrenaline you can create, and you need it, because the energy has to sit in a narrow band. Too heavy, with nothing but the children with cancer for an hour, and the room shuts down. Too light, with the auctioneer clowning the whole time, and nobody takes the cause seriously. His rule of thumb: the live auction is where the levity lives, and the fund-a-need is where it gets serious. Leya named him the Goldilocks of fundraising energy, always looking for just right.
Keep the speeches short, keep the videos tight
George's message to every nonprofit listening was short enough to fit on an index card: keep the speeches short, keep the videos tight. There is a real three-hour energy span for a room, and attention spans inside it have only gotten shorter.
What kills it is white noise, and he was specific about what white noise sounds like. "We help thirteen thousand six hundred and forty children every week," then a graph, then 20 minutes on the statistical analysis of the nonprofit. All true, all important, none of it clicks.
"Show the child that is getting the help. Show the family that is getting the help. People connect with three elements maybe better than they do with ten or twenty."
And when the committee says the fundraising has to move faster because the program is running long, George pushes back with a question for the board: are you having a fundraiser or a friend-raiser? Something always crashes and burns on the night, same as it did on live television. The audience does not need to see any of it. Keep moving.
Fund-a-need first, or live auction first? Follow the money
This debate was alive at the Benefit Auctioneer Specialist summit George and Leya both attended a couple of weeks earlier, and George's answer was that he used to have a default and no longer does. Tradition says the live auction goes first and the fund-a-need second. His first question now is what you did last year, and his second is what the numbers say.
"Fund-a-need is about 70, 75% of the money the night of, and then the live auction is 20 to 25 to 30% of the money."
Put 100 people in a room and run a live auction, and you are lucky if 10 of them bid. Run a fund-a-need and 75 give. So if you are unsure whether anyone will bid on the live auction, or the energy might stall, lead with the fund-a-need. If the chef's dinner sold for $6,000 last year and the travel packages all cleared, lead with the auction.
"If you have a big yellow flag, go with the money. The money is in the fund-a-need."
The exception, again, is schools. George has worked school auctions with 30 items that barely ran a fund-a-need at all. Different animal.
Start at 9:00 and work backwards
Leya asked for the number: how many minutes into the program should the money part start? George gave her a planning rule instead.
"If you're planning the night, start at nine o'clock and go backwards."
Here is why. Start at 6:00 and plan forward, and the list grows: the board members speak, the kids dance, the dinner break, the first why-we-are-here speech, the second why-we-are-here speech, the live auction. By the time you reach the fund-a-need, which is your biggest money maker, it is 9:15 or 9:30, and George's words for that were "just put a nail in the coffin." The three-hour energy curve is real, and it is why almost nobody makes a four-hour movie.
"If you start at six, I think your fundraising should start at eight fifteen, eight thirty at the latest. Not nine o'clock."
That does not mean the fundraising has to be the last thing on the program. George's best example was a gala for Michael Vick's foundation, where the plan was to open with a conversation between Vick and other former NFL players, then raise the money. George asked them, carefully, to flip it: fundraising first, conversation second. Everyone sat through the fundraising, everyone sat through the conversation, and the energy held because they stuck to a timeline.
"People will walk out on money, but people won't walk out on people as fast."
The same logic applies to awards and plaques. Of course the honorees should be recognized. Not to the detriment of the fundraising, and not with nine speakers.
Dinner service that does not kill the night
George thanked every server and caterer who has ever fed a gala, then told the story of the one who asked every guest at every table, one at a time, chicken or salmon, for 300 people whose tables had already chosen in advance.
His rules for plated dinners: preset what you can, including the salad and maybe the dessert, bring the entrees in one pass, and start the program when the last plate is set, not when the last plate is cleared. The VIPs at the front tables were served first and are done. Waiting for everyone else to finish is pure energy loss. A dinner break of 35 to 40 minutes is plenty, and when people start milling around, go.
For buffets, run two, three, or four stations and call tables by row, or you get what George watched in the South not long ago: one line, and a server asking each guest whether they would like one shrimp or two.
The format he likes more every year is food stations. Beef here, fish there, chicken, dessert. Everyone gets their food, the voice of God says "please enjoy your meal, when you are done we will begin," and you start 20 minutes after the stations open whether or not everyone is finished.
"Time and energy are a commodity. If you waste, you're needlessly spending those commodities."
Leya added that it is the guest's commodity too, and George went one step further: when patrons feel like you are misspending their time, they start to wonder whether you are misspending their money.
Pause the bar
George calls them the Wild Bunch, after the movie. He was running a fund-a-need for a children's cancer group, at the $5,000 level that buys cold caps so kids keep their hair through treatment, and the bar near the stage opened. A cluster of guys, loud and drinking, talked straight through it.
"You don't want somebody dissing your cause because they're drinking."
His fix is not to close the bar. Pause it. Leave it open through the live auction, pause it for the fund-a-need, and time the pause so it reads as appropriate rather than punitive. Leya extended the rule to the silent auction: if your software sends outbid texts, those are the one notification in your guests' pockets with a deadline on it, so pause the things that make extra noise while the mission is on stage.
George admitted he gets protective about his nonprofits, like a papa bear, and that his clients do not always love what he tells them. He considers it his responsibility anyway. Respect it, love it, protect it.
Build a boutique, not a basement sale
Leya asked why experiences so consistently outbid merchandise, and George answered with Vince Dooley. At one Georgia gala the live auction included a fly-fishing trip with the legendary Bulldogs coach. George brought his own five-weight rod, and Dooley cast it on stage, no hook. The trip itself was worth about $900. It sold for $6,000.
"The people who bought that, they're not saying I spent six grand, they're saying I went with Vince Dooley."
Compare that to the Rolex Submariner a jeweler once asked him to sell. He has sold a few, and they never reach retail. A $20,000 watch goes for $12,000 or $15,000 because the room is trying to get a deal, and the moment your auction looks like a place to get a deal, you have created a basement-sale mentality.
"If you set up a boutique where you can't get these items, then it becomes an experience."
Chef's dinners always work. Anything that connects to the cause works, which is how a set of Adirondack chairs built by a man named Jay from Saving Susan Ministry went crazy in the room, because people love Jay. And anything behind the scenes works. George's advice to a smaller organization without a deep board network was to hold a leaders' night and ask the board who they actually know, because somebody knows somebody at a studio, a playhouse, or a theater, and backstage access sells.
Two cautions. Be thoughtful about donated vacation homes: one board member had offered his St. Simons house four years running and every winner left it a mess. And use consigned travel gently. If your room has never bought at $7,000, do not start there. A Mexico trip that cost $1,500 and was valued at $3,500 sold 16 times at one Chicago school auction, which is the kind of consigned package that fits a room.
Then tell the item's story. Later that week, George was selling a bat for the Technical College System of Georgia. Not just any bat: Hank Aaron sat on that organization's board, and the bat commemorates the moment he passed Babe Ruth. "Boom, that's a story." If you have one, tell it.
The team behind the paddles
Leya ran a speed round on the people who make the live auction and paddle raise actually work, and George split them into three jobs that organizations constantly blur together.
Bid spotters acknowledge bids as they happen, so the auctioneer can climb from $25 to $5,000 in two minutes without losing a hand in a room of 600. If yours are volunteers, have them work with the auctioneer beforehand, and pick a signal: wands, whistles, or the cowbells one of George's fellow auctioneers swears by.
Scribes write it down. Bidder number, amount, next bidder number, next amount, on the bidder sheets, as fast as the auctioneer calls them.
Clerks collect the sheets from the scribes and enter everything into the software. Which brought George to the thing he most wanted the room to hear.
"The auctioneer isn't the most important person, honestly. The scribes and clerks are. It's fine and dandy if we get the money, but if it doesn't go into the system, it doesn't count."
Give the clerks pad time at the end of the fundraising, because the entry has to happen before anyone goes home. Use three scribes so the numbers can be reconciled. Never give the same person two of these jobs, which Leya has watched fail more times than she can count. And record everything. Leya's minimum is a voice memo next to a speaker. George brings a camera to every event, because sooner or later a client calls to say a guest is not sure he bid $10,000, and George gets to answer: what's his number? 422? Here is the clip.
The first thing to fix after a flat paddle raise
Leya's last question was for the development director whose paddles stayed down last year and does not know why. George's answer, after the obligatory "hire me," was to hire a professional who understands the mission. A fast-talking auctioneer is fun, but if the person on the microphone is not connected to the cause and speaking your language, the message does not get through.
