How to Market a Fundraising Event: One System, Every Channel

One Event, 85 Assets

Laurie Hochman works with event software company Auctria, which means she gets an inside look at how hundreds of nonprofits actually run their galas and auctions — not just how they say they run them. Recently she sat down with an event planner to review everything built for a single gala.

"I said, 'Let me ask you, how many assets do you have just for this one event?'" Hochman recalls. "Guess what the number was, Trevor?" The answer: 85. Not 85 different campaigns — 85 pieces built off one system. "They're not recreating everything every time," she says. "They're just using that base graphic and that base information, that base mission that goes with it. So that you're saying the same exact thing every single time."

That's the distinction worth sitting with. The nonprofits pulling this off aren't working harder than everyone else — they built one visual and messaging system once, then reused it across every single touchpoint: the invitation, the event website, the sponsor thank-yous, the social posts, the signage, the testimonials.

Say It the Same Way, Every Time

Before the asset system comes the message itself, and Hochman is blunt about why it matters: everyone connected to the event — the executive director, the board, volunteers, even the program staff whose work the event funds — needs to describe the mission in the same language.

"It's very, very easy if we're pushing a boulder downhill as opposed to uphill," she says. "Three people say it one way and one person says it another way... the messaging is really, really important. Making sure — this is what we do. Of course it's going to happen on this night. We're all going to get in the same room... but as long as we're all saying the same thing, I think that bleeds into the messaging piece."

Once that message is locked, it becomes the thread running through all 85 assets: the invitation, the onsite signage, the social captions, the sponsor recognition — all built off the same base graphic and the same core language, so nothing feels disconnected from anything else.

Mini takeaway: Before you design a single asset, get everyone attached to the event — staff, board, volunteers — saying the mission the same way. The visuals are downstream of that.

Repetition Isn't Redundant. It's Free.

Nonprofits routinely under-post out of a fear of annoying their audience. Hochman doesn't buy it. "People get nervous. They're like, 'Oh my gosh, how many times should we post on social media? We did it twice this week, we did it three times this week.' I'm like, three times a day would be okay. It is not offending anyone."

Her reasoning: your audience isn't watching one channel at one time of day. "People look at it at different times of day, different times of the evening. They're looking at Instagram maybe when they're at lunch. Maybe they're looking at Facebook when they're sitting on the couch at home." Repetition across channels and times of day isn't nagging — it's coverage. And because it's the same base asset reused, not a new creative lift every time, it doesn't cost the team anything extra to do it.

Find the People Who Already Love You

Beyond paid reach or a big-name spokesperson, Hochman points to something smaller and more available to every organization: micro-ambassadors. "Ambassadors can be quite micro," she says. "This can be your board members — it should absolutely be your board members, that's your baseline. But amongst your group, also additional ambassadors."

These are the people with a trusted circle who will bring others in — inviting friends to the event, sharing a mission video, vouching for the cause because it's coming from someone they already trust. "That circle of trust is extremely valuable because it's coming from the inside out," Hochman says. "You never know who they're bringing in... it's kind of a circle, and it's also up and down."

Her advice for finding them is refreshingly unglamorous: "Find these people that are really, really good. Invite them to your organization, to your location, make them a cup of coffee... and then ask them to do a sizzle reel, have them come to the event, have them talk about the event." No elaborate ambassador program required — just an invitation and a cup of coffee.

Mini takeaway: You likely already have ambassadors in your circle. The step most organizations skip isn't finding them — it's asking.

The Thank-You You Send Before You Rest

One piece of advice Hochman delivers almost as an aside is worth pulling out on its own: "Please, please, please don't take the day off after your event. Make sure you book in some time to send out your thank you notes, make your phone calls to your big donors."

The gap between an event ending and gratitude going out is exactly the gap where donor goodwill quietly evaporates. Building the thank-you calls and notes into the event-week schedule — not the following week, once the adrenaline's worn off — keeps the momentum from the event itself working in your favor.

Load the Catalog Early

Hochman's timeline advice for the run-up to a fall event applies well beyond fall: get your event website live, get sponsor conversations started, and get your auction catalog filled with high-interest items — travel packages especially — well before the event itself. "Filling your auction catalog with no-risk travel pieces is a huge way to start bringing attention to your event website and to your event itself," she says. "That is such a shiny bling."

The logic: a compelling catalog isn't just there to be bid on the night of the event. It's a marketing asset in its own right, giving people a reason to visit the event website and share it long before the event happens.

Stop Fighting Everyone Else for Saturday Night

Most nonprofits assume their gala has to happen on a Friday or Saturday night, then panic when they realize how few of those dates exist on the calendar. Hochman's counterpoint is one of the more useful reframes in the conversation: differentiation on timing is a feature, not a compromise.

She points to an organization that runs its event on a Monday night and calls it "Million-Dollar Monday" — clearing seven figures on a night of the week nobody else is competing for attention on. "You don't have to squish yourself into these weekends," she says. "Socialize all year long, all week long."

The trade-off that makes an off-night event work, on both her and Trevor Nelson's read, is setting clear expectations up front: what time it starts, what time guests can expect to be out the door, and holding to it. A Tuesday night event that respects people's time can outperform a Saturday night everyone's tired of competing for.

Mini takeaway: An unusual night, clearly timed and firmly held to, can be a selling point rather than a scheduling compromise.

The Common Thread

Every piece of this — the 85 assets, the consistent mission language, the ambassadors, the immediate thank-yous, the early catalog, the off-night event — comes back to the same idea: build the system once, make sure everyone's saying the same thing, and then let repetition do the work. None of it requires a bigger budget. It requires deciding on the message and the visual system before the marketing starts, not while it's already underway.

If you're building out your auction catalog for an upcoming event and want travel and experience packages that give your marketing something worth repeating, HGA's team can help you fill it with items donors actually want to bid on.

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! podcast episode “The 85-Asset Rule: How Top Nonprofits Actually Market Their Galas”, featuring host Trevor Nelson and guest Laurie Hochman of Auctria.