EP 33: Events With Heart: Inspiring Guests With Charitable Causes with Katherine Lacefield

Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about the variety of ways that you can make your next fundraising event better. And we've got a very special guest today in the studio with us -- Katherine Lacefield. Katherine is known for her think-outside-the-box attitude and strong mobilization skills. Her work in the nonprofit world for the past 20 years, combined with her current position as the coordinator of a philanthropy research network, has earned her a well-rounded vision of the inner workings of the sector. From fundraising campaigns and donor management to development and governance, she excels at building overarching strategies for organizations as the founder of Just Because Consulting. Her passion for animal causes and sustainable development pushes her to constantly seek out solutions and strategies that are respectful towards the environment and animals, while her natural talent for communications makes it easy for her to empower teams to reach their goals. Katherine, thanks for joining us today.

Katherine: Yeah, I also have a special guest with me -- Pugsley.

Jeff: I see that. Yes, who is that?

Katherine: He's just craving attention all morning.

Jeff: And what's his name?

Katherine: His name is Pugsley -- very original for a pug, of course. But his pet name is Poop Dini because he tends to poop in places without us ever knowing how he got there. So he's a little special one.

Jeff: Well, nice to meet both of you. And I brought Elise Neugebauer with me. I'm Jeff Porter, CEO and founder of Handbid. And Elise is super excited also, I think, to be on this podcast episode because you are a big animal lover.

Elise: I am. Dogs are my favorite. I have three of them, so I'm a little crazy at our house. And I've also done a lot of work with rescues and fostering and helping different animal organizations as well.

Jeff: Yeah, we love animal causes. We do. And we've got a family dog as well. They're definitely rewarding -- animals and pets. They're great.

Elise: They are. And I've got plenty of friends who I would say take it to a new level with pets. I mean, across the board, they're everywhere in the house.

Katherine: Oh, that might be us. The worst I've ever had was -- I think at one time when I was working at an animal shelter, I was fostering eight cats. I had a mom and seven kittens and a deaf Dogo Argentino, plus I think we even had a little old poodle at one point, two rabbits, two rats -- and this was in an apartment. It was just absolutely ridiculous. Been there, done that. But when you are an animal lover and that's part of the cause and something that you truly care about, it's got to be rewarding, I would imagine, to work with organizations who also support animal causes.

Jeff: Of course. And I think that's what brings a lot of people into nonprofits -- because they care and are passionate about the cause. So if you're someone who has always cared about animals, that's how you get into animal welfare and animal rights organizations.

Katherine: That's how I started working at an animal shelter. I had been that crazy vegetarian 15-year-old who was annoying my parents from a very young age, involved in the movement. And then when I finally turned 18 and I could start volunteering at the shelter, I jumped on the occasion and then just moved on from there into working in the foster department and adoption. So I kind of built up in that space.

Jeff: Sure. So tell us what you do with Just Because Consulting.

Katherine: I'm a fundraising consultant, more specifically, but I've touched on everything because I've noticed that a lot of people who work in nonprofits are great at their cause. For example, in an animal shelter, they'll be great at knowing how to take care of animals. And yet when you talk about the nonprofit management side of things, they tend to really not know what they're doing in most cases. So when it comes to event planning or managing a capital campaign or a major gifts campaign or even just digital online fundraising, they don't really know what they're doing. That's where I tend to come in -- helping guide them to be more efficient in their fundraising strategies, doing event audits of how they can be more efficient and have a better return on investment for their events. But a lot of my work has been around fundraising strategy overall and how different pieces of the puzzle come together. And that's where I think my forte really lies -- a lot of organizations silo their work. Like, "Oh, well, this is communications. This is animal services and adoption. And then that's the fundraising." I tend to help create more of a culture where everyone is involved in fundraising. It really helps to have that connection between not just your different departments, but even within fundraising -- your events are also great for individual donation acquisition. Those attendees might be great major gifts people later on. How do your corporate sponsors fit in? It's really about making those connections together.

