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If your board members aren?t helping with your gala, this video will help you explore one of the most common reasons and what you can do about it.


This training is for Executive Directors and Development Directors who feel stuck carrying the fundraising load alone.


You?ll learn how to give your board the clarity, structure, and direction they need to meaningfully support your gala.

In this video, you?ll learn how to:

You?ll also hear a real example from an event Dani did, where a board that claimed it wasn?t a fundraising board generated over $10,000 in impact through clear goals, paddle raiser plants, and unique auction packages.

If you want more practical, strategy-first guidance on running profitable galas, I share additional tools and insights in my newsletter.

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We?d love to hear from you in the comments. What?s one positive example of how a board member has supported your gala, or what?s been most challenging about board engagement for you?






Hey, I'm Danny Dar Rosa and I help

nonprofit leaders crush their annual

gallas by having the right strategy.

Over the years as a benefit auctioneer

and a gala fundraising consultant, I've

helped raise over $50 million at over

400 gallas and I have learned a thing or

two about working with your board.

Let me start off by telling you about a

client that I worked with recently who

told me in our meetings that their board

does not help with the gala. We don't

have a fundraising board. They never

help us with the gala. Sometimes they'll

buy a table. They'll bring some people

here and there, but for the most part,

they are not a fundraising board. Now,

with all of my years of experience, when

I hear that, the first thing I'm really

curious about is whether or not the

board actually knows what it means to be

a fundraising board. So in this case, I

asked to go to one of their board

meetings and present on a few topics

to educate the board a little bit as to

their potential role in the gala, how

some of these goals break down, so on

and so forth. So I go to the board

meeting, I share with them what it looks

like to make an event profitable, what

the different fundraising streams are,

and exactly how they could end up

supporting. Now, after giving them some

ideas of how they could help support the

paddle raiser as well as the live

auction, what ended up happening was

this board that apparently is not a

fundraising board and apparently never

helps with the gala. They ended up

collectively raising $8,500

in in plants. So, they were plants for

the paddle raiser. $8,500 worth. Of

course, they bought tables like they

usually do. And we also got two really

unique live auction items out of um you

know their donations that ended up

raising us thousands of dollars in the

live auction as well. So over $10,000

came from their board. This was at the

final hour also probably only like six

to eight weeks before the gala. But we

were able to get over $10,000

in impact at their gala that year just

from having these conversations. Now

what did we talk about? Now the thing to

remember is that your board members are

completely committed to the success of

your organization and your gala or they

wouldn't be your board members. Now one

of the common reasons why they're not

engaging, you know, not only with your

gala but probably a lot of other aspects

of helping run the nonprofit is because

of ami ambiguity. A lot of times we, you

know, tell our board members, you need

to get us sponsors. you need to get us

donors. You need to bring good items.

But unless we actually break down the

goals and make things specific, any busy

adult has a really hard time following

through because remember we have our own

jobs, we have our families, we have our

grievances, we have our trauma, we have

our drama, we have different things that

come up in our life that make it really

difficult for us also to follow through

on really ambiguous asks.

Now, the first thing I like to do when I

go to a board meeting is show them the

pure profit iceberg. Now, the iceberg

here, I talk about it in a lot of my

videos because it is the foundation of

creating a really profitable fundraising

strategy. When we look at the iceberg,

half of it's under the water, half of

it's above the water. The very bottom

part, we learn that sponsors and tickets

should more than cover event costs.

Okay, so this is the first level where

we can show the board how this becomes

profitable. The next part, the middle is

the fundraising foundation. It is

halfway underneath the water and halfway

above because our donors and our guests

don't see us cultivating it, but they do

feel the impact at the event. Now, your

fundraising foundation is made up of

matches and plants. A match is somebody

who offers a challenge to the audience.

They say, "I'm willing to donate $10,000

for every dollar raised up to $10,000."

A mat, a plant, excuse me, a plant is

somebody who is planted in your audience

and ready to raise their paddle for a

certain level in the paddle razor. They

say, "I'm going to raise at 2500. I'm

going to raise at 5,000." So on and so

forth. Now, this middle part is a huge

area that our board members can support.