Then he turned to marketing, which he considers part of the same job. If guests arrive at your gala and the fundraising is a surprise, they do not like surprises, and surprised people do not give.
"Market, market, market. Email, social media, phone calls, whatever it takes, get the word out and get the people there."
It's not a party, it's a fundraiser
George's closing line is the one the whole hour was building toward.
"Show you love your nonprofit. Show you respect your nonprofit. If it's a party, it's gonna be a party. It's not a party, it's a fundraiser."
Plan the night from 9:00 backwards. Lead with the money if the numbers say to. Get the room seated with a voice of God, keep the speeches short, pause the bar, and build an auction lineup nobody can buy at a store. Then staff the paddles with spotters, scribes, and clerks who each have one job, and record everything. Generosity in the room only becomes impact if it makes it into the system.
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Transcript Recording:
Leya Simmons (00:05)
Hi everyone, welcome to the 501c Drop. My name is Leya Simmons, and I'm CEO and co-founder of Better Unite and your host of today's 501c Drop. I am so happy, so thrilled to be bringing you a just gem of a human being. My good friend George Franco. He's a benefit auctioneer specialist who is based in Atlanta. Hi, George.
George Franco (00:31)
Hi Leya, how are you today?
Leya Simmons (00:32)
I'm doing well. We're going to be talking about the anatomy of a successful fundraising gala, all of the timing, all of the experiences, and what you need to do on the back end before, well before your paddle raise. So I know that a lot of times lately I've been talking a whole lot about, you know, what are we going to do after the event, but there's so much that needs to happen prior to and during an event itself, and then the pace and everything else.
Of an event, and George is an expert. He actually brings expertise from over 30 years of having worked in media and on the news. I'm gonna let you tell that story, George. I was just sharing with George before we went live that he told me his path to becoming an auctioneer when I very first met him back in 2022. One of the first folks to walk up and be nice to me at a conference. And he and it's such a wonderful story.
I'm gonna let you tell that story, George, but before we get into that, I would like to just share with you some nonprofit news that we've got going on. First one is a new class action against GoFundMe made some headlines this week. Two donors allege the platform automatically adds a pre-selected tip at checkout and makes it hard to notice or remove. Give Butter faces a similar suit, alleging donors.
Don donors were charged faulty or excuse me, default fees and tips without clear consent. And the National Council of Nonprofits is urging platforms to adopt its principles on fee transparency. These are allegations, let me be clear, these have been are suits that have just been raised. They are not rulings. But I think the takeaway is quite simple. Donors, just like with everything else, with the Ticketmaster case and anything else.
Donors want to know exactly what they are paying and where that money goes. So I really do think that a takeaway for all of us right now is to take two minutes and make a test on your personal donation gift page, also your ticket purchase pages, and see what your donors are seeing. Something we've said around here at Better Unite for a very long time. Test, test, test. Go take a look, see what they see, do it yourself, and then you will know.
Another news item, a new report from N10, the nonprofit tech, I'm gonna get the rest of the acronym wrong, but N10, and the Bridge Span Group, based on a survey of more than 900 nonprofit professionals, finds that leaders are embracing AI, but often haven't put training or guidelines around it and as well. There also there is also a gap between the corner office and the front line. So about two-thirds of executives, they say that they're comfortable using AI at work.
Compares with just over half of staff and more than a third of staff view AI in their workplace negatively versus only one in ten executives. So the good news is most organizations say they have or are building written AI guidelines and rules about what data can go into these tools. Again, another takeaway: if you are rolling out the use of AI within your nonprofit on the back end, wherever.
Bring the team along. Don't just have your leaders taking a look at it. Actually, let me do an early plug for our September 29th webinar or web show. We will be joined by Nathan Chappelle, who is the chief AI officer at Virtuous, and we will be discussing how AI scales within the nonprofit sector. Nathan was also the founder or a co-founder, I'm not sure which one.
Of fundraising.ai has been working with AI and nonprofits since 2018. A wealth of knowledge, and particularly in this moment where we have so much AI news, and AI has taken probably the biggest brand hit of
George Franco (04:28)
Mm. Yeah.
Leya Simmons (04:30)
anything I can think of lately. So we've got a lot coming at us from all different angles. Let's talk about how AI is impacting our nonprofit sector. Americans announced a $50 million gift from an anonymous Connecticut family.
I'm sorry, America's. Not just Americans. AmeriCares announced a $50 million gift from an anonymous Connecticut family, which is the largest in its history. This comes as sudden aid sudden US aid cuts have disrupted health programs worldwide. Big donors are still stepping up where they see urgent needs. Congress also passed a stopgap funding bill that keeps the government open through December 11th and temporarily depl delays.
A proposed OMB overhaul of federal grant making. Critics say the proposal would give any administration broad power to withhold or end grants midstream. Takeaway here: if you receive federal funds, what you should know is that this stopgap bill buys you time, but it definitely does not buy certainty.
And then finally, the Treasury and the IRS are reportedly weighing expanded audits that could threaten the tax-exempt status of certain nonprofits. We've known this was coming. In response, Senators Wyden and Warnock sent a letter demanding answers, and House members introduced the Proof Act, which would require evidence and due process before any revocation. Separately, proposed rules on racial non-discrimination at private schools are now open for a 60-day comment period. So
Check
in with your representatives. Okay, so that takes us through some of the news. There is, again, so much coming at us and our sector these days, but I we do try and cover the topics, the high-level topics quickly, and then really see what we can distill from it. Back to the anatomy of a successful fundraising event with my good friend George. George, hi, how are you?
George Franco (06:28)
Good Leo, thank you. I I think I think I came out of broadcasting, but you're a pro. I mean
Leya Simmons (06:33)
Yeah.
George Franco (06:35)
you just did the news. I'm like, my god, you should be wearing
Leya Simmons (06:38)
Well
George Franco (06:38)
radio sometime like I was.
Leya Simmons (06:40)
I nope, I I studied I spent a hot six months as a sophomore at the University of Texas in the television broadcasting. I
George Franco (06:50)
Yeah.
Leya Simmons (06:50)
don't know, that was my major for a minute. and then I I opted out of that one. But that but thank you. I'm that six months is really coming in useful now. Hook
George Franco (06:58)
Right?
Leya Simmons (07:02)
the horns had a big weekend if you're a football fan.
George Franco (07:03)
I'm a Texan by birth, so I get it.
Leya Simmons (07:05)
that's
Well, so the other unique and interesting thing about George, it's not the only other thing. There are quite a few interesting and unique things about George. But one of them is that he is a bilingual auctioneer. So I know
George Franco (07:16)
I don't
Leya Simmons (07:17)
that is not something that you put to use every day, but you have recently, right, George?
George Franco (07:22)
I have galas in Durham, North Carolina for El Futuro.
Leya Simmons (07:26)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (07:27)
love that group. They help the Latino community. And it's a traditional gathering of bilingual folks, and they don't say please do it all in Espanol, please do it all in English. It's a mix because I find
Leya Simmons (07:42)
okay.
George Franco (07:43)
that generally you're gonna have
First generation folks that are new to this country, and then second and third generation, the younger generation, who maybe speak Spanish, maybe don't. So if I speak both languages, I connect to both levels. So then I got one coming
Leya Simmons (07:59)
That's great.
George Franco (08:00)
up in Colombia, Merayin, Colombia, which maybe
Leya Simmons (08:03)
That's right.
George Franco (08:04)
we'll see. Better United's gonna be there. but yeah, I think what I find with the Latino community is that there is more and more in embracing of
Fundraising in more traditional ways because
Leya Simmons (08:19)
Yeah.
George Franco (08:21)
in the South, I'm in Atlanta, auctions were a thing. That's why auctioneers are called colonel, because the colonels in the Civil War sold the spoils of war at auctions. So when you hear colonel for an auctioneer, that's why that came from. So Atlanta, Georgia, believe me, we're in the South. So Sherman
Leya Simmons (08:36)
You've never known that. Huh? Yeah.
George Franco (08:39)
made his mark here. So that the colonel thing comes from.
the more traditional auction world. So non-traditional auction fundraising, and I don't mean just auction, I mean fundraising with software and the way
Leya Simmons (08:55)
Right.
George Franco (08:55)
we traditionally do it.