Jeff: That makes sense. And we've talked about that in previous podcasts where you kind of have to look at events as part of that overall -- in the commercial space we call it a sales funnel. You're bringing somebody in, they might be new to your organization, you're building and starting a relationship with them, and you nurture them through. And I think when you have a cause where you can get them immediately connected to it, it makes sense. If it's something where they get to connect with what you do -- maybe by bringing some of these animals to the event -- I think it can definitely be more impactful. We've seen that. My daughter has a rare disorder, and one of the things that's probably the most meaningful part of our event is when we get all those kids up on stage and they can see: these are the individuals that you're supporting. Or these are the rescue dogs, or whatever. You want to tug on those heartstrings for sure.

Katherine: Of course. Yeah.

Jeff: Now, maybe we're not bringing gorillas to an event. Do not recommend.

Katherine: It might be exciting.

Jeff: But if it's something feasible, I would imagine that would be pretty powerful. In your experience, have you seen that? Have you been part of events where there have been animals?

Katherine: Not gorillas, thank God. That has not happened. But definitely at the Montreal SPCA in Quebec, we did a dog gala. And there was a dog fashion show. They took a lot of -- it was not necessarily dogs that were at the shelter because a lot of them were more stressed and there was too much pressure for that to make sense. But a lot of them were animals that had been adopted or were in foster care. So they got the ones that were more social, that wouldn't be too freaked out, and they trained them in an appropriate way to make sure they wouldn't be too stressed at the event itself. You have to keep that in consideration when you're using animals at an event. So there were a lot of dogs that belonged to employees or volunteers who had been there for a long time, that were well behaved enough to participate. It was really fun. They did a little fashion show and it helped raise a lot of funds for the shelter. I think if you can bring the animals, and obviously most of the people coming to this event are very interested in them, it's just an added benefit and a little more fun.

Jeff: It's funny -- we were talking about this earlier among the Handbid team. What events have we been at where they actually have dogs? And we're not talking about the puppy they pass around that's going to be auctioned off in the live auction -- that's cute -- but where the animals are kind of a meaningful part of it. You just brought up the fashion show. We do have a client in D.C., the Humane Rescue Alliance, and they do a couple of different events. One of them was a "Fashion Fur Faux" -- that was actually pretty fun, just the ability to see the fashion show aspect with the dogs. But the best one, I have to say -- and my sister actually used to attend this before we even started working with them -- is what they call the Bark Ball. It's in one of the largest ballrooms in the D.C. area, and there are probably 1,200 or 1,300 people that attend this event with their dogs.

Katherine: That must be fun.

Jeff: Well, I was super curious the first year -- how is this going to work? And I'm sure over the years they've made tweaks here and there and perfected it. But there were like 15 or 16 lines of check-in, and these dogs come in wearing all sorts of things. Some have bow ties on, some match their owners.

Katherine: They kind of do, yes. So there might be some cowboy dogs and there might be some tuxedo dogs.

Jeff: Anyway, they come in, and for the most part it's pretty good. It's kind of an interesting check-in experience because there's a lot of barking, and you're trying to talk to people. They have an amazing set of volunteers, as you can imagine. Because you've got to be able to deal with the fact that there are dogs everywhere. I remember at one point I look over and this dog comes running up and kind of jumps up and puts his paws on the table like he's going to check in. They're pulling him down. And then there are dogs that poop or pee in the line, and you've got to clear the line out. Here come the volunteers with their spray and paper towels. And then there was an entire room of green AstroTurf.

Katherine: That sounds like an accident waiting to happen on so many levels.

Jeff: It was hilarious. Then you go down to the ballroom area and I'm thinking, how is this going to work with all this food? Well, all of the food is vegan -- because who knows? Maybe in the past they served something that wasn't, but these dogs are just not interested in vegan food.

Katherine: Unless your name is Pugsley, and then you eat anything in sight.

Jeff: So these dogs sit at their owner's feet. I mean, this is a seated gala dinner, and it seems to really work. Volunteers will come around and walk your dog. So if your dog wants a walk, they have a leash, they pick up your dog, and they walk the dog around the mezzanine area around the ballroom. They can kind of circle with the dogs and walk them. I was super impressed. We've done this event a number of years, and it still continues to impress me how well it works.

