For Charity Galas & Nonprofit Foundations
The complete fundraising playbook for your charity gala.
Galas have every revenue lever in fundraising — live auction, silent auction, raffles, games, paddle raise, sponsorships. We give your team everything you need to maximize every one of them: risk-free consignment travel packages, the Vacation Station silent-auction table, multi-destination Passport packages, the $100 Golden Ticket raffle, full media kits, TripSync integration with your auction software, and free 1-on-1 coaching with Jason Ledlow before you commit to anything.
Maximum fundraising potential. Minimum risk to your foundation. Every dollar above our consignment cost is yours.
Prefer to talk first? Call (888) 362-6838
Your gala has every revenue lever. Most teams only use two.
A modern charity gala is the single highest-leverage night of the year for a nonprofit. The room is dressed. The donors are in. The auctioneer is on the mic. And most teams walk away having only run a live auction and a basic silent auction — leaving the Vacation Station, the Passport multi-destination items, the $100 Golden Ticket raffle, and the sponsor-paddle upside completely on the table.
The largest galas using HGA routinely raise $1M+ across a single evening, sell 30–50 trips between live and silent, and stack a five-figure Golden Ticket raffle on top. The difference between a $250K gala and a $1M gala is rarely the room. It's the playbook.
That playbook is what this page is. Risk-free consignment packages. The right strategy for every revenue line. Full media kits. TripSync integration. White-glove fulfillment after the gavel. And free 1-on-1 coaching from Jason Ledlow before you commit to anything.
Risk-free consignment, in one paragraph.
Reserve as many gala auction packages as you want at no upfront cost. Your guests bid the night of the event. After the gala, you pay our predetermined consignment cost only on packages that actually sold — and you keep every dollar above that cost. If a package doesn't sell, you owe nothing and we take it back.
- No purchase, no deposit, no inventory — your foundation never owns the trip.
- Multi-winner formatting on every package — one lot can become three winners. No blackout dates.
- Average HGA gala reports a 3x lift on live auction revenue per package.
- 100% of revenue above the consignment cost is yours.
Four revenue lines, one gala
Stack all four. Watch your gala outperform every prior year.
The HGA playbook for galas runs four distinct fundraising lines in parallel. Each one is risk-free. Each one stacks on top of the others. Each one has a dedicated strategy page below — explore the ones that fit your event.
Silent auction strategy
Vacation Station: a silent-auction strategy that prints money.
The Vacation Station is HGA's silent-auction strategy — not an item we sell. You curate a table of 6–10 trips from our catalog and let your guests sign-up bid all night. Bidding stays open through cocktails and dinner, and donors return to the table 3–4 times. Every trip on the table can be sold to multiple winners, and none have blackout dates.
- 6–10 curated trips on one branded display
- Bid sheets, signage, and the table layout provided
- Multiple winners per item — your revenue stacks
- Zero upfront cost — pay reserve only on what sells
Multi-destination strategy
Passports: one item, every kind of donor in your room.
A single-destination trip loses every donor who's already been there. A Passport contains every kind of trip — beach, Europe, golf, domestic — so the winner picks the destination after the event. The bidding pool is 2–4x deeper because every donor profile sees something they'd actually take.
- Vacation, Premier, World, Euro, Caribbean, Golf, Sports Passports
- Built for silent auction, raffle, and live auction
- Every Passport sells to multiple winners
- Highest-yielding silent-auction item we sell
Raffle strategy
The $100 Golden Ticket: $15K–$50K stacked on top.
Sell 100–300 tickets at $100 each at the gala. Draw one winner the night of the event. Winner picks a bucket-list trip from our catalog. Same risk-free consignment model — you only pay our reserve on the prize the winner ultimately picks. The Golden Ticket sits on top of the silent and live auctions and adds high-margin raffle revenue most galas leave on the table.
- Turnkey marketing kit: poster, signage, video
- Works as a raffle or drawing — your call
- $100 ticket + a $250 tier for top donors
- Most galas add $15K–$50K of high-margin revenue
Live auction strategy
Live-auction lots designed to bid up.
Premium consignment trips and bucket-list experiences built specifically for the spotlight: the slide on the screen, the auctioneer's pitch, the paddles in the air. Every package ships with a verbatim auctioneer's script and a recommended live-auction order. Multi-winner formatting where it makes sense — turn one lot into three winners.
- Marketing-grade media kit for every package
- Verbatim auctioneer's script + recommended order
- Multi-winner formatting on every package
- Average HGA gala reports 3x lift in live auction revenue
The HGA Process
Five steps from "we have a gala coming" to "your team is done at the gavel."
We give your gala committee everything they need so they don't have to think about it. Strategy, packages, media kits, software integration, and white-glove winner fulfillment — all included, all included in the consignment model.
- Step 01
Meet your dedicated fundraising consultant
Every nonprofit gets a dedicated HGA fundraising consultant — a partner, not a sales rep — who works alongside you from intro call through event night. They learn your goal, your audience, your venue, and your prior numbers.
- Step 02
Build the package mix together
Your consultant works directly with you to shape the lineup — live lots, silent auction trips, a Vacation Station, the right Passports, and a Golden Ticket setup sized to your room. No proposals or pitch decks; just a partner helping you build the night.
- Step 03
Full marketing kit
Hero photography, gallery images, descriptions, verbatim auctioneer script, bid sheets, signage, Golden Ticket poster + promo video — all built and sent digitally.
