As gala season rolls along, thousands of nonprofit organizations push to schedule their events on Fridays and Saturdays.  However, at the peak of gala season you may find not just one, but often dozens of fundraisers competing for your attention on those nights. And many benefit auction companies with teams (like ours) will conduct several events in a given night. Why make it so hard for your donors to choose, and for your nonprofit to secure the right auction talent? 

Solution? We suggest that our clients take a serious look at Thursday nights. There are several benefits: 1) as stated earlier, the chance that you’ll be competing with a like organization on the same night is significantly reduced, 2) you’ve got your donors where you need them—in town while weekend events don't just compete with other events but with out of town jaunts, weddings, and any number of other possibilities, and 3) many event venues have less expensive rates on week nights.

We recently moved a Friday gala to a Thursday night. Results? They had increased attendance, increased revenue across the board, and reduced overhead. ...Can you say, "thrilled client"?

Keep in mind that you do have to tighten things up. Being a work night, you need to have a timeline focused on a shorter window of opportunity to get to your desired results. Reduce the number of talking heads, no long speeches, stellar valet services, adept clerks to assure efficient check-in/out. But honestly, the people we saw in the room this past week were the same people that we would see at huge galas. They spent as much money and in some cases more. One couple told me as they were going out the door, “Look at this, we're done!! It’s only 9:00 p.m. and we still have our weekend!” WINNING!