Yes, I have a Latino crowd. I have a a school and they speak Romanian and it's a Romanian Christian school and I've learned a few language a few phrases in Romanian. And so
Leya Simmons (09:07)
What That's cool.
George Franco (09:09)
I did one with a Vietnamese crowd. So I think generally speaking, if we're in this country and you're part of a fundraising atmosphere, whatever that cause is, they look to see what is the most effective, efficient way to do it, and of course, better unite and and live auction with a bit
cards and traditional is is what I like to recommend and they find me and I'm like, let's go down this route. I love it. I love it working with non-traditional fundraising crowds because and I don't know that there is such a thing as a traditional, but yeah, I think it is expanding quite a bit.
Leya Simmons (09:45)
I it's I and I think, you know, you're able to be like quick on your feet. You do that advanced
George Franco (09:49)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (09:50)
study, but I know that a lot of that comes from your time in more traditional media what I now think of as more traditional media and the news. So tell us your entree, give the give us the story. Tell us how you got to becoming a fundraising auctioneer. The good news auctioneer, I should say, which is George's
George Franco (10:06)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (10:07)
George's moniker.
George Franco (10:08)
Well, I'm known as the Good News Auctioneer. I was a television news reporter in s Atlanta for twenty plus years, Sacramento another ten years, KFWB, twenty you give us twenty-two minutes, we'll give you the world in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, Albuquerque, San Jose. I did the the broadcasting thing. And so I was a television news reporter and I was the guy that would knock on the doors and say, open up, it's Fox Five News, or he'd you'd see him at the fires and shootings and
Frankly, I just got tired of the news. it's it's rough. It's a rough world. And it's a rough world. And and I'm not gonna bite the hand that fed me. But one night I knew I had a story to do the next day, and I just I wasn't looking for forward to it at all. And the next morning I bolted, I mean, bolted out of it, and I said, I need good news. And I had just started doing this.
And I thought, it's the good news auctioneer. And so for me, that moniker is very real. And you know, somebody said, Is that a shtick? I said, No, it's real. So I mean, I've seen
Leya Simmons (11:09)
Yeah, it's
George Franco (11:10)
enough death and destruction the last ten lifetimes. And I thought, you know what?
Leya Simmons (11:13)
I can only have some.
George Franco (11:14)
Instead of doing the news, let me help some folks. And I think when I was a reporter, I was a good journalist. So I did do it. I felt like there was a lot of no nobleness to being the journalist. But that's life, isn't it? Chapters change and I change and it was time to go into this store and this.
This is a fascinating experience and how we help, isn't that the best part? Children with cancer,
Leya Simmons (11:34)
I was gonna say
George Franco (11:36)
technical colleges,
Leya Simmons (11:37)
Yeah.
George Franco (11:38)
s the in Medellin, the the young girls who are trafficked, I mean animals, the list is long and so yeah, now now I do, I don't know, forty or so a year, having a great time.
Leya Simmons (11:50)
You're doing a lot of good, George. Thank you. Okay, so I want to start out. I want to jump past all of the consulting that I know that you do. We've actually worked together
George Franco (12:01)
I do, yes.
Leya Simmons (12:02)
and done some of that. you know, when you're bringing in a software company and you've brought in better unit, I know I've watched you on calls with your clients. You you're working through, you're learning a lot, you're very, very hands-on, which is incredible and
as
a software company really love and appreciate that you're in there. So but I do want to jump past that and and go straight to the night of the night of the event. So you walk into a room and you I know can because you've like I said you've said be have been doing this for for not a short amount of time, I know that you can really read the room very quickly. What is what is there that tells you
right away on site whether the fundraising itself is going to be quote unquote good or bad.
George Franco (12:46)
Wow. And it's never one thing, is it? First
Leya Simmons (12:49)
Right.
George Franco (12:49)
of all, is everybody seated? no, they've got high tops. that's one because high tops, if you're having a gala, please stay away from high tops. high tops are tall tables and there's three or four people around a high top, and they speak into the center of it, and the sound just shoots up and reverberates. If you've got Yeah.
Leya Simmons (13:12)
I've never thought about the acoustics
of it, but yeah.
George Franco (13:15)
Then if if you've
got ten high tops in a echoey room, it just kills
Leya Simmons (13:18)
Yeah.
George Franco (13:19)
the sound and it takes you away because the auctioner is back back there, by the way, and your back is to him. So what
Leya Simmons (13:25)
Right.
George Franco (13:25)
they're not paying attention to you and you've invited them to to discount your fundraising. And I always like to say, well, if you don't respect your nonprofit, they're not gonna respect it. And that's what I mean by respect. How do you respect
Leya Simmons (13:40)
Hmm.
George Franco (13:40)
the nonprofit? Do you set up the seating properly? Do you allow them to come in?
In
quickly, does the software company like Better Unite allow for for quick access and regress in and out?
Leya Simmons (13:54)
Yeah.
George Franco (13:55)
the other thing is not just seating, but are the people connected to it, do they are they sitting down quickly? Are they looking with intent? Are they paying attention or are they just not?
into it and you can tell ahead of time. I always ask how many sponsors do we have? If it's a heavily sponsored event, I don't know, sixty, seventy percent of the tables are filled with sponsors and you know, big companies, the Deltas, the Bank of America's, we've all done those and there's big companies and they'll
Leya Simmons (14:33)
Sure.
George Franco (14:33)
send eight people or ten people. And I'm sure I probably shouldn't call out any company, so Delta, Bank of America, you're great.
Leya Simmons (14:40)
S sure they're great. Amazing.
Amazing. And you give a lot of money and thank you for it.
George Franco (14:42)
But but but
my point is that if if a company fills a sponsor table with underlings and the underlings don't know they're there for the fundraising, they're there because the boss sent them, they don't even have a concept. And so you need
Leya Simmons (14:56)
Yeah.
George Franco (14:57)
to get the word out to them. So the seating, the sponsorships, if there's too many sponsorships and nobody's connected to the cause, that's gonna hurt. is it a fundraiser? I don't know what kind of experience you've had, but
We've done car shows, we've done fashion shows, we've done a pet parade, and that's cool. And people show up, but they show up for the pet parade, they show up for
Leya Simmons (15:20)
Right.
George Franco (15:20)
the car show, they show up for the fashion show, and then they have a fundraiser. Well, now it should be a fundraiser and then maybe put in a sprinkle it in with a little bit. So if some other activity is taking center stage and fundraising is to the left or to the right or to the bottom of the stage, then it's gonna hurt.
if if the folks show up and you can just see that they're connected. Schools do this all the time. And
Leya Simmons (15:48)
Yeah.
George Franco (15:49)
I think schools are different. Schools they're gonna have a party.
Leya Simmons (15:52)
They they get a they get a pass, the schools do kind of. They're yeah.
George Franco (15:54)
Yeah, yeah I agree.
And I think it has a lot to do also with run of show. Do you have speakers that are going on and on and on?
Do they talk? Somebody said, Well, we always let a sponsor speak. I said, What do they speak about? Their sponsorship. I said, Well, what does that have to do with your cause? Well, there are sponsor
Leya Simmons (16:10)
That yeah.
George Franco (16:11)
nothing, literally nothing with the cause. So that veers it away. So, I mean, I could go on and on, but there's a lot of signs, and those signs are pretty obvious when you walk in the door. are they using volunteers or are they using professionals like you and your team or other teams to do the registration and the scribing? Are they using a professional?
auctioneer are they using dad who pisses people off or of who says come on bill i know you're loaded cough it up one we should never embarrass people two we should never cajole people three never use
the wrong kind of of leverage to get the money. We should be honored to be part of something larger than ourselves. So that's always my big umbrella message is that we're raising funds to be something part of something larger than ourselves through the auction method, through the fund and need method, through whatever way we're doing it. But I don't know if that answers your question, but boy could I man.
Leya Simmons (17:14)
I lo no, and I love the reframe as well
there. Yeah. It's so it is so im and I've heard that so many times. Somebody, you know, Riven I and I get that. It's funny and it's, you know, you might know them well and they might be a very outgoing person, but you're right, it does in some way kind of like chip away at the
the real reason that you are there. How do you think so I w I want to go back and touch on a couple of things that you mentioned. The, the, you know, because we see this a lot. There's like dancing with the stars, the, you know, pet shows and the all of those pieces or talent shows and things like that. What like, I think those are fun and they are great. And they and I imagine that they attract people, but how do you, if you are going to do something like that, how do you center
Fundraising, is that messaging beforehand? Is it something that happens while they're in the room? What do you think happens? How would you ideally want that set up?
