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| Condoleezza Rice speaks at the Solutions for Change Auction |
There are two very important segments of the event that a good motivational speaker is needed… before the live auction and before the fund-a-need. The speaker prior to the start of the live auction should be someone that can somewhat educate the crowd about the cause and share a personal experience to get the crowd emotional. Getting members of the crowd to “tear up” is always a good thing. This speech should not exceed 2-3 minutes and the live auction should begin promptly following. Videos are okay to utilize for this but they have to be great not good.
The second speaker should come on following the live auction just prior to the fund-a-need. This speaker needs to be extremely passionate, as the crowd is many times drained from the live auction that just took place. The speaker must re-energize the crowd and talk about what specifically the fund-a-need dollars will represent (i.e. building a new structure for the organization to help kids, funding a specific cause, etc.). I have found that younger teenagers or children that are good in front of people and have a personal impact experience to share are excellent for this speech. Once again, a video can be used here but it must be great not good. If you used a video for the first slot then try to have a live speaker for the second and vice versa.
Motivational speakers are imperative to the success of your live auction and fund-a-need. You can do without them but don’t expect incredible results. As you can see so far, there are a lot of small elements that all add up to a big result.
Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS