I’m a standup comic and an event emcee. Sometimes I’m a mocktioneer, which is like an auctioneer if the auctioneer is just some dude pretending to be one. I highly recommend you get a real one. Anyway, in doing all this, I’ve helped raise around two million dollars for various organizations. A lot of this was fairly small chunks of 10 and 20k. For those, the recipe for success is what I call the Fundraising Five:
Great beneficiary with a story
A room
Food & drink (emphasis on the latter)
Evening of games, auctions & comedy
Promote
TBH I just started calling it the Fundraising Five right now. Like you were here for it when it all started.
Anyway, all those smaller gigs made people think I could do something bigger. Pro Tip: the best way to get that reputation is the inability to say no. They even said, “We understand you can’t say no.” Although I was able to when I responded, “no, I can’t.” So who’s the boss now?
Here was the ask: A Denver food bank needed to raise $800,000 to stay in their decades-long location. How? Um. I wasn’t sure. Most of the people I asked thought maybe I was crazy and, well, I can’t say no.
But I’ll stick with the Fundraising Five. The same as above but with details.
What it means to have a great beneficiary
The nonprofit tag is important BUT sometimes you’re not going to get that. Either way, they should come standard with stories that generate an emotionally-charged march to a time-sensitive goal.
Get those stories on video, close caption them, and post liberally to your socials. Those posts help people feel pride about being involved and humanize the whole effort.
They have people; a networks of friends and volunteers.
They’ve done some fundraising groundwork like Joyce from the Community Ministry of SW Denver who’d manage to get Bill Gates and Phil Anschutz in a billionaire piddle contest to the tune of $80k.
They have a staff that’s down to get weird.
A room
Recently, I had a friend die and his sister called to ask how to even do a funeral. I said just get a space. Find a friend who has a business and see how you can coexist. Turns out his favorite bar was more than happy to be a part of the celebration. Same with this. Who on their team or yours has those connections?
In the case with the Community Ministry of SW Denver, they had friends who had restaurants. Not only did they serve as space, but they also had regular fundraisers where the restaurants donated a percentage of business to the cause. Their donating and our promoting was the perfect symbiotic relationship.
And metaphorically: do you have room in the minds of the community? If so, how do you access that? For us, it was “we’re raising 800k to save a Denver food bank” and following that up with numbers of families served, kids assisted, and overall importance to the community.
Food & Drink
Anyone who’s made an event likely gasped at my shoving such a big endeavor into one little bullet point. Teaming up with a restaurant can make this simple and food trucks have made this super easy. You can be anywhere with a van full of tacos. Drinks, too, can be simplified with a partner in the business. In Colorado you can hire a licensed bartender to serve keg beer and wine.
Evening activities
This is what I do so I won’t shill too much, but getting at least a decent emcee is really important–especially one that gets how to engage people and extract some cash. Also, consider a live auctioneer. They bring joy whilst parting people from their money.
Silent auctions take time in getting donations but if the beneficiary has friends, it’ll get done.
Comics are a good bet. Some can be less than great but there are a lot of talented standups in the area that are a very good investment.
Promote
First, you gotta believe. In attempting grand things, it has helped that I’m delusional. But when truly believing and being prepared with how your beneficiary helps the community, you cannot be stopped.
Get the team on board. With the 800k ask, I was fortunate enough to work at a company in Name.com that pitched in with web & promotional support. It helped that the goal was insane. I was able to channel my desperation into something like charisma.
Partners. I may have an advantage here as doing so many gigs helped me align with a very caring community, but they are out there. You have people. People and companies waiting for someone to lead the way into something amazing.
Gotta have content: Get a hashtag and people sharing on it. Get the mantra going—make it a super-short-ride-in-an-elevator pitch.
Get your navigation straight. Just as you have a singular goal, so should your online navigation, your talking points, and your content. One place. No confusion. Jon Liu at Name built a landing page with all the necessary information pared down to the essentials. People want daily tallies. Do short daily updates! Give them that thermometer! That probably sounded weird!
Have fun. No ideas were too crazy. A simple dance? We got that. A partner ready to play in the streets; that happened several times. In having fun, you’re creating the moments and visuals that social juggernauts and local media want to talk about.
I’ll add a sixth. Make it the Successful Six. It’s about one thing: The Ask. Just ask. Be proud of what you’re doing. I was shocked at the outpouring of community support. By simply telling people what we were doing, they were on board. It was big, it was audacious, and it was good. Hope is a commodity and people want a piece of it.
By February of 2020, we had the money and the food bank bought their building. We could have no idea how necessary a strong community food bank would be during the impending pandemic. And that's the thing: you just never know, so get started asap. I’m here if you need some ideas.
BONUS - Media:
The local media is your friend. While there is a lot of competition to get fundraiser stories some airtime, the ones that engage regularly and constructively with journalists will have the best opportunity at getting press. Keep in mind: they need your story and your creative visuals from events, etc as much as you need them. Find the journalist who’s most likely to cover your effort and start the conversation.
The video below is a concept I did with my Name.com coworkers, and then I messaged pretty much everyone I knew to share and promote Kyle Clark. It also encouraged a broader social reach. That’s something to keep in mind: your outreach opps aren’t just TV, radio, and newspaper anymore. There are bloggers, TikTokkers, Insta influencers, etc that have massive audiences and would love to be a part of something as inspiring and important as your mission.
BONUS BONUS - Corporate partners:
Like with Popsockets, we had some friends at the startup superstar Honey. Everyone was down to have some fun. It seems in a world that is starving for content, someone bringing them an opportunity on a silver platter—or snowy lawn—has a good chance at making some friends. And I really just wanted to share this vid.