George Franco (18:07)
Well, we just had this conversation today, like today, three hours ago, when somebody called and said, Hey, we've got this chef's
thing going on and we want to do an auction. I said,
Leya Simmons (18:17)
Yeah.
George Franco (18:17)
are you doing a chef's thing or are you doing an auction? Well we're doing a chef's thing with an auction. I said, okay. Well I can tell you that's going to be a problem because people are going to be there for the food. And so if we do this, we'd like to get the board together and have everybody on the same page so that we understand
Leya Simmons (18:32)
Interesting.
George Franco (18:33)
what the mission is for and what how we're going forward and then carve out however we can carve it out. This is when we do the fundraising and that's what we're going to do. We're going to shut the food down
We're gonna shut the bars down, we're gonna stick to the fundraising. If we have to go fast and get it done, then we at least we will expedite. But to have everything continuing and trying to do fundraising
Leya Simmons (18:55)
yeah.
George Franco (18:56)
at the same time, it's a disaster. And we've all been there and I've seen it and it just doesn't work. You have to, I believe you have to focus.
Leya Simmons (19:01)
It's terrible. People telling shushing people and yeah.
George Franco (19:04)
Yeah. And I don't like nobody likes to shuss people. And what I try and do, and I don't like to go, I'll put it on other people, I'll say
and I d I do use these words and I really mean them. I said, ladies and gentlemen, I respect this nonprofit far too much to let this room get out of control. And I'm loud on stage.
Leya Simmons (19:23)
That's a great line. Yeah.
George Franco (19:25)
It's loud. And I say, tell you what, help me out here. Why don't you turn to your neighbor to your right? And simply with a very gentle just that's it. And
Leya Simmons (19:35)
Yeah.
George Franco (19:35)
the whole crowd will and everybody But that lasts that lasts for maybe five minutes and it's back.
And it's like, okay, I can only do it so often, so I don't like to shush a crowd. But the other thing
Leya Simmons (19:47)
'Cause I would also
argue that nobody likes to be shushed either. Like nobody likes to feel like they're in a kindergarten classroom when they're having a night out. So if you're setting
George Franco (19:51)
No, no, no, yeah.
Leya Simmons (19:56)
them up that way, you're kinda setting them up to fail.
George Franco (19:58)
So
I yeah, and I don't want I don't want to and I don't you know I so what is what is the answer to that? Some people say simply stay quiet and let them figure it out. I'm like, I'll be quiet for 20 minutes and they won't come back. And sometimes it and sometimes the truth
Leya Simmons (20:11)
I know that's well that would be a long time. People like to eat and drink.
George Franco (20:15)
is sometimes they just don't come around. So you just have
Leya Simmons (20:18)
Yeah.
George Franco (20:18)
to muscle through it. But if the board is on board, if the timing is in place.
Leya Simmons (20:23)
That's what I wanted to come back to as well, George. Talk more about that.
George Franco (20:27)
Well,
if you don't have a a strong board, you don't have a strong nonprofit.
Leya Simmons (20:30)
That's true.
George Franco (20:31)
Because at least that's what I believe. And I've over the years I've actually talked to boards more and more and more. At first I didn't really get the concept, now I totally get it. when I'm doing a fundraiser, I'm like, okay, who's the decision maker? because you'll talk to a development director, but the truth is the chairman of the board is the decision maker.
or the development director is the
Leya Simmons (20:52)
For sure.
George Franco (20:53)
decision maker, or the founder is the decision maker, or they actually do ki by committee. So that's what I try and find out. What is the what is the dynamics of
Leya Simmons (21:02)
Who do you need to talk to? Yeah.
George Franco (21:04)
of the decision making? And can we ride that crazy wild horse and tame it a little bit so that when we get to the night of, we have some sense of semblance and some sense of continuity so that everybody's on board.
I'm sure you've seen this. I've seen boards that there's disagreement and they go into the fundraising with disagreement. And it to me that just fractures at it. And if there's a vibe of of disagreement at the event, I I don't know. I feel there's a just a whole the this is where the universe speaks to you and the pe I don't know, maybe they don't feel it, but I think an audience can feel these vibes. There's a vibe to it.
Leya Simmons (21:43)
I agree.
Just there's always an energy to it's like I and and it's this is what I'm actually I love this whole conversation because having gone to quite a few fundraising events at this point before, but certainly at my time at Better Unite, there is when you can tell immediately when the fundraising is going to be successful. And you can also tell pretty quickly, just by the feel of the room.
when things are just, you know, gonna fall flat or not be there. You might get a surprise here and there, but like, you know, like so it's interesting to think about that. I love the idea of the board being centered on their their leadership throughout the event as well, because that's not something that we typically will arm board members with.
George Franco (22:32)
No, and what I find interesting is that when the night comes, the executive director, the development director, I typically work with development directors because they're on the side, but the executive director, the the board
They should be like flitting butterflies, ta touching
Leya Simmons (22:47)
Yeah.
George Franco (22:48)
vase with everybody. So they're out of the picture. and
Leya Simmons (22:51)
Yeah.
George Franco (22:52)
if if you don't have a strong run of show and knowledge of what everybody's doing going into it, then things can kind of flutter around and and I don't like to interpret.
and I like to do voice of God. I don't know the voice of God is a theater term. there's only one God, but I can be the voice, and that is the the voice before anything happens on stage. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third annual gala for the GSTS. Tonight we're gonna honor our technical students. We've got a live auction coming up. You can go to Costa Rica. Silent auction is coming up. Now's the time to bid. Our MC tonight is Jonathan Stacey of Fox Five News. I'm George.
Franco, the Good News Auctioneer. Welcome everybody. Welcome. Boom. I just that's you know, I'll do that. And and yeah.
Leya Simmons (23:38)
Yeah. And that sets a tone too, right? Just even that, having having
somebody that knows what they're doing and has presence to be
George Franco (23:44)
Absolutely.
Leya Simmons (23:45)
on the microphone. Yeah.
George Franco (23:46)
And it doesn't have to be the auctioneer, but somebody to guide your patrons forward. Because if you have an hour
Leya Simmons (23:52)
Hmm. Tell me what I'm doing.
George Franco (23:54)
and a half of unstructured time, that just adds to the chaos. And then
Leya Simmons (24:00)
Yeah.
George Franco (24:00)
we've seen this and I hate it. I'm like, I don't want this to happen. That's when I said, Well, no, no, no, no. So let me see what I can do about this. They go to this, they go to the microphone. Hello.
Leya Simmons (24:11)
no.
George Franco (24:13)
Hello, can you hear me? Can have your why? There's no
Leya Simmons (24:15)
Do that well before anyone gets there.
George Franco (24:19)
so if you have a voice of God, an announcement, first with a I think four announcements is cool. First with a welcome to the night.
Second, 15 minutes to go before we start our program. Find your seats, get to your tables. Thank you. 10 minutes to go, five minutes to go, and then I always do it. 10, 9, 8. Now let's welcome our MC for the night. And then you introduce the MC. They've already heard you four times. You've already told them Jonathan's the MC. So when he takes the stage, they're listening, and you've already asked them to sit. And 85% of the people will sit. And then when he takes the stage, the other 15%,
gonna sit faster than if somebody takes the stage and has to s get everybody's attention. I just think
Leya Simmons (25:03)
Sure.
George Franco (25:03)
that's it's a bad tone. And once again, do you respect your nonprofit or not? That's what I mean by respect. Respect it. Love your nonprofit
Leya Simmons (25:11)
Yeah.
George Franco (25:12)
because you're helping people do good things. So why not try and set it up in the most
formidable way that you've got a path forward. People don't know what to do
Leya Simmons (25:21)
I love that.
George Franco (25:22)
if you don't tell They really don't. We think they do. They really don't. I could be wrong, but they don't think
Leya Simmons (25:24)
I agree. They're all all of us are
just looking for an instruction manual. Just tell me where to be when. I will do it. Yeah.
George Franco (25:30)
It's not yeah, and it's not that hard. It really isn't. And it's
easy instructions, you know. Easy.