Katherine: That's surprising. Having that many dogs and people in one space must be insane to manage. Just thinking about the types of animals -- even Pugsley, who's a tiny little pug, but if he sees certain dogs he'll just go bananas barking. So I'm guessing the people that bring the animals must know how their dog is going to react in those circumstances.

Jeff: I think so. And I would also imagine that your dog may get booted if he's misbehaving.

Katherine: I hope so, for the safety of everyone. And that's something to think about with the different issues that can come up when using animals. We talked about the gorilla as a joke, but even dogs and cats -- I've gotten pretty brutally scratched by cats through my time at the shelter. They can be unpredictable when they're scared, and it's not their fault. But it can definitely become a safety hazard in some cases. You just have to be really careful about setting clear rules and making sure you have procedures in place so that everyone, including the dogs themselves, stays safe. That can be a bit of a challenge, I'm sure.

Jeff: Yeah. I'd 100% agree. Although I've been to this event probably four or five times, and every year it seems to run fairly smoothly. You just don't run into a ton of those issues. I get it -- bringing in an animal can definitely be super impactful, but it can also be a bit of a management issue, to your point. They are animals, and they're going to behave like animals at a certain level. So you just have to be prepared for that.

Katherine: And here we're talking about dogs, which is more simple -- pretty domesticated, pretty easy. When we start thinking about a nonprofit raising funds for wildlife, there's also the ethical implications of what it would actually represent to have a wild animal at your event. Maybe not a gorilla, but even smaller, more tame animals that aren't dangerous per se -- it can create an ethical question of, "Where did this animal come from and why is it here?" There's a lot of judgment in the animal world, and that's something a lot of people organizing an event need to take into consideration. You mentioned the veganism issue. When I was working at the animal shelter, some people would have ideas of doing a fundraising barbecue where they were selling animal meat. And that's become much harder to pull off if you want to respect all of your -- well, first of all, the animals that you're raising funds for. But there's also much more intense pressure even on animal welfare organizations to start considering the animal rights aspect. You're on one hand benefiting from animal exploitation to then donate that money towards domestic animal welfare. There's much more of that awareness now that wasn't there when I started working in the animal shelter world about 15 years ago. Organizations are finding they need to be more sensitive to those issues because there is more and more of a transition. If you care about animals, even if they're just domestic animals, you still have to be ethically conscious of the impact of your decisions on other animals being affected by it. That's something more and more animal organizations need to take into consideration when they're organizing these types of events.

Jeff: I think that makes sense. Because you've got to show some consistency in your actions and your words. If your organization is geared towards protection of animals or their environments but you're doing things at your event that could be perceived as counter to that, it's going to create some donor confusion. Like, "This doesn't make sense."

Katherine: And it can definitely turn off some donors. The media tends to talk about charities in two situations: when there's a scandal, or around Christmas time when they're encouraging everyone to be generous. You don't want to be in that first category of really being shamed. And I think there's also the opposite issue -- there's a lot of shaming around being perfect as a nonprofit, and I don't think perfection exists. Everything has an impact on the planet and on animals. So it can become a very fine line of where you draw the line of what's actually ethical. However, there are some obvious ones that you can take into consideration. I do think that as a sector, we need to be aware of the image we're portraying of the cause. If you're doing a huge gala that's all about consumerism -- whether it's for animals or in the environmental space -- and there's a lot of single-use plastic and things that are going to be wasted, you have to understand that that's going to cause a disconnect between your cause and the event itself. There are a lot of those things that need to be taken into consideration when organizing these types of events.

Jeff: I think that's an important thing to point out -- there's got to be alignment there. And I think you've also got to better understand the people coming to your event. What are their values? What's important to them? Am I aligned with that in terms of how I'm putting on this event? Because it makes perfect sense. If you're putting out plastic and paper for your event and you're into environmental causes, it doesn't make sense. And look, we've been to events where it can be as stark as an organization focused on alcoholism that's serving alcohol. How does that make any sense? Or one fighting diabetes and they're just serving pure sugar.

