I know what summer feels like in a nonprofit. The board is scattered. Major donors are at the beach. The fall gala feels far enough away that it's easy to let the weeks slide by in a fog of out-of-office replies and half-attended staff meetings.
Here's what I've learned after 25 years of walking into event after event: the organizations that raise the most money in October and November aren't the ones with the best auction items. They're the ones who did the quiet, unglamorous work in July and August while everyone else was coasting.
Summer is not downtime. It's your runway. Use it.
Reconnect With Your Donors Before You Need Anything
The worst time to reach out to a lapsed donor is two weeks before your gala with a ticket ask. The best time is July, when there's nothing on the table and the call is purely about them.
This summer, pull your donor list and identify the ten people you most want back in the room this fall. Then reach out — personally, not through your email platform — with zero agenda. A phone call. A handwritten note. An invitation to coffee. Tell them what the organization has been up to. Ask what they've been thinking about. Listen.
When fall comes and the invitation lands in their inbox, it won't feel like a solicitation. It'll feel like a natural next step in a relationship that's been warm all summer.
Audit Last Year's Event While It's Still Fresh Enough to Be Honest
Pull last year's run of show, your final revenue numbers, and your post-event survey if you ran one. Then ask three questions:
Where did energy drop? There's usually a moment — a speech that ran long, a transition that stalled, a video that didn't land — where the room lost momentum. Find it. Fix it before you build this year's program around the same structure.
Which auction items underperformed and why? An item that didn't sell isn't always a bad item. Sometimes it was sequenced wrong, described poorly, or placed at the wrong moment in the evening. Know the difference before you cut it.
What did guests say on the way out? Not in the formal survey — in the parking lot, at the coat check, in the first text they sent after the event. If you don't know, ask your staff and volunteers what they heard. That unfiltered feedback is gold.
Lock In Your Auctioneer and Key Vendors Now
This is the most practical thing on this list and the one most organizations delay too long.
The best benefit auctioneers — and the best AV companies, caterers, and venues — book up fast. Fall is the peak charity season, and by September the calendar is nearly full. If you're planning an October or November event and you haven't confirmed your auctioneer, you are already late.
Reach out now. Get the contract signed. Then use the summer months to actually collaborate — on the run of show, the paddle raise structure, the sequencing of your live auction. The organizations I do my best work with aren't the ones who call me in September with a finalized program. They're the ones who get me involved in July so we can build the evening together.
Write Your Stories Before You Need Them
Every great gala has a story at its center. A family who was served. A life that changed. A moment that makes the mission feel real and urgent and worth the check someone is about to write.
Those stories take time to find, develop, and tell well. Summer is when you find them.
Talk to your program staff. Visit a site. Sit with a client or a family if your mission allows for it. Find the story that made someone on your team cry in a staff meeting. Then figure out how to tell it — video, live speaker, a photograph on every table — before September, when you'll be too busy managing logistics to think clearly about narrative.
The best paddle raises I've ever run were lifted by a story told in the two minutes before the ask. The worst ones happened when the story was an afterthought.
Set a Specific Revenue Goal and Work Backward From It
Not a range. Not "more than last year." A number.
Once you have the number, work backward: How much needs to come from the paddle raise? How much from live auction? From ticket sales and sponsorships? What does that mean for your giving levels, your item inventory, your table pricing?
This exercise almost always surfaces something unexpected — a gap in the plan, an assumption that doesn't hold up, a sponsorship tier that's been underpriced for years. Better to find it in July than the week of the event.
Bring your auctioneer into this conversation early. A good one will tell you whether your revenue goal is realistic given your donor base, your room size, and your program structure — and how to close the gap if it isn't.
Draft Your Paddle Raise Levels Now
Most organizations finalize their giving levels two weeks before the event. That's too late to do it well.
The giving levels in a paddle raise aren't arbitrary numbers. They're a strategy — designed around what you know about your donor base, your room, and your cause. The gap between $10,000 and $5,000 matters. The language you use to describe each level matters. Whether you anchor with a story or a statistic matters.
This summer, sit down with your auctioneer or your development director and draft the levels. Then stress-test them: Do you have three to five donors who can credibly give at the top level? Is there a meaningful entry point for first-time givers? Does the total math get you to your goal even with conservative participation?
Build the scaffold now. You can always adjust in the fall.
The organizations that walk into their fall gala feeling ready — genuinely ready, not just logistically ready — almost always raise more than they project. Not because they got lucky. Because they did the work in the months when no one was watching.
Summer is long. Use it.