Leya Simmons (25:36)
Easy if that's even better. So, okay,
so we've talked about like getting people in their seats, like how to maybe you know, set up your entire event so that we we are capturing attention and keeping it focused on fundraising, mission critical information. So when you're up on stage, and this is, you know, I don't even know how many minutes you've spent standing on stages and feeling the energy, but what is it when when a program just stalls, like what are the things that you
are
either always going to see that you sometimes see the energy leaks. Like what what happens? We're we're gonna move over to the good news in a minute. I know I realizing that as I said this, I'm like, keep asking these kind of bummer things.
George Franco (26:10)
It takes okay. No, it we I was it I was in Seattle
and we had a a meeting with some top auctioneers and Jay Fisk, Matt Lort, I'm calling you guys out, great auctioneers, and Aaron was there, and Nelson
Nelson J wasn't there, but he's one of the auctioneers. The Seattle has great auctioneers, and I'm from the Northwest, my parents live up there. And we were going over war stories, and there's a pattern, and the pattern typically is when people aren't paying attention. And
Leya Simmons (26:49)
Hmm.
George Franco (26:50)
one of my very first faux pas, and I'll never forget,
And I've learned to be better about it. when we're doing a funding, and I said, Who can join us at five thousand dollars? I this was maybe my fifth, seventh auction. I hadn't done that many. I didn't know what I was doing. and the lady it was quiet and I said, the lady goes, Five thousand dollars, are you crazy? my god.
And I said,
And I should have said, yeah, really crazy for the nonprofit. I thank you for that.
Leya Simmons (27:23)
Now you've got the answer.
George Franco (27:25)
no, what did George do? no. And I'm proclaiming it publicly because it was like like for me, being the benefit auctioneer is like being the television news reporter. when I was a kid out of college in Yakima, Washington, I didn't know anything. My first time on camera was scared to death.
Versus 30 years later in front of a million people in Atlanta, Georgia, as a seasoned journalist, I you know what you're doing. Same thing with benefit auctioneering. I think any any trade, you need to learn the 10,000 hours of it. Anyway, so
Leya Simmons (27:52)
Sure. That's right.
George Franco (27:54)
instead of saying thanks and and and working off the kind of heckler in the crowd, I said, What did I say? this is not a joke. We're here. And I got serious about it and I knew instantly.
that that was the wrong approach. So I think what I've done now is learn to better fend off the the vibes because people
Leya Simmons (28:19)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (28:20)
will be there and people have come up to me and said
You made me spend $10,000. I said, Well, I didn't make it, but thank you for spending that kind of money. So I think if I feel a vibe of people and I and I look, and if there's somebody doing this, then that's when I'm like, okay, that that guy, that guy, just try kind of read the body language, which is why
Leya Simmons (28:40)
Yeah.
George Franco (28:41)
we do games ahead of time. People think that heads or tails is like a game for money. I don't think of it that way at all. I the heads or tails, flip a coin, touch your head, touch your tail.
Leya Simmons (28:48)
It's yeah.
George Franco (28:50)
But
I like to get people out of their seats, break the ice, break, break, break the mood, break Yeah, yeah. There's a there's an endorphin rush and adrenaline that we
Leya Simmons (28:57)
Get them laughing, it's funny, it's engaging. Totally.
George Franco (29:02)
can get going. and and if it's if it's too heavy, it's too heavy. And also if
Leya Simmons (29:07)
Yeah.
George Franco (29:08)
it's too light, it's too light. I like to clown around, but not too much, because it's we're serious. But then if it's too heavy and you're talking about nothing but the children with cancer, that's too much. So there's
Leya Simmons (29:18)
Yeah.
George Franco (29:19)
a fine balance of
How much is how much levity? How much how much seriousness? And typically the live auction is the more levity and the funding need is the more serious, but I kinda recommend. I don't know if that answers your question.
Leya Simmons (29:32)
George, you are like, you're
like the Goldilocks of energy at fundraising events. You're always looking for what's just right. That's gonna be what I call you now. okay, so what happens?
George Franco (29:37)
I don't know. Thank you.
Leya Simmons (29:44)
What happens when you're you're you know, on stage and or coming on and off stage? Cause I know a lot of times that happens with you all, or you're, you know, even when you're an MC, and you're like, okay, this has just it we've gone too long. Like what
What do you do? Do you are there certain things that you might cut and there are there any things that you are like never
George Franco (29:57)
Yeah. Wrap it up. Yeah. Well
Leya Simmons (30:03)
cut? What do you think?
George Franco (30:04)
okay to all of the non profits listening, keep the speeches short, keep the videos tight. There really is a true energy span and we've gotten worse because of this. There really
Leya Simmons (30:17)
yeah.
George Franco (30:18)
is. There really is a true energy span. And it's a three hour energy span and people's attention span is tighter.
And if you go on with white noise and you think you're saying wonderful things and you are and it's true. But white noise is we help thirteen thousand six hundred and forty children every week. We contain and then you show a graph and then we and you go on for twenty minutes about the statistical analysis of a nonprofit.
Love
it, important, doesn't ring, it doesn't click, it just doesn't. Show the child that is getting the help. Show the family that is getting the help. People connect with three elements maybe better than they do with ten or twenty. If it's
too much,
Leya Simmons (31:05)
Hm.
George Franco (31:06)
it's too much, and it just they overwhelms it and they just tune out. So I believe in in focusing on the personal stories, on the personal
connection. So if you cut something down and you're on stage, I try and go quicker with the fundraising. But then I've also gotten that you gotta get moving. I'm like, well we're raising money here. And we're at 2500.
Leya Simmons (31:30)
This is kind of why we had the entire event.
George Franco (31:34)
And then that's what I mean about the board. It's like are you having a fundraiser or a friend raiser? Another reason to get behind the board and and have the conversations before you get to the night of
Because something's always gonna crash and burn. It rem reminds me of being on TV. Something always crashed and burned. But you don't need you to l let your audience see any of it. You're on stage and just keep moving. Just keep moving on.
Leya Simmons (31:57)
Yeah.
That's great. That's that's really great. It's kinda I mean, like you can always salvage something, right? Like there's always something in there. So what do you think sorry, go ahead. Keep the speeches tight.
George Franco (32:05)
Yeah, yeah, but keep keep the speeches tight. No, keep
keep the speeches tight.
Leya Simmons (32:11)
The
so do you have and I know there's like a there's a bit of a debate which with George and I, just to give some context to everybody, we're recently at the Benefit Auctioneer Specialist Summit, a couple
George Franco (32:22)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (32:23)
of months ago, a couple w no, a couple of weeks ago. Time flies. I don't really not long ago at all, two weeks ago. But
George Franco (32:26)
Just the other day.
Leya Simmons (32:31)
And and there you I I heard this conversation happening even then. Does fundinite happen first? Does live auction happen first? And I know that there are different and do you have a one set way you like to do that? No.
George Franco (32:42)
No, I used to start
because traditionally auctions come first and then
Leya Simmons (32:45)
Right.
George Franco (32:46)
fundanese second. and I always ask, what'd you do last time? And if they can say, Well, we had a great auction last time and then we had a fundanid, okay, so then that's more traditional. If they say, We haven't done this, we don't know. We don't know if anybody's gonna bid on the live auction. But then I look at the numbers. What do the numbers tell us?
And I've looked at my numbers and I think industry-wide, and you tell me what you think. But generally speaking, fundinite is about 70, 75% of the money of in the night of, and then
Leya Simmons (33:18)
Yeah. Yeah.
George Franco (33:19)
the live auction is 20 to 25 to 30 percent of the money. And also,
Leya Simmons (33:23)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (33:24)
if you have
a hundred people in the crowd and you have an auction, you're lucky if ten are gonna bid. Then you never get the whole crowd. But
Leya Simmons (33:33)
Right.
George Franco (33:34)
if you have a hundred people and you do a funded need and you get 75 to donate, then that's that's the number speak out that way. So I think if you if you're unsure of how the money's going to come and the live auction could be stalling with energy, then go with the fund to need first. If you've sold the chairman
Chef's dinner before at six thousand dollars and it sold last year, and you've got some travel and it sold last year and it all did well last year. Go with a live auction tourist. I don't think there's an easy answer. But if you have if you have a big yellow
Leya Simmons (34:09)
I I it would seem like that, right?
George Franco (34:11)
flag, go with the money. The money is in the funding. But but once I'm sorry,
Leya Simmons (34:13)
The data. Let's look at the data. So sorry, go ahead.