Katherine: Just a buffet. Did you not think of that?

Jeff: It's interesting -- it's across almost all organizations when you start to dial it down.

Elise: To your point, Katherine, it's aligning values -- your values and what you're producing at the event with the values of the donors who are attending, just making sure there's some congruency there. Because if there's not, they might just be shaking their heads.

Katherine: And then the best source of donors and of clients -- in business and in nonprofits -- is referrals. So you want people to be saying not only did this event blow their mind, but the organization was also so aligned, which makes them respect you that much more. They're like, "They really went that extra mile to make sure that every dollar being spent on the event..." Even if everyone understands that there are costs associated with an event, if you're at least, let's say in an environmental case, encouraging eco-friendly products, even the costs of the event are still supporting the green economy. There's also that alignment with where those dollars are going. I think that's very, very important.

Elise: I agree.

Katherine: Also, speaking of alignment, I think it goes one step further. Events, especially fundraising events, shouldn't only be seen as money-making opportunities. Yes, it's a way to acquire new donors. It's a way of mobilizing your team, mobilizing your volunteers, making the event happen in many different ways. But a lot of organizations tend to forget that it's also an awareness-building opportunity. You can consider that almost as a program activity. It doesn't have to just be, "No, this is all ticked off to fundraising." I'll give a little example. It was for an animal rights organization. We didn't actually have any animals on site. There were some that came because it was a public event, but that wasn't the point. We did a free vegan barbecue in downtown Montreal. At first it started as this little thing. We created an invented World Tofu Day.

Jeff: Okay.

Katherine: We invented it. We decided we need a World Tofu Day, flipped a coin to figure out the date. At first, we just wanted to put it on our yearly calendar that we sent to our donors. We were like, "There's nothing in July. We need to invent a day." And so it started off really small. Then as we started building it, people were just latching onto the opportunity. Like, "Yes, we would love to give you 8,000 vegan burgers for this event for free." And we were like, "What are we going to do with 8,000 burgers?" It just ended up growing and growing into this huge event -- the biggest vegan barbecue that had ever happened publicly, according to our research. We're not Guinness official yet, but it was still enormous. Yes, it was a fundraising event. We were there to collect donations. But the main objective, in my opinion, was also to spread awareness about veganism and to invite people -- "Hey, just come try it for free, make a donation." We had a tofu wheel, like a wheel of fortune where you could spin it, and if you landed on our little tofu superhero, you won a bag full of tofu -- literally just five bricks of tofu. It was funny and it was fun, and instead of shoving it down people's throats -- literally, we did not do that with the tofu, don't worry -- we were making it a fun event. There are a lot of issues around veganism and the movement, and I agree that any extremism tends to be a big turnoff for a lot of people. What I found really interesting about this event is that we were able to do it in a fun, inviting way. Kind of the same example as, "Well, the meal is vegan, but it's really good." Instead of forcing that emphasis, by making it just more available, it can help the organization spread awareness and gives them more alignment. They can feel comfortable that all of the dollars were spent on ethically aligned issues, and it also becomes an opportunity to teach people. "Yes, you care about dogs, but did you know that pigs are just as intelligent as dogs?" It can open a lot of discussions with your donors that might make them respect you and your cause even more.

Jeff: I like that. And what you said is important -- if you've got a cause you're really trying to communicate, you still need to make everybody coming to the event feel somewhat comfortable. Making it fun, where it's not extremely dogmatic around "These are the things that are important" -- but rather, "Hey, we're going to show and expose you to a lot of that at our event because these are the things that are important to us. We want them to eventually be important to you, but the way we're going to do that is through a fun fundraising event." There'll be some serious parts to it, but I do like that idea. And I think that's important for our listeners to understand.

Elise: I have a question around that. I keep thinking about the uniqueness of the tofu wheel -- that's something I certainly haven't heard of before. I've heard of other kinds of wheels you spin. But do you have thoughts on making your event unique? Because I think that's another way to draw more donors. If word of mouth spreads -- "Hey, you can go win all the tofu" or "You can go see these dogs in the fashion show" -- do you have thoughts on making your event really stand out?