Not only can they be matches and u

plants potentially, but if they were

able to help cultivate some plants and

matches, this is going to help make the

paddle raiser really successful. The

very tip of these this iceberg is the

event night impact. This is the bids and

the donations. So all the bids on the

live auction and the silent auction, all

the donations in the paddle raiser. This

part is a little bit out of our control,

but the part that makes it in our

control is that we need to have a high

enough ticket price to bring in donors

and guests with enough resource capacity

to make big donations and bid high on

our auctions. And then we also need to

get the right items, the right number of

items, things people actually want to

bid on. We need a program that has a

really great mission video, a program

that's not too long, that doesn't make

them feel bored or restless in their

seats, and we need a great professional

auctioneer. So, there are a few things

that come into place there. But the

first thing I do when I go to a board

meeting is I show them the levels of the

iceberg so they can understand at a high

level how we're going to make this

profitable. And they start to think

about where they can fit in.

The next thing to do after showing them

this high level of how a gala breaks

down is to really understand

what are everybody's strengths. What are

we naturally drawn toward and where are

we most called to support? You know, so

just as an example, you know, if we have

some board members that are business

owners or they're sales managers or

maybe real estate agents, then they

really might understand the sales and

marketing side of things. it might be

easier for them to then try to get some

sponsors on board. Maybe you can give

them a list of potential sponsors and

they can be the ones that reach out to

them and they try to secure, you know,

some sponsors and, you know, more on

that is in one of our previous videos in

terms of how many sponsors you want to

go after. So maybe a board member is

really drawn toward that or maybe we

have a board member that is a lot more

analytical, um, focuses more on

logistics and details. Maybe they're

always poking holes in the budget. Maybe

they're really focused on cost versus

investment versus ROI. Well, that type

of mind is going to do a really good job

maybe on some of your event planning

details. Or maybe they're on the auction

committee where they're really going to

help um write the descriptions for the

packages, make sure all the details are

in them, make sure all the pricing info

is correct after we've set, you know,

some of those best practices. So, you

really need to start to break down the

strengths of your board. Um, we need to

understand which ones of them have

connection, which ones have connections

with hotels, with restaurants, with

private chefs. Um, maybe some of them

have private houses in the mountains, on

the beach. Um, connections to people

with some of these private houses.

That's kind of the next piece to this is

we really need to understand what are

they feeling energized about? what is

the lowhanging fruit in their life that

they can, you know, help with for the

gala. And we want to start putting those

pieces together.

Now, after all of this, you really want

to set some clear goals and expectations

for your board. People need to know

where the finish line is. If they're

going to participate in something,

they're going to feel good about it, and

they're going to really run as quickly

as they can forward. So, what this looks

like is, you know, after you determine

some of the strengths of your board

members, it's that, hey, if each one of

you can bring $5,000

and paddle raiser plants and matches or

sponsors, we are going to be able to

reach our goal of our the sponsors we

need and our fundraising foundation or

hey, if you know the two of you that are

really excited about sponsors, if you

can each secure $20,000 in sponsors, one

at the 10, one at the five, one at the

25, 500 and here's your sponsorship

package. Um, if you could secure that,

that would be helpful. Those of you who

are really excited to get live auction

items. We're looking for five unique

packages. Here's the categories of them.

This is how big we want the packages to

be. And by the way, in another video, we

will go through an acronym that really

helps you understand the different

categories of live auction items that

perform really well. But anyway, you

want to give the board members really

clear goals and a finish line so that

they understand exactly what they're

working toward and they know when to

give themselves a pat on the back that

says, "I did it. I'm done. I've

completed this."

So, to summarize, don't assume that your

board members are lazy. Don't assume

they're not a fundraising board. Don't

assume they don't want to help. What we

want to do is we want to give them the

right information, help them understand

the overall strategy and where they fit

in. We want to understand where their

strengths are, where the lowhanging

fruit is in their life that they can

easily get to come help bring resources

to the gala and we want to set really

clear goals and expectations for them as

to how they can support. Now, this does

take time to put this plan together, but

if you don't take the time to put a plan

together like this, you can't delegate.

You can't expect them to be able to just

read your mind. You can't expect them to

be able to go out there and make magic

happen. It's really important that we

have a really clear plan set in place

with deadlines, expectations, and goals

for each person.

If you've enjoyed this video, we have

more for you. Click the link below in

the description to subscribe to our

newsletter and we'll send them right to

your inbox. And then I'm curious if you

can comment below. Tell me about one of

the most unique ways a board member has

supported your gala. Maybe like a really

cool package that they got you or a way

that they brought some high- netw worth

donors. What is a really positive

experience you've had working with a

board member and how they supported for

a gala? And also we would love to hear

maybe what some of your challenges are

with getting board members to help with

your gala.

As always, we hope that your next event

is the most profitable one yet.