George Franco (34:16)
forgive me. Once again, it doesn't always nothing is in black and white. You go to a school, and the school have
I've
done schools with thirty items and I'm like they're killing me and then they barely do a fundanine, but it's a different animal. Non profit. Yeah.
Leya Simmons (34:29)
Sure. They've all given it different points too, you never know.
So what about then when so where like what's the window for that to start? Whether it's live auction or or fun to need, where wherever that's first, whether regardless of which one's first, when like how many minutes into the programming should that happen? Do you is there a number that you have in your head? Okay.
George Franco (34:49)
Yes. Well
I I I say if you're planning the night, start at nine o'clock and go backwards.
Leya Simmons (34:57)
interesting.
George Franco (34:58)
Because if you start at six o'clock and add on, let's see, we need
Leya Simmons (35:02)
Right.
George Franco (35:02)
to have the board members speak, we need to have the kit dancers, we need to have a dinner break, we need to have our first why we're here speech, we need to have our second why we're here speech, okay.
Leya Simmons (35:14)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (35:15)
We need to have okay, now we need to have the live auction. And then by the time you get to the funded need, which is your bigger money maker, you're at nine fifteen, nine thirty. If you're at nine fifteen, nine thirty, just put a nail on the coffin. There's a real energy curve and it's three hours.
It's real. It's it's there's thousands of studies out there. There's a lot of data out there about a three hour energy curve. And that's why they don't make movies that go super long. Well they do, it's hard to walk th through a four hour movie, but three hours is it.
Leya Simmons (35:42)
Very many.
George Franco (35:43)
No. If you start at six, I think your fundraising should start at eight fifteen, eight thirty at the latest.
Leya Simmons (35:50)
Okay.
George Franco (35:51)
not nine o'clock. Whatever it is, not nine o'clock.
Start at nine, go backwards and say, okay, and don't you don't have to put fundraising last. There was something about was asking me, and let me this people say, well, we've got awards. We've we've got a a conversation. so I'm gonna just kind of skew this one because perfect example, Michael Vick. Remember Michael Vick, the the the football player quarterback
Leya Simmons (36:22)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (36:22)
from the Atlanta Falcons.
anyway, Michael Vick has the Victory Foundation and they reached out to me and we did a gala and they said, Hey, we're gonna have Michael Vick talk with some black athletes who were in the NFL and it's a great conversation and we want to start it and then get to the fundraising. I said, No, no, no, please no. No, don't do that. I was like, just hold trying to hold my horses. I said, Well, can we have a conversation about that? Why do you think that's important? Because it's really important and we want people to I said, I absolutely agree. I said, but if
You put that first and you get to fundraising last, they're gonna walk out on fundraising before they're gonna walk out on people. I convinced them to flip it. We did the fundraising and then we did the conversation. Everybody sat through the fundraising and we raised
Leya Simmons (37:10)
I'm sure.
George Franco (37:10)
money and everybody sat through this incredible conversation. And the energy didn't fade because we stuck to a timeline. So if you've got awards and recognition, and you've seen all those.
I get it and plaques and everything. I get it. And of course they should be acknowledged. But not to the detriment of fundraising. And I think
Leya Simmons (37:32)
Right.
George Franco (37:32)
that that people will this is the line I always say, people will walk out on money, but people won't walk out on people as fast. So if they if they want to listen
Leya Simmons (37:40)
That's a really good line.
George Franco (37:42)
to what you know. And same thing, just keep it within a timeline. You don't need thirty speakers. I don't know. I've seen some of these, I'm like, really, you got nine speakers. Why do you need nine speakers? Do you know what
Leya Simmons (37:52)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (37:52)
I'm saying?
Leya Simmons (37:53)
Yeah. So any other sequencing tips that you have for us or things that you think are just, you know, like maybe dinner service? When do you think that the dinner kind of falls in a run of show?
George Franco (38:09)
I love the c I love I love the servers and the caterers and the people who bring us the food. Thank you for your service. Let me just say that. Well, let's start
Leya Simmons (38:18)
Okay.
George Franco (38:19)
with catering. if you've got a caterer and they think their job is to be the caterer and and I get it,
But
this just happened like three, four gallons a ago. And either you want salmon or you want chicken or you want whatever the third one, vegetarian. And so every table ahead of time would indicate what it was. And then
Leya Simmons (38:41)
Right.
George Franco (38:42)
this is what they were doing and talk about killing the the the night.
They would come to every table and say, Do you want chicken? Do you want and ask everybody one at a time, send back the people and come back with the dish. One table at a time. You got 300 people, that's just And that took a long time. And I was just beside myself, I'm like, just leave it alone, George. It's already done. And then that hurts.
Leya Simmons (39:05)
Yeah.
George Franco (39:07)
so if you have preset dinners, have them preset, put down the d the salad.
Yeah, maybe put down the dessert, have them bring it in one time and have them walk out. Do they need to come back and get the plates? It depends on your contract. I think if you have them do that, it just clinging and a clanging all night long and it's too much noise. And I would say this, if you have set dinner, then set the start the event when the last plate is set. Because if you have big tables and you've got 300 people
The first table at the front, your VIPs, they've already been served. They're already done. And so
Leya Simmons (39:46)
Yeah.
George Franco (39:47)
why wait? and they know we gotta wait for everybody to finish. No, you don't. You're losing energy. So start then. So that's what I would say. Do you need a dinner break? Yes, absolutely you do. But you don't need to say we need an hour. eyeball it. typically 35 minutes, 40 minutes is plenty of time. And when you see that people are done, and when they start milling about, when they start getting restless, go.
Just go. The sooner is better always. buffets, if you don't have two, three, four stations of buffets people walking through, then it's gonna slow down. Love them, but I don't think you need servers. These are all real
Leya Simmons (40:24)
Yeah.
George Franco (40:25)
examples. It was because everyone I'm like, man. It was we're in the south, so we had shrimp what is it, yellow feather, what is that called?
Anyway, this the shrimp, shrimp.
And the ladies were serving the shrimp one at a time. Would you want one shrimp or two? Three shrimps
Leya Simmons (40:46)
Mm.
George Franco (40:47)
or just rice. I'm like, my God. And they had one line of beef.
Leya Simmons (40:50)
This is gonna take forever.
George Franco (40:51)
And it takes forever. and so I think if you do buffet, make it efficient and call out the tables one at a time, or five at a time. You this table, this table, this row of tables, this row of tables, this row tables. Okay, and then bring them back, bring them back, bring them back. If you have food stations, that's another thing too. Food stations we've done.
Where a food station, and I'm beginning to like this more and more. schools do this and not a lot of nonprofits are starting to do it. But you have food stations, you got the beef corner, you've got the fish, you've got the chicken,
Leya Simmons (41:21)
Sure.
George Franco (41:21)
you've got the dessert. Everybody goes get their food. And then we say, please enjoy your meal.
When you're done with your meal, we're gonna begin. You let people eat. You don't even manage it. And then we say, and you know what? We let them get onto the food table with 20 minutes to start. That's enough time. Everybody's got their food. If they don't have their food, if they're not done, it doesn't matter. Just go. But give them enough time to get the food and then start. That way you just go and you don't break anything. And I like that when you just go
Leya Simmons (41:48)
Right. Interesting. Yeah.
George Franco (41:51)
and just and you've given them enough time. And it conserves a lot of time. Time is a
Time and energy are are a commodity. And if you waste, you're spending
Leya Simmons (42:00)
absolutely.
George Franco (42:01)
that you're you're needlessly spending those commodities. So
Leya Simmons (42:04)
And it's
like th it's your guest's commodity as well. I think that's what's interesting about it. It's not
George Franco (42:08)
Absolutely.
Leya Simmons (42:10)
just the nonprofit itself. It's like, am I wasting your
George Franco (42:12)
yeah.
Leya Simmons (42:13)
time or not? Yeah.
George Franco (42:14)
And and if the if if you're not if your guests your patrons feel like you're you're misspending their time, then they're they have a sense of I don't know if they're misspending my money. It may be a weird connection,
Leya Simmons (42:27)
Yeah. interesting.
George Franco (42:28)
but i if you waste their time, they don't appreciate it. and some
Leya Simmons (42:33)
Wow, no.
George Franco (42:33)
people say it was a party.
something
else I'll say is don't allow for the Wild Bunch. It's a movie called the Wild Bunch. That's why I call it the Wild Bunch.