Katherine: I think personalizing things is really becoming a big trend in events. The whole traditional golf tournament type thing -- it's great, you can still do it, but the key is personalizing it to your specific cause. I can just imagine a golf tournament with your dog where the dog has to try to chase after your golf ball, or something silly, but turning it into an event that makes sense and not just an event for the sake of doing an event. With the tofu wheel, for example, we just wanted to create as many opportunities to raise funds. So it was like a $5 participation. There were different opportunities that were funny but also related to the cause, and that made it much more inviting. If it was just a wheel of fortune where you won random stuff, people would probably still participate, but there wouldn't be that sense of "this is a happening, this is a thing." There's going to be #WorldTofuDay. You have to make it into something that could be trending. Because once it's trending and feels connected, it can become a thing that people want to come back to. Kind of like the Bark Ball. The more things you can add on every year, it's like, "Oh, how far are they going to push it this time?" So maybe one day it could have been tofu fashion -- please don't do that -- but for example, tofu sculpting. Silly things. My biggest advice would be for organizations to sit down and just throw as many ideas at the wall as possible. Just go crazy. Talk to kids. I found my stepson has the craziest, silliest ideas -- he wants to take over Pug World, it seems, and I wonder why. But kids tend to have really unique creative ideas that can get your wheels spinning. I think that's something interesting to consider. Take a traditional fundraising tactic and just do a little spin on it. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, just put a little spin on it.

Katherine: Not necessarily about animals, but another example: I work a lot with organizations that fund the elderly and long-term care homes. One wanted to do a golf tournament where participants would be paired with someone with dementia or someone in a long-term care home that would follow them around. It would be a very interesting experience -- learning about the other person, learning how the organization deals with those issues. It wasn't reinventing the golf tournament itself, but just adding that personalized twist that made it special. People would say, "Oh, I know this, but this is a new version of it." So I think the fashion show for pets -- people know what a fashion show is. It can't be something too crazy where people don't even know what your event is. But by adding that personalized twist, it can really make the difference between a success and not.

Jeff: I love that. Yeah, I agree. You want to make people feel comfortable. You want to get your message across and connect them with what you do, but also have them feel comfortable at the same time. My daughter has a rare disorder where they're obsessed with food, and there have been conversations -- and I know there have been fundraisers, not from our organization but from others, that have really tried to connect people by saying, "Let me show you what a meal for a Prader-Willi kid looks like." Then they put down a plate and there's two pieces of broccoli and a teeny little piece of chicken. That's all they get. And then you bring out the real meal afterwards. But you're trying to get people connected -- "I want you to see what this world is like." Or maybe clean water is your cause, and so you put tainted or food-colored water down at the table, and people are looking at it going, "Did you just get this out of the river?" And the whole point is, "No, it's actually just been colored, but I want you to feel what our people deal with until we come in and help." Anything you can do to really bring it closer to home for people.

Katherine: Immersing people. You're immersing them into the cause to make them feel more of a connection. And let's not beat around the bush -- giving in philanthropy is an emotional action. We don't give from rationality. If everyone gave from rationality, we would make calculations about what's the most impact per dollar all the time. And there are some people who do that, like effective altruism. However, in general, most people give to what they care about, what makes them feel good. That's completely natural. When people get to live that experience, it can have much more of an impact than just fun. If you have that lasting feeling -- the water example just sparked an idea. They could have those filtration bags that can filter any type of water, and they'd have actually dirty water -- obviously nothing dangerous -- and then people would watch their water be filtered, and you say, "Most people don't have the opportunity of getting that filtered water, and this is what we're offering people today." And it's like, "Oh my God, that's crazy."

Katherine: When you have those situations -- we actually did a lot of awareness stunts in the animal rights world. We did one where a woman who was actually pregnant did this whole stunt about what it's like in a puppy mill, where the pregnant woman was put in a cage. It was much more of an awareness campaign -- not necessarily a fundraising event -- but it really caught people's attention. We were on the news because people put themselves in that position. A pregnant woman is so vulnerable -- you want to take care of them. And these dogs in puppy mills are in the worst situations possible, still being abused. Making that connection between the human and the animal experience was powerful. Those pictures blew up on social media and the news. And it wasn't cruel -- there was no actual cruelty happening. It was still a skit. The person playing the villain was dressed up kind of like a clown, so it was still entertaining -- not traumatizing, but it still got the message across.

