19:30The dinner
The conference dinner that raises the money
The same host who ran your day runs your auction. Twenty years on the mic, more than £10 million raised for charity, a million euros in one evening, and no outside company taking a cut of what your guests give.
£10m+ raised·€1m in one evening·0% taken from the total
£10m+ raised on the mic20:45The live auction
Raise your paddle. See what a room does.
This is how a live lot feels from the floor. Bid, watch the other tables come back at you, and hold your nerve through the going-once. Every lot here is donated, which is the point: when nothing is bought in, every pound the hammer falls on goes to the cause.
On the night the paddles are real, the tables are competitive, and I have twenty years of knowing exactly when to let the silence do the work.
Where the money goes →A private dinner for eight, cooked by a Michelin-starred chef in your own kitchen
Donated by the chef
Tap the paddle to open the bidding.
21:15Where the money goes
The same generous guest. Three very different totals.
Most charity dinners leave money on the table without knowing it. A bought-in consignment lot looks generous on the screen, but the company that supplied it takes most of the price. A donated lot gives the charity everything. A pledge with Gift Aid gives it more than the guest handed over.
That is why I never bring consignment lots, never take a percentage, and always build the pledge into the running order.
OrderRunning order
How the evening runs
One host from the first keynote to the last lot. This is the shape most evenings take; the planning call decides the detail.
Warm the room
Dinner, a drink, and a whole-room game like heads or tails before anyone is asked for anything. People give more when they are enjoying themselves.
The live auction
Six to eight lots, sequenced for momentum, every one donated. I read the room, hold the silence and know when to sell.
The pledge
A three-tier ask to every guest at once, with Gift Aid on top. Usually the highest-earning ten minutes of the night.
Silent auction on phones
Runs through the whole evening on Generosity Works. Guests bid from their seats, get outbid alerts, and pay by Apple Pay or Google Pay.
The total on the screen
A live totaliser the room can see climb, a proper close, and the money already in the charity’s account before the taxis arrive.
WhyOne host, all day
The handover is where evenings lose money
The usual set-up is an MC for the dinner and a separate auctioneer who appears with a gavel at ten o’clock. The room has to warm to a stranger, the auctioneer has no idea what the day was about, and the pledge, if there is one, gets bolted on at the end when people are leaving.
When the host is the auctioneer, none of that happens. I have been with your guests since the morning keynote. I know which table is loud, which sponsor wants thanking and where the energy is. The auction becomes the high point of a day the room has already enjoyed, not an interruption to it.
- One person, one briefing, one running order
- The auction placed where the energy is, not where the slot was
- Lots sourced and sequenced with you in the planning call
- The pledge built in, not bolted on
ToolsGenerosity Works
Generosity Works. The software, built in-house.
Silent auction, live pledges, Gift Aid, ticketing and check-in, all on a platform I built because the hired ones kept taking a cut and falling over when the venue wi-fi did.
Guests bid from their phones with nothing to download. It runs on an on-site server, so it works when the wi-fi does not. Payments go straight to the charity’s own account through Stripe, not through mine. And the platform is free when I host the evening.
- No app to download, no commission
- Works without venue wi-fi
- Apple Pay and Google Pay at the table
- Gift Aid captured on every pledge
- Live totaliser on the gala screen
- Full report the next morning
22:30The totals
What the rooms raised
He owned the room as he conducted the live auction, more than doubling our target. We were briefed for £14,000 and the night raised £57,600, without a single bought-in lot.
Without your input and amazing hosting we definitely wouldn’t have achieved the total. We absolutely smashed our £40k target.
Due to his brilliant auction and donations we raised over 1 million euro, so a big congrats on this fantastic job.
We raised more than double what we achieved last year. The live pledge alone brought in nearly £20,000.
We were able to 10x our original fundraising target, and our guests enjoyed the entertainment.
ClipsOn camera
A lot, a pledge and a room
CausesSome of the rooms
Charities I have raised for
Charity galas without a conference: my charity auctioneer site →
FAQBefore you book
Charity auction questions
Not answered here? Call me on 07596 851647 or send the agenda and I will come back within one working day.
Can the conference host also run the charity auction?
Yes, and it is the best way to do it. The room already knows me by the evening, the running order is in one pair of hands, and there is no awkward handover to a stranger with a gavel. I have raised more than £10 million on the mic across twenty years, including a million euros in one evening in Monte Carlo.
How much can a conference dinner realistically raise?
It depends on the room, the cause and the lots, which is why the planning call comes first. For scale: the Jigsaw Trust briefed me for £14,000 and the night raised £57,600. A Teenage Cancer Trust gala with a £40,000 target raised £84,108. Most rooms beat their target when the evening is designed rather than left to chance.
Do you take a percentage of what we raise?
No. I charge a fixed fee for the evening and nothing from the total. There is no outside auction company and no consignment partner, so every pound your guests give goes to the cause. Where a charity has previously used a commission-based company, the difference is often the biggest number of the night.
What is a live pledge, and why do you push it?
A short, structured ask to the whole room at once, in tiers, so a guest who was never going to bid £5,000 on a holiday can still give £100 with two hundred other people. It is usually the highest-earning ten minutes of the evening, and with Gift Aid the charity keeps more than the guest gave.
Do we need any software or an app?
Not from anyone else. Silent auction, pledges, Gift Aid and card payments run on Generosity Works, the platform I built for exactly this. Guests bid from their phones with nothing to download, it works without venue wi-fi, and the money goes straight to the charity’s own account. It is included when I host.
What if our guests are corporate, not charity people?
That is most of my rooms. A conference dinner full of people who did not come to be asked for money is exactly where a professional makes the difference: the right lots, a pledge pitched at the right level, and a host who keeps it a celebration rather than a collection. Nobody feels got at, and the total goes up.
17:00Close
Send me your agenda. I’ll show you where the room comes alive.
A fixed price, a free planning call, and a reply within one working day.