- Step 04
Trips into your platform
On ClickBid? One-click TripSync push. On Greater Giving, OneCause, BidPal, Handbid, HelloFund, or anything else? Our on-staff auction software specialist sets it all up for you.
- Step 05
Event night → white-glove fulfillment
You hand off the winners. We deliver the trips. A dedicated HGA booking specialist works each winner from claim to wheels-down.
Done-for-you media kits
Every package comes with a full digital marketing kit. Your committee never starts from a blank page.
Volunteer galas die in the production phase. Our media kits kill that bottleneck. Every consignment package, every Passport, every Vacation Station table, and every Golden Ticket raffle ships with everything your committee needs to put it on the screen, on the bid sheet, in the program, and in front of your donors.
You're not designing posters at midnight. You're not writing auctioneer scripts the week of the gala. You're not chasing stock photography for the program. We've already done it.
What's in every media kit
- Marketing-grade hero photography + a gallery of additional images
- Written package description sized for slide, program, and bid sheet
- Verbatim auctioneer's script — your auctioneer's job is done
- Sample silent-auction bid sheets, formatted and ready to print
- Printable item card and table signage
- For Golden Ticket events: poster, signage, and a promotional video for socials
- TripSync push-ready: same assets flow into your auction platform
Auction software, handled
Whatever auction platform your gala uses, we'll get the trips in.
Two ways HGA gets your packages live in your event. On ClickBid (or any ClickBid white-label), TripSync is a literal one-click "Add to my event" — full descriptions, hero images, gallery, terms, and reserves all flow in automatically.
On Greater Giving, OneCause, BidPal, Handbid, HelloFund, or any other platform — HGA has a dedicated, on-staff auction software specialist who knows every major platform and will set up your packages (and most of the time, your entire event) for you. You hand off your platform login, she does the upload, you approve. Soup to nuts.
One workflow, end-to-end.
- 1Pick packagesFrom our catalog or your specialist's tailored list.
- 2Trips into your platformClickBid → one-click TripSync. Anything else → our software specialist sets it up for you.
- 3Event nightBidders bid. You capture winners directly in your platform.
- 4Send winner reportWe pull from your platform export — one handoff per winner.
- 5We deliver the tripsWhite-glove fulfillment for every winner. Your team is done.
The Consignment Advantage
Consignment auction packages: maximize your gala's fundraising. Minimize your foundation's risk.
Premium upside without your finance committee fronting a dime. Reserve at no cost, your guests bid the night of the gala, you only pay our reserve on packages that sell. Every dollar above that is yours.
Zero upfront risk
No purchase, no inventory, no deposit. If a package doesn't sell, you owe nothing for it. Ever.
Premium upside
Curated travel and bucket-list experiences donors actually compete for — bidding pools 2–4x deeper than donated items.
Turnkey + done-for-you
Marketing kit, auctioneer scripts, TripSync push, and white-glove winner fulfillment. Your team is done at the gavel.
Free 1-on-1 coaching with Jason Ledlow
Before you commit to anything, get the strategy call free.
Jason Ledlow leads HGA's nonprofit coaching practice. Book a free 1-on-1 strategy call and Jason will personally walk you through your gala goal, your audience, your venue, your prior numbers, and your committee bandwidth — then map out the exact playbook: live lots, silent auction, Vacation Station, Passports, Golden Ticket, and how to stack them.
No charge. No obligation. No commitment to reserve a single package. Just experience and strategy.
In your free call, you'll get
- A revenue model for your gala broken out by line (live, silent, raffle, paddle)
- A recommended Vacation Station table sized to your room
- A Passport mix matched to your donor profile
- A Golden Ticket structure (raffle/drawing) and pricing
- Live-auction lot sequencing recommendations
- An honest read on what's realistic for your gala this year
Sell the trip. Hand us the winner. You're done.
Send us the winner's name, email, and phone — that's the entire hand-off. Within 24 hours, a dedicated HGA booking specialist reaches out and your team is officially done. No itineraries, no follow-up emails, no "did they ever book?" anxiety. Your nonprofit gets the credit; we do the work.
The only thing the nonprofit owes us is the winner's name, email, and phone. We submit the trip and contact them within 24 hours.
Every winner gets a real human at HGA — same name, same inbox, from first call to wheels-down.
No blackout dates. Winners have 24 months to lock their dates (not to travel — to book).
Our in-house booking and customer-service teams handle every detail. Donors brag about the trip — and about the way the nonprofit treated them.
There is no cap on how many times a package can be put in front of bidders — same night, next event, every year. Reserve once, sell again and again. The nonprofit only ever pays the consignment cost on trips that actually sell.
Built for the nonprofit galas that matter most
The HGA gala playbook works at every scale and every cause.
Hospital and healthcare foundation galas. Independent and parochial school galas. Children's charities, animal welfare, veterans, arts and culture, faith-based foundations, corporate CSR galas. The largest events using HGA cross seven figures on a single night and sell 30–50 trips between live and silent.
Frequently asked
Charity gala fundraising, answered.
Make your next gala the one your donors talk about all year.
Risk-free consignment trips. Vacation Station. Passports. The $100 Golden Ticket raffle. Full media kits. TripSync to your auction platform. White-glove winner fulfillment. And free 1-on-1 coaching from Jason before you commit to anything.
Prefer to talk first? Call (888) 362-6838
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