Jeff: Clowns are kind of traumatizing.

Katherine: Yeah, a scary clown, but not too scary. But making that connection with the emotional side is what really moves people. It could be a shocking revelation, or -- a lot of the animal rights organizations tend to be a bit more shocking. I don't necessarily agree with some of them that become very violent. I don't think that's beneficial, especially not in a fundraising event context. But there are ways you can integrate it. Having the pets come to see you and being able to have that interaction is really important. There's actually this one case where kids would actually go and practice reading to dogs. They would go into the shelter -- with child-safe protocols, obviously -- and spend time with a dog and practice reading at the same time. I think there are ways you can integrate many different ideas that really immerse people in the cause in a safe way.

Jeff: No, I agree 100%. What other types of tips do you have? We've talked about a ton of them, but do you have any other advice for people running fundraising events?

Katherine: I think for events, a lot of people tend to focus very much on just the fundraising aspect, as I was saying before. If they realize that their event is also an awareness-building opportunity, they can open up the doors to potential sponsors that aren't just corporate sponsors who want visibility, but also foundations who might want to support and fund an activity that raises awareness and also has a fundraising component. You can open the doors to different funding opportunities if you think outside the box. Yes, there are going to be money-generating opportunities. But if you have, let's say, a panel discussion or an activity that's spreading awareness about a certain issue, that can be a way of getting other donors involved as sponsors of the events. Most foundations won't want to give money just to pay for a fundraising event, unfortunately, even if they could quadruple or ten-times their investment. But that's a conversation for another day. If you have some form of educational component, you can probably convince more foundations to get involved in funding the event itself.

Jeff: I like that idea. That makes a lot of sense -- really getting people maybe just deeper connected into one of the aspects of your charity. I love the panel idea. I think it could grow your donor base because if you have that partnership, then you're going to spread the word and maybe have more people who are interested. It's a new way to engage.

Elise: Because you engage with the heartstrings. You can engage somewhat intellectually, and one of those aspects could be educationally.

Jeff: Right. Now you're just taking it to a level where you're offering some sort of education or input. I'm going to figure out how we do that in my event. Because I think what you're describing makes sense. Think about clean water -- my event isn't about that, but think about something like that. Start to educate people on not just the size of the problem, but really give them a deeper understanding of how to properly solve the problem. What's the process? What does that look like? A day in the life of someone working in an animal shelter or working for a clean water organization -- what does that look like on a daily basis? What are the challenges we face?

Katherine: When you share stories -- individual stories really help. It's like telling a bedtime story. When you're telling your child a bedtime story, what resonates the most is the story itself. Even if we know we have a lesson we want to teach them in the back of our minds, what keeps them is the narrative. I find a lot of times in events, if you're able to weave a story throughout your event that expresses a certain lesson, at the end they're like, "Oh, now I get it." And they'll always remember the story of that dog or the story of that kid or the story of how that product came to be. Stories tend to really help us learn lessons much more easily. I think that needs to be woven into events to really have a profound impact. No one wants to be lectured. We're not there to go to school. People know deep down. But if you share the story -- there are so many stories of mutual rescue where the person adopted the dog, but at the end of the day, the dog actually ended up saving the person because the person was depressed. It just flips a switch -- "Oh, I never thought of it that way." And it resonates in so many different ways.

Elise: I agree. From a very personal standpoint, talking about dogs -- all three of ours are rescues, but two of them come from really, really sad situations. When I share the story that my lab has 42 gun pellets in him from being shot at as a puppy, that makes people really feel. Those heartstrings, for sure, but just sharing something that's really going to touch people is so important.