Leya Simmons (42:41)
Ha
George Franco (42:43)
And by that I mean so you've got a fundraiser. And this happened. I was so angry and I just I said, Hold it. My Latin temper, I said, Hold it, don't even don't even spill the anything. It's Latino. I said, my God. But we were doing the fundinet and we're like the five thousand dollars and it was for the children's cancer group. And I said at five thousand dollars it was cancer group, it will buy
I didn't even know this was a thing. It would buy skull caps to keep the skull colder and the hair from falling out. Not that can you imagine a child with a skull
Leya Simmons (43:13)
Incredible.
George Franco (43:14)
cap? I said, What an And over there, not too far from the stage, the bars opened. And if it's I hate to say it, but it's usually guys. Women don't do it as much. Guys, rah rah rah and they're so loud. And they're drinking. And I'm like, and and I'm like
I almost feel like saying, dude, do you not hear what we're doing? We're trying to save kids here. This is a child's life we're talking about, and you're not paying attention. I just thought that was the rudest thing, but it happens. It happens.
Leya Simmons (43:42)
So so. Yeah.
George Franco (43:44)
And so that's how you control it. Once again, I keep saying respect your nonprofit. That's how you respect it. You do watch the time, you don't waste energy. You you close the bar when you need to. You know, I'm even saying close, just pause it. And if you pause it at the right time,
it's appropriate. If you can leave it open, leave it open during the live auction, pause it during the funding. You don't want somebody dissing your cause because they're drinking.
Leya Simmons (44:12)
I think that is such and I think that there's maybe a hesitancy on the part of some nonprofits to do that sort of thing, to like close the bar or
George Franco (44:17)
absolutely. no, we never close it.
Leya Simmons (44:21)
pause the silent auction as well, get people off of their
George Franco (44:23)
Yeah.
Leya Simmons (44:23)
phones. Like our silent auctions in general, when we're if you're using a a software, you know, tool to to you know, to run it, you're they're going to send text messages when they are outbid and so people are getting, you know, notified which is you know.
probably one of a thousand things they're being notified about, but that's the one thing that's happening right then that has a deadline that they might pay attention to. So
George Franco (44:45)
Right.
Leya Simmons (44:46)
I I I'm wholeheartedly behind you on that. Like pause the things that make extra noise when we need to be paying attention to George and the mission on stage.
George Franco (44:56)
Or whoever
that is, pray your own and you know, once again I keep saying, respect your non profit. If you love her love it like you
Leya Simmons (45:02)
Yeah, that's a great mantra.
George Franco (45:04)
and protect it. I feel like I always feel like Father Papa, papa bear with my with my f non profits because I get protective. I really do. I said, Well, you know, you may not like what I say, but I feel it's like my fiscal responsibility to share what I know and that's protect protect.
Leya Simmons (45:21)
So you're both Goldilocks and Papa Bear
George Franco (45:25)
Yeah, that's right.
Leya Simmons (45:25)
in my analogy. That's amazing. Okay, so I want to talk, I know we
don't have a ton of time left, George. I feel like I could talk to you forever. Okay. We I want to talk a little bit about what's in the live auction, right? So you've you've talked about experiences, how they can vi, you know, I think that pretty vastly outperform merchandise and things like that. What makes what what is it about that? What makes an experience convert higher bids?
George Franco (45:52)
examples Finn Stooley, the winning S U G A coach of Georgia.
Leya Simmons (45:58)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (45:58)
Vince Dooley, fly fishing trip with Vince Dooley. I fly fish. So I brought my five-weight fly rod. What a picture. And here's Vince Dooley on stage casting a fly rod. No hook. There was no hook. It was so cool. It really
Leya Simmons (46:09)
my god, that's cool. Yeah.
George Franco (46:11)
was a very cool moment. And lovely pictures, and it sold for six thousand dollars. You know, the fishing trip's nine hundred dollars. But it was all about Vince Dooley and the people who bought that, they're not saying I spent six grand, they're saying I went with Vince Dooley.
Leya Simmons (46:26)
Yeah.
George Franco (46:27)
So can I get it? Can everybody get the Vince Dooleys of the world? no. But do what you can and that's what your board is there for. Chefs dinners always work well. They just do. experiences work well.
Nice watch, not a Rolex. But Rolex is I don't know. I I've had jewelers come and say, Hey, we've got a submariner and can you sell it at auction? And we've tried and I have sold a few, but they never sell for the retail value because people are gonna get a deal on it, and they do. And I'm like, sh that you know, a twenty thousand dollar submariner will sell for twelve, fifteen thousand because somebody's trying to get a deal on it. If you set up a retail auction that I can get stuff
at auction, then they're gonna create it an auction and then you send you set a a a kind of a basement sale mentality if that makes sense. But if
Leya Simmons (47:23)
Sure.
George Franco (47:23)
you set up a boutique where you can't get these items, then
Leya Simmons (47:26)
That's a good way to look at it.
George Franco (47:28)
they're gonna then then it it becomes an experience. and
Leya Simmons (47:32)
Yeah.
George Franco (47:32)
it's funny because
Jay from Saving Susan ministry, I thought, I don't know. And he makes these Adorandack chairs. And I thought that's nice, and they're nice chairs. But I didn't know that first time. I said, I didn't know people love Jay so much. They love the chairs, and it went crazy. So those kind of experiences work. Something that connects to the cause, something that helps the cause. travel I think is good, but at the same time.
If the board member has said, you know what, we've used my St. Simon's house for four times in a row, this is the fifth time, and every time they use it, they leave it a mess. I'm getting tired of it. True story. These are all true stories. Everything, everything I tell you is like from real all of it. And so,
Leya Simmons (48:18)
I'm sure. All of it under the sun he's seen.
George Franco (48:24)
you know, be be thoughtful of of
what people like. there are there is consigned travel. Some people like it, some people don't.
Leya Simmons (48:34)
That's what I was gonna
ask you about that. Like what about those orgs that are just smaller, that don't have, you know, wonderful board, but the board is a working board, they don't have quite the network or connections.
George Franco (48:39)
Yeah. Yep, I get it.
Leya Simmons (48:43)
What do they do?
George Franco (48:45)
I think gently use consigned travel. and
Leya Simmons (48:49)
Sure.
George Franco (48:49)
if you've if you've not done seven thousand dollar values, then stay away from seven thousand dollars. Mex Mexico trip that's they paid fifteen hundred dollars and it's worth thirty five hundred dollars and we sold it sixteen times in Chicago for a school, then that was like, okay, that was a lot of money and we sold at one price at in Hagel, so you can do that.
Leya Simmons (49:14)
Yeah.
George Franco (49:15)
You can ask your folks to maybe have a leaders' night and and ask your board to reach out to see who they know in the community. People always say, we don't know anybody. And yet I'm like, well, are you sure about that? And then here we are in Atlanta. Somebody says, I know somebody at Trelleth, the studios. I know somebody, you know, if there's somebody at a at a local playhouse or or theater group and they know somebody there or behind the scenes or even ask. Anything behind the scenes I think does well. I
wish I
Leya Simmons (49:45)
Well that's
a good idea. I know.
George Franco (49:45)
a a magic answer, but I think
anything behind the scenes does well.
Leya Simmons (49:51)
Do you
how do you find that you tell a lot of the story or the why behind any particular item? I know you know we talk a lot about the storytelling relative to the mission, but what about the those auction items? Yeah.
George Franco (49:58)
Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
So coming up is the Technical College System of Georgia and TCSG. And ladies and gentlemen, we've got a piece of history here hammering Hank Aaron. That's right. We've got his bat. And did you know?
That Hank Aaron was a member of the board of directors here of this nonprofit. And this bat signals his launch into history because this bat is the bat that commemorates when he went past Babe Ruth's number. Boom, that's a story. And that's and that's that's coming
Leya Simmons (50:35)
That's a great story, yeah.
George Franco (50:38)
up at our auction Thursday. So yeah, of course, if you have a story to tell, absolutely tell that story. And that's why I try and find stories like that.
Leya Simmons (50:47)
I
love that. What about the other? I'm sorry, okay. We're gonna do a speed round here, George, because I've only got like nine minutes left with you, but I do want to ask another another
George Franco (50:51)
Okay. I'm sorry.
Leya Simmons (50:54)
few questions about the people supporting the live auction and the paddle raise. The the bid spotters,
George Franco (50:59)
Yes.
