The Secret to Turning Every Guest Into a Donor

Most nonprofits end their paddle raise too early.

In this episode of Auction is Action, Bobby D. Ehlert shares one of the simplest—and most overlooked—fundraising strategies you can implement at your next event: the Paddle Drop.

The Paddle Drop happens immediately after your paddle raise and gives every remaining guest one final opportunity to participate. It's an effortless way to transform attendees into first-time donors, tap into their philanthropic budget, deepen donor relationships, and raise thousands of additional dollars without adding another auction item or extending your program.

You'll learn:

• What the Paddle Drop is and why it works.
• How to convert guests into lifelong supporters.
• Why participation matters just as much as gift size.
• The simple script that can generate more revenue in just a few minutes.
• How professional fundraising strategy turns good events into extraordinary ones.

Free Resource: Download "Stop Hiring the FREE Auctioneer" and discover how investing in the right fundraising auction team can actually pay for itself while helping your event raise significantly more money. Stop leaving money on the table and start building events that maximize both revenue and donor relationships.

Recommended For

Nonprofit leaders
Development directors
Board members
Event planners
Fundraising committees
School, hospital, and foundation galas

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

You are listening to the Auction is Action with You In It Podcast presented by Call to Auction, where our favorite formative word is S-O-L-D. Simple. Well, hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the Auction is Action with You In It podcast. My name is Bobby D, your host, as well as world champion auctioneer, billion-dollar fundraiser. Been doing this for 20 plus years, founder of Call to Auction, co-founder of the Gala Toolbox and Inspire Hearts fundraising, and a contractor for many uh auction firms that are out there in the nation. Uh, been doing this again for over 20 years. So uh I've been doing a few galas and uh golf tournaments and fundraisers and have been there and have done that and have been working with nonprofit clients nationwide. And super excited today to be talking about a tool that you can use at your fundraising event to engage more donors and to raise more money and to create a bunch of excitement at the end of your paddle raise. And today we are calling that the paddle drop. That's right, the paddle drop. What is the paddle drop or the uh the the paddle sweep or the paddle turn-in or or whatever it is? Well, what this is is the final giving level of your night, whether it's $250, it's $100, it's $50, whatever it might be. Um, I like to call this the strength and numbers level, where friends, there's 300 of us here today that if everybody was able to donate $100, we can raise $30,000 and $30,000 can help us to do this, this, this, this, and this, or this, or this. $30,000 can help us, you know, to do so much. And what we're gonna do is we want to encourage everybody to be able to make a donation at this level. But wait, there's more. We are going to incentivize you all to be able to give to win this thing, whatever this thing is. And this thing could be a beautiful bottle of champagne, this thing could be a cash prize, this thing could be a uh trip that you pull out of your live auction, uh, could be a consignment package that you purchase from one of our uh wonderful consignment vendors. Uh, it could be tickets to a sports game. I've seen uh airline tickets uh sell or work very well in the paddle drop and having this item uh to be able to win from someone that does make a donation at that final level. Now, the easiest way to do that is everybody on the count of three, let's get those paddles up. One, two, three, who wants to give? Whoa! Oh my gosh, there's so many paddles that are in the air. You know, instead of calling all those off, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have our volunteers run around the room and collect these paddles and we're gonna bring them together and we are gonna pick one paddle. One lucky donor is gonna receive the whatever it might be. And it's super easy to be able to do this because it is very, very active, dynamic way of fundraising, uh, but it's also kind of passive in the way that you know we don't have to call out all the paddle numbers. And it's pretty much just sweeping around, grabbing all those paddles, getting them together, and bringing them to the stage to then pick them. And now here's what's great about the paddle drop is this creates an amazing photo opportunity. Now we pick someone, maybe it's the board chair, maybe it's the gala chair, maybe it's an honoree, uh, maybe it's a kid. Uh, and then we bring them up on stage, and then we have our fundraising team uh stand next to them. And on the count of three, we throw the paddles in the air. One, two, three, wow! Now they pick one out of the air and they're like, oh my gosh, paddle number one, two, four, you are our winner. You win the trip to Maui, whatever it might be. And and and and it does become a great photo op. It becomes a great uh kind of send-off into the night because you're building that anticipation, you're building that excitement, you're building up the energy into that. And it is is again a great way to end the night because you can have the drum roll, you get everybody excited, and then somebody's win, wins, and then ultimately at the end of the day, the organization is the final winner of all of that because it was all about the fundraising. Now, the reason that this or a reason to use this at your fundraising event is that it is such an easy way to transform a guest into a donor. Because a lot of times you're gonna have a lot of guests that are at the event that are, you know, kind of not sure about making a donation. Uh, they they saw the storytelling, they're kind of like, yeah, maybe I'm not ready to raise my paddle at a higher level yet. But if I've got a chance to win a trip to Maui, maybe I'll make a $100 donation. Maybe I'll make a $250 donation, whatever it might be, that then that guest is like, you know what? I am going to give. And I'm going to give to the cause, but I'm also going to give to maybe get something in return. And there's a little bit of a transaction that happens there. But what ends up happening is that you have then again transformed that guest into a donor. And now, because you've done that, now you have access to be able to say thank you to that donor because of your generosity, because if you turn it in your paddle, we were able to do this, this, this, and this. And we would love for you to be more involved. Maybe they come down for a tour, maybe you have coffee with them, maybe whatever it is. But it really taps into their philanthropic wallet and it becomes a test donation for them to see how you're going to treat them after the fact. This is all about donor stewardship and donor cultivation from this transformed guest into a donor. So this is such a valuable opportunity to raise money at your event. But even bigger than that is to raise money beyond the event. Super easy way to do it. Super easy way for someone to again make that transformation. So this is a great tool to be using. Uh, make sure that you do download our stop hiring the free guy guide. Uh, we'll put the link below. Uh, and the paddle drop is one of our techniques that you can use to invest in your professional fundraising auction team, like us at Call to Auction. And speaking of which, I do want to thank our uh sponsors today, Call to Auction. We do work with nonprofits nationwide, with our uh nationwide fundraising team uh network to be able to put the right person in your room to say the right thing at the right time to do the right fundraising. Uh, we are all fundraising focused. It is our passion to be able to help nonprofits like yours succeed. We are in business to serve you and to serve your mission and to raise as much money as we can. So please check us out, call touction.com. We are ready to help you anywhere that you might be with any size of budget that you might have, especially now with the stop hiring the free guy guide. There's no excuse that you can't hire a professional fundraising auctioneer team. It's great. So I want to say thank you again so much for everybody, uh, for all of the impact that you are making out there in the world and choosing to make better events. Now, this is a decision that you were making, and I want to congratulate you on the decision to be able to go out and and make these better events happen. So you're raising more money, so you're creating more impact, and you are fulfilling your mission. Again, Bobby D with the auction is action with you in a podcast. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you on the next one. 25 out of 35, 45, 55, 65, 75 at a bit, 85 at a bit, 95 at a bit, and it's going to be sold it. You got it right there. Thanks for listening. See you next time.