Katherine: But also, even with that story of your dog, I would take it the next step further: and yet this dog still trusts humans. I think flipping it around to that compassion and empathy -- you need people to understand the strength that's required in a lot of these situations. That motivates people to give. Courage, strength. Because we all want to be that hero, that person that goes beyond. When you hear stories like that, you're like, "I need to give. I need to support this." How can I help the dog? I want this dog to make it because he did a great job. Those stories are definitely what motivates people to participate. Even if they know deep down it's not going towards that specific dog per se, you're giving into that story, that narrative of more animals in those situations.

Jeff: Right. No, this is great. So just to kind of wrap up and summarize what we've talked about -- we started out talking about aligning the values around your cause with what you're actually doing at your event. Then moving into: as you do those things, make sure your donors feel comfortable. And in doing so, do it in a way that can also be fun. When you do have a serious message you want to get out there, or you want to create some form of an impact, doing it in a slightly fun way will help make it more comfortable for those that might be new to that messaging.

Katherine: Well, nobody wants to go to a downer event. It's okay to tear up a little, but we're there to have a social evening.

Jeff: And look, some of that isn't always possible. If you have a really serious thing you've got to deal with, it's not always easy to make that fun. But if you're trying to introduce people to the charity's philosophy or cause -- like your tofu idea. It's fun. It's definitely unique too.

Katherine: Right, for sure. Even with very difficult causes, it's about ending on an inspiring note. Even if there's a tough part where you need to be real -- we can't sugarcoat the reality of what we're dealing with. Child slavery is not -- I can't imagine a fun twist to that.

Jeff: That's right. Human trafficking is probably off the list.

Katherine: But you can have an inspiring end showing the success stories of what has been achieved and imagining a world where that doesn't exist. So even if you have a tough subject, there is a way of making it inspiring instead of disheartening. I've seen people at the SPCA so many times just say, "I hate humans." It's like they've given up. "Humans suck. I'm done." And I'm like, but humans are our volunteers. Humans are our employees. Humans are the ones donating to our cause. And then it gives back hope. By focusing on the positive stories, it doesn't mean we're neglecting what's really happening. Yes, this is a problem we need to face. But at an event, you can end with, "How are we going to inspire people to continue taking action? Because look at what we've been able to achieve." You can turn anything into an inspiring story, even if it's not entertaining in that sense.

Jeff: It's like -- as much as I loved the tofu wheel, I really liked your hint: take something that people know and apply it to your organization. Give it that special twist. Just make your event stand out.

Katherine: For sure. And you don't have to go crazy.

Jeff: No, you don't. You definitely don't have to do everything. Just try a couple of things and see how they work. And you can switch it up next year. Instead of doing just a typical auction, you auction off only animal art -- art that represents animals -- or you can have local artists do live art events.

Katherine: I did a silent auction once where all of the painters were actually painting the piece live and you got to bid on it as it was evolving. Those are amazing. It was so great, and I can just imagine the same thing but where all the pieces have to somehow involve animals in their own style. You'd have all these different art pieces representing animals, so it's still thematic.

Jeff: Well, at the Bark Ball, they will paint a portrait of your dog. Of course they will. There was a massive line for that -- they had about five or six artists. And you lined up with your dog and then...

Elise: I would wait in line for that.

Jeff: Well, people spend money on their pets. There's no doubt in my mind how much money. It's insane. And I get it -- all of us have pets. And it might as well go to a good cause.

Katherine: That's right. Exactly. If you're going to do it -- because people will do it on their own -- might as well have that money be donated to the cause. It encourages people in that direction.

Jeff: 100%. Well, Katherine, this has been amazing.

Elise: Yes, and we liked meeting your dog as well.

Katherine: Yeah, he left because he was like, "I'm done with you. You're not paying attention to me." He's out.

Jeff: But it was really great. Well, yes. And you enjoy Mexico. Like I said, we're super jealous.

Katherine: Yes.

Jeff: We'll be really jealous in December when you're in Mexico and we're in Colorado. But anyway, it's been a pleasure. So thank you all for listening to this episode of the Elevate Your Event podcast. We'll be back with more tips and tricks on how to make your next fundraising event even better. Until then, happy fundraising. See you later.