Leya Simmons (51:00)
what do you like? I know you work with bid spotters. What do you tell them? What do they need to know so that they are fully prepared to do their job and do it very well?
George Franco (51:11)
Well,
I think there's several different positions. To me a bid spotter is I'm at twenty five, yable to buy, twenty, yup, now thirty five, yup, now forty five, yable to buy, yup. So they're my guys that I've come with bid
Leya Simmons (51:20)
Mm-hmm.
George Franco (51:21)
spotters and they and we saw that at our auction.
They they acknowledge my bids as they're happening. And sometimes with a crowd of six hundred, it goes fast. Over here, over here, over here, over here. So and in two minutes you've climbed the ladder to five thousand dollars. To me, those are bid spotters. So if you're using volunteer bid spotters, work with the auctioneer.
some people like to use way wands, some people use whistles, some people use cowbells. My friend Matt Lorch says he loves cowbells, so maybe cowbells. I'm gonna try that one of these days with volunteers. and then there are scribes. Scribes are the ones who are writing down the information. This is this is coming up. Right?
Leya Simmons (51:59)
They're so important for the supper. Scribe sheets. Yes.
George Franco (52:05)
So this is our next gala. We just printed this today, or it's a previous one, and it you've got the numbers.
And so on the numbers, and you've got the bitter bitter bitter sheets. Get the bitter sheets, and then scribes write down as the auctioneer calls out the numbers, number 722, $5,000, number $644, $2,500, number $277, $250. So they're simply writing down the bitter numbers next to the amount. And then there are the clerks.
Which I think where they're the the auctioneer isn't the most important person, honestly. The scribes and clerks are and you people, you, your team, better unite. You're the most important.
Leya Simmons (52:49)
Yes.
George Franco (52:50)
'Cause it's fine and dandy if we get the money, but if it doesn't go into the system, it doesn't count.
Leya Simmons (52:55)
Yeah.
George Franco (52:55)
And
I've you've seen that happen. I've seen that happen. I'm like,
Leya Simmons (52:58)
We have
George Franco (52:58)
what happened? And so the clerks are the ones that gather the information from the scribes and then input it into the computer into an appropriate software like Better Unite. And that's why I say it's even better to allow a little bit of pad time at the end of fundraising because somebody's got to do that and people
Leya Simmons (53:19)
Yeah.
George Franco (53:20)
know, and so you need a little bit of time. Everybody's human, so they gotta do it quickly, and then they need
To have three, I think, bids scribes so that reconcile the numbers so that everybody has the same numbers. So that's what I consider the crucial parts of the anatomy of fundraising, or the scribes, the clerks, and and and the bid spotters. Different jobs, but they all kind of go in the same direction.
Leya Simmons (53:46)
And you I can't tell you how many times we've shown up and if Kirby were here, gosh, she could tell us a lot of this too. But good.
George Franco (53:51)
Well I'm gonna see Kirby soon.
Leya Simmons (53:53)
Well, and the how many times we'll have the same people tasked with clerking and scribing
George Franco (54:00)
Yes, yes.
Leya Simmons (54:01)
or scribing and bid spotting, and it just does not work. And there's
George Franco (54:04)
Two bets.
Leya Simmons (54:04)
always it's great, and you should everybody just hear me now, a audio backup, like record it, even if it's just a voice memo, put next to a speaker, like every time.
George Franco (54:11)
Right. okay, so let me
show you that. See that right there by the cat thing? No,
Leya Simmons (54:18)
Yeah?
George Franco (54:19)
that. That's my camera. I take the camera. I take I record every event. And
Leya Simmons (54:23)
Video. Yep.
George Franco (54:26)
yes, absolutely record it. Because I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a phone call. Hey George. He said
Leya Simmons (54:30)
Because we can't we that's right.
George Franco (54:33)
he wasn't sure he bid $10,000. Okay, what's his number? Number four two two. Number four two two, ten thousand dollars. I just go clip.
Send them the video clip, they send it to him. They said, okay, here's your money. You gotta have backup.
Leya Simmons (54:44)
Yeah.
George Franco (54:45)
You gotta have backup.
Leya Simmons (54:46)
I totally agree. I love that. and and you know, we're dealing with money that's very important, mission critical money and alcohol combining with a bunch
George Franco (54:56)
Yeah.
Leya Simmons (54:56)
of people and doing things really quickly. So there's just every duplication that we ha can
have of effort is just key.
George Franco (55:02)
Yes. Yes.
Leya Simmons (55:04)
Love it. Okay, last question, George. So I'm gonna ask, what about last year? There's there's there's somebody listening right now who last year.
They're nonprofit, they're the executive director, they're the development director, they're the committee head. Paddles just paddle raise didn't go well. They're I they don't know why paddles stayed down during live auction and paddle raise. It was just a flop. What's the first thing that you would tell them to do?
George Franco (55:29)
Hire me. No. How about not not
Leya Simmons (55:34)
That's what I would tell them to do too.
George Franco (55:36)
of course I love it, but hire somebody who understands the mission. Hire a professional.
Leya Simmons (55:40)
Hundred percent.
George Franco (55:41)
I love my benefit auctioneers and I love my auctioneers. But the truth is it's not about what if I learned to buy, what have I able to buy now? If you have a fast talking auctioneer, I love it. But if they are not connected to the mission and they're not speaking your language, then the mission and the message isn't getting through. It's all
Leya Simmons (55:58)
Yeah.
George Franco (55:58)
about the messaging. And by that, it's also about marketing. If you don't tell them that we've got this fundraiser coming up and they show up at your gala and it's a surprise, people don't like surprises.
If they don't
Leya Simmons (56:12)
Mm.
George Franco (56:12)
know, they don't do. And it really is true. So I think you got to market, market, market. email, social media, phone calls, whatever it takes, get the word out and get the people there. Get them excited. Show you love your nonprofit. Show you respect your nonprofit. Give it some love. Don't don't just treat
Leya Simmons (56:29)
Respect it. There's our mantra.
George Franco (56:32)
it like it's just a party. If it's a party, it's gonna be a party and and it then you're gonna have a wild bunch and all kinds of things.
It's it's not a party, it's a fundraiser.
Leya Simmons (56:41)
It's a
fundraiser. George, thank you so much. This has been such an informative and valuable hour and plus just really fun for me to chat with you for a
George Franco (56:47)
Thank you.
Leya Simmons (56:49)
bit. okay, so I've got a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. I so appreciate everybody who joined us. And if you're listening on Spotify or watching us on YouTube, please go ahead and note that you can ask any further questions you have of George by emailing him at George at your good newsauctioneer.com. It's right there.
you can also go to yourgoodnewsautioneer.com, learn more about George and his services and everything that he does for not just the community in Atlanta. I know George has worked in Miami and soon to be Columbia and all over, all over the US. So and then if you have questions about BetterUnite and how BetterUnite can support your efforts, support at betterunite.com is another place you can go. There's a link to connect with me on LinkedIn, but my name is Leya Speldweird, L-E-Y-A Simmons.
And you can find me there. And then next week, the title is gone. But our 501c drop next week, not next week, I'm sorry. Okay, I'm getting this all wrong, but on September 29th at 1 30 Central, we are going to be joined by Nathan Chappelle, Chief AI Officer at Virtuous. And I do not have the official title of the let's see if I can pull it up super fast, but it's about scaling your AI. So how
the AI can scale within your nonprofit to use it. And actually honestly, if you just scan that QR code, it will tell you the title of the of the webinar. But with the vast amount of information coming at us all about AI broadly for the entire world. But you know, Nathan will Nathan does this incredible job. I've seen him speak several times up in distilling
The efforts of AI, Agentic AI, all of it into usable pieces that work towards building trust for nonprofits. And I think that's a huge and key crucial piece. So anyway, please join me and join Nathan and I next week, September 29th, 1:30 Central. And again, scan that QR code. If you are watching, you can do that so that you can.
Come and talk to us over at Better Unite. We would love to tell you more about how we can support your nonprofit. So, George, thank you again. I am so, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna see you this week, but I'll I know I know that you'll enjoy time with Caribbean
George Franco (59:10)
Thank you, Leia.
Leya Simmons (59:11)
Bravo and ahead of time for what I know will be an exceptional fundraising evening. Everybody else, thank you so much for coming. Thanks some for spending time with us. Let's all go do some good. Bye-bye.