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How to Get the Most Out of Your Event Planner (and Your Auctioneer)


If you?ve ever worked with a great event planner, you usually know immediately.


They run organized meetings. They manage timelines beautifully. They anticipate problems before anyone else notices them. They somehow keep hundreds of moving pieces coordinated while making the entire event feel calm and seamless.


Great event planners are extraordinary at what they do. But your event planner should not be in charge of your fundraising.


That distinction is one of the most important things nonprofit leaders can understand when building a profitable gala.



Think About Your Gala Like the Super Bowl


Inside the Profitable Gala Playbook framework, I often say: Treat your annual gala like your Super Bowl.


Because, that?s what it is.


Galas regularly take 500+ hours to plan. There are vendors, volunteers, sponsors, videos, timelines, donors, logistics, procurement, check-in, checkout, AV, decor, seating charts, and a thousand tiny fires that somehow appear along the way.


This is not a small side project. It?s a major undertaking.


And when we think about a gala like the Super Bowl, it becomes easier to understand the difference between offense and defense.


Defense is Event Success:


Offense is Fundraising Success:


Defense keeps the event running. Offense wins the game.



Event Planners Are Masters of Defense


This is important because I genuinely want nonprofit leaders to deeply value their event planners. A great event planner is the reason an event feels polished, smooth, calm, and professional.


They are exceptional at:


Honestly, many event planners should probably be charging more for the amount of work they do.


The challenge is not that event planners lack talent or value.

The challenge happens when we ask them to step into fundraising strategy.


Fundraising Is a Different Skill Set


Fundraising success is not primarily built through coordination. It?s built through relationships.


That includes:


Those things rely heavily on organizational knowledge and personal connection.


Your board, leadership team, development staff, and fundraising professionals hold those relationships.


An event planner cannot manufacture those relationships for you.


That?s why having an event planner fully own fundraising strategy is a little like asking the defensive coach to call offensive plays in the Super Bowl.


They are different roles requiring different expertise.



Where Things Can Start Breaking Down


One area where I?ve seen this become especially challenging is in the relationship between the event planner and the auctioneer.


Sometimes the event planner becomes the go-between for everything.


The auctioneer gets treated like another vendor:


But never truly brought into the fundraising strategy conversations.


And that creates a huge missed opportunity. Because auctioneers who specialize in fundraising events often see an enormous number of galas every single year.


Some auctioneers work 50, 60, even 70 events annually.


That creates an incredible depth of pattern recognition around:


In the video, I shared a story about an event where I was blocked from strategy conversations with the Development Director because communication was flowing entirely through the event planner.


The event underperformed.

The room felt awkward.

Goals were unrealistic.

And afterward, everyone felt frustrated.


This wasn?t about anyone doing a bad job. It was about roles being misaligned.



The Best Galas Create Clear Roles


The strongest galas usually have a very clear division between offense and defense.


Event Planner:


Fundraising Team and Auctioneer:


They work together closely. But they are not doing the same job.


And when both sides are allowed to fully operate inside their expertise, the results are dramatically stronger.



The Earlier Fundraising Conversations Happen, the Better


One of the biggest misconceptions about auctioneers is that we simply ?show up and run the auction.?


In reality, the most impactful fundraising work often happens before event night.


That includes:


The earlier those conversations happen, the more opportunity there is to shape fundraising outcomes.


Because fundraising doesn?t happen accidentally during the event. It?s built intentionally long before guests walk into the room.



Bringing It All Together


Great galas need both offense and defense.


They thrive with incredible event planners who create smooth, organized, polished experiences.


And they need fundraising leadership focused on relationships, strategy, donor engagement, and revenue outcomes.


The key is understanding that these are different lanes.


Your event planner should absolutely help create a beautiful, seamless event.

Your fundraising team and auctioneer should help maximize what the event raises.

When those roles are aligned clearly, organizations are able to create galas that feel incredible and perform incredibly well financially.

If this video was helpful, subscribe for more gala fundraising strategy videos and nonprofit event insights designed to help make this your most profitable gala yet.