years ago, I remember having a coffee

meeting with one of my nonprofit

clients, Robin. I was going to be her

auctioneer in her upcoming event, and we

were reviewing all the details from her

previous event. At this point in time,

we had gotten so deep into her telling

me all about the the previous events

that our coffees were half drank, they

were lukewarm, we were completely

enthralled in our conversation.

After she shared everything with me, I

told her that one thing that became very

clear to me in hearing all the details

was that if we didn't raise her ticket

price for the upcoming event, she was

going to continue to not see the profit

she needed to be putting the amount of

hours into the event and to have her

board be happy with how much they

raised.

In that moment, the feeling of

disappointment and dread in her was

almost palpable. I could even see her

face change.

She looked at me after being silent for

a second and she said, "If we raised our

ticket price, then people like Shirley

wouldn't be able to come." She went on

to explain to me that Shirley had been a

longtime volunteer and supporter of

their organization. She had been there

for over 20 years. She was there every

time they needed to stuff envelopes or

be on the front lines or drive across

town to pick something up. And that

Shirley always had donated so much of

her time and she'd been at every single

fundraising event and was just such an

important part of the community and the

nonprofit.

The reality is is I've had conversations

like this one with Robin more times than

I can count. There are so many people in

our community and in our organization

that are so vitally important to us that

the idea of raising a ticket price and

excluding others is one of the most

painful things I've ever seen any of my

clients wrestle with.

As we get into this conversation, I want

you to know that I see you. I understand

how incredibly difficult these decisions

are. You have a giant heart and you care

so much about the people that you're

serving and the people who help you

serve. So, I completely understand that

this conversation is tricky and

difficult to have.

This fear, this fear of excluding others

is coming up and it's valid and

important. But we can't stop at this

fear. We can't stop and let this fear

make the decision for the ticket price.

We have to ask a completely different

question.

How do we still fund our mission without

excluding the people we love?

The first idea that we want to look at

is to maybe have

another client of mine has solved this

in a really unique way within their

community. What they've done is that

they have their gala ticket price pretty

high for an individual ticket. say was

$175 per ticket and then they had a

portion maybe 10 to 20% of their tickets

were pay whatever you can for the

tickets. This allowed them to attract

donors that have a high resource

capacity to buy their individual tickets

without excluding extremely important

members of their community like Shirley.

What they've come to find year-over-year

is they don't sell nearly as many pay as

you can tickets as you would think and

that the majority of the tickets

purchased are from those individuals

buying the $175 ticket price. After

doing their event for years, it's clear

that we're still raising a ton of money

because the majority of the audience

does have the means to buy a full price

ticket, but we are preserving that

inclusive community feeling at their

event by allowing some of the most

important members of their community

that can't afford a full price ticket to

still be there and pay whatever they

can. Another example of this is in a

school audience.

There's oftentimes we see that a parent

will buy tickets and then they have the

option to buy a ticket for a teacher.

This allows us to bring our teachers in

without our teachers having to pay the

same ticket price as a parent would have

to pay.

Another solution we have seen is a

sponsorship package where if you sponsor

at a certain level then you've funded a

certain amount of tickets for people who

can't afford the full ticket price

either. Now this entire idea is a

layered approach. It is allowing us to

have a high ticket price for the people

that can afford it and a lower ticket

price or a free ticket for those that

are still really vital to have in

attendance at our event but can't

necessarily afford it.

The reality is that you can't have your

ticket price do everything. It can't be

profitable and inclusive. You have to

look at one of these layered approaches

in order to accomplish both goals at

your gala.

The other solution here too is maybe

you're watching this video at a time

where you've already put your ticket

price out. It's already, you know, lower

than the suggested ticket price. It's

not something you can change at this

point. in order to make your gala more

profitable. If you check out the impact

iceberg here, what you want to do is you

want to build your fundraising

foundation more. So, you want to find

more plants and matches for your paddle

raiser so that you can still make a

meaningful amount of money without

having to change your ticket price. You

can also add more sponsors to the

bottom. But this is how you can still

keep your ticket price a little bit

lower but have a more profitable event.

Just know that your event night impact,

the very tip of the iceberg, won't be as

profitable because you have not brought

people in the door with a high resource

capacity if your ticket price is too

low. But this is a way to still make

your event profitable overall if you

focus on the fundraising foundation and

adding more sponsors.

The last really important consideration

for your event is that you have to have

a paddle razor. A paddle raiser is the

most inclusive fundraising opportunity

there is because you can get it down to

a level that everybody can donate. So,

make sure you do not skip a paddle

raiser.

To recap, I completely understand the

hesitation and the fear with raising

your ticket price. I hope that you see

that a layered approach or adding more

sponsors more to your fundraising

foundation and making sure you have a

paddle raiser are all solutions that can

help you raise a ton of money raise it.

To recap, I completely understand your

hesitation and your fear around raising

your ticket price. I hope that this

video has encouraged you though.

The last Okay.

Another important thing is that you

don't have to raise your ticket price

really high really quickly. It's

important to take a gradual approach

towards elevating your event.

To recap, I know it's nerve-wracking

to think about raising your ticket

price. You care so much about the people

in your community that you want to be as

inclusive as possible. And that's

frankly why you are in

I'll get this JR.

To recap, I know it's extremely

nerve-wracking to think about raising

your ticket price. I hope that seeing

this video has helped encourage you to

some of the different solutions when it

comes to including the most important

members of your community while also

making sure your ticket price is high

enough that your event will be

profitable. Remember that you can think

of a layered approach with an individual

ticket price and some pay as you can

tickets or having some other members of

your community buy some tickets, some

sponsors to buy tickets. You can also

work on your fundraising foundation and

adding more sponsorship dollars to make

your event more profitable. You can

gradually raise the ticket price year

overyear. And also by including a paddle

raiser, you have made sure to have a

fundraising stream that every single

person in the room can participate in.

To help you think about your ticket

pricing even more, download our free

goal setting and ticket price calculator

to help you look at all the different

numbers. And feel free to subscribe to

our newsletter so you can get more tips

like this to your inbox.

As always, we hope you have your most

profitable gala yet.