Episode 65: Derby Days Countdown: Final Week Prep for the PWSA Colorado Fundraiser

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. In this episode of Elevate Your Event, we are joined for the third in our series on the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado Derby Days, which is our in-house fundraiser at Handbid, with our CEO and founder Jeff Porter and Kari Porter as well as Elise Druckenmiller. Enjoy.

Lori: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast. We are joined today with our superstar crew that you're familiar with. So myself, Lori, and this is Jeff Porter. Hello. How are you? CEO and founder extraordinaire. And Elise Druckenmiller, director of sales, and Ms. Kari. Kari Porter. What's your role, Kari? What do you do, Kari? We'd like to know.

Kari: What do I do? I don't know what I do, honestly. Whatever anyone else doesn't do. I mainly do operations and finance stuff.

Lori: Yeah, she's a big deal. She's our EOS integrator. She is. I just got to throw that out there. She's a big deal. She runs the company. Pretty much and the derby.

Jeff: But we're not here to talk about the company.

Lori: Well, we thought we would draw all of you guys together again in a very perfect timing of this podcast, which is only days before the Derby. So the last time you saw this crew was a couple of months ago, and you guys were discussing budget, I think, right? Budget was the first one. Tickets. Tickets and sponsorships and how to promote and all that kind of stuff. So now three to four days before the derby, we're a little bit stressed out, feel a little tension. So we're relating to all of you guys out there that run events and just kind of that week before. So they are superstars for joining us today and taking time out of their day. So give all your viewers and your listeners an update of your Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado, Kentucky Derby fundraiser with a country music concert. Derby Days. We call it Derby Days.

Jeff: So you guys have seen the show, right, where they send the family away for the weekend, and then in two days they completely renovate the entire house. And they're on their way back from the airport and they're scrambling around to put the cushions on the sofa and dust the floor. We're kind of at that point.

Lori: Extreme makeover.

Jeff: Yes. And it's like, there's just, even though you feel like you're on track, just the last few weeks creep up on you. And it's just like this list grows -- oh yeah, I got to do that. Oh yeah, I got to do that. Oh, I got to drive to Greeley.

Lori: So one of the things you guys did different this year, first year you hired an event planner. It is the first year. Tell me how that's going.

Kari: Great. Yep. It's going to be even better at the event. Because we will not be running around with cell phones and text messaging each other, basically operating our own fundraiser. We're going to actually try to enjoy it.

Jeff: Right. I mean, I think our main reasoning for doing that is we need people running the day-of event that know what's going on. And the problem is when you just hire someone or get great volunteers or pay someone to show up, they don't understand, they don't know all the vendors, they don't know how the event works, they haven't been involved in all the planning. And so they don't know what to do, they can't answer the questions, and ultimately it falls back on you. So we're hoping this year that does not happen, and so far I'm feeling very confident it will.

Kari: Yeah, I think the coordination of the vendors, people showing up and when they're coming in and coordinating the volunteers and who's doing what jobs. A lot of that, it was like, we need to figure this out, but we were able to just push it off and say, here's what you have and here are the jobs that need to be done. Build it.

Jeff: Yep. Awesome. It does not mean we don't have a lot of work to do because we do. But here's the other thing that also benefits us is this is like our 17th year running this thing. So a lot of it we kind of just know. Now, this is new for the event planner. So it's kind of funny. I mean, they've been kind of on us. And this is a compliment to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it. Like, we need to understand exactly what's going on. I said, yeah, it's just going to happen because it does every year. I've got this, right? And so it could be anything from, did you order the right generator? Yes, we did. We ordered the right generator. Why? Because I know the company that ordered it and they're good. All the way down to, well, how exactly is that betting software going to work? It's just going to work.

Kari: So we hope.

Jeff: So we hope. But the point is, we just kind of know what those pieces are. And so we've had great meetings. Since we've sold tickets -- and again, we actually have a surprise that we sold a lot more tickets than we thought we were going to sell early. And we ran an early bird special, and I think that pretty much worked, except for me not understanding how time zones work, I guess. So they closed an hour early. Sorry, people out there. We extended it a day. We gave some grace days in there. So we did the early bird thing. We got a lot of good signups. And then we've seen a good steady bit, but we know we have a list of people we know are coming -- they have not bought tickets yet.

Lori: Does that infuriate you?

Jeff: It probably does. If you're listening to this, you probably know who those people are at your own event. And it's like, all right, should I tell the caterer, like, I just know they're coming. Yeah, add them to the catering count. You kind of have to deal with that. But last time we talked, I do remember we were chatting about pricing of tickets and how you guys changed your pricing structure.

Lori: Do you feel like that's been awesome this year, like that you guys are getting a different response? Any pushback on that?

Kari: No, I think our fire pit tables are selling very well. We did raise the price on those. We raised our price on all of our tickets, but we're giving everybody some Prader-Willi money.

Lori: Nice.

Kari: I'm not sure how people are going to see that. And we did talk with Rocker, who's doing our alcohol, doing the drinks. We talked with him, and he did come up with the idea that in the future we could maybe just offer two drinks or something and then pay, and then maybe lower the price a little. And so we went back. But this year, where it's full in, everything's included, and we're giving you money to bet in the race or play a game. It's pretty much enough to play one game, bet in the race, buy a t-shirt, do one thing there.

Jeff: So participate. Yeah. Because it's very similar to a casino night because betting on a horse race is gambling. It's all with fake money. And the outcome -- therefore it's legal. Well, the bigger issue is the outcome of the race is just fake money. That's all you win. So I guess you can run around showing everybody your fake money. But we do give people that at the door with their encouragement that they start to engage and participate because that's what you want.

Lori: Right.

Jeff: But things have come together nicely. We made some very distinct -- I won't call them improvements, but really just some areas of focus for this year compared to last year. And last year, the last time we did this event, we just had a lot of mechanical issues going on. Concert with no sound was the biggest one.

Kari: Well, I think the one thing -- I'm interested to see how it turns out -- we've really increased our signage. So we did get feedback. We do listen to your feedback, but we did get feedback that people just didn't know. It's like we know the event so well, we know where everything is, we've been there so long. But we've gotten feedback people just didn't know or don't understand how the event is or what's going on, so we've really upped our signage this year.

Jeff: Yeah, and we've got more stuff to do. We're welcoming people at the door, and we've always sent out the parking emails and how do you get started and that kind of stuff. And we will do that again. But as you know, lots of people do not read their email.

Lori: I am one.

Jeff: Yeah. So we will have spots for, where do the VIPs park? Where is the entrance? Where is check-in? Which direction is the auction, right? Where are the cornhole games? Where's the betting tables? We've got signs going everywhere. And we'll go into the event details inside of our app because now people will be on the app. We'll go in there and update the app to have basically a run of show -- what's in store for while you're here, so that people can see that and say, all right, I know exactly what I need to be doing or where to go or tips. We used to have that stuff in a written format. I mean, people, I don't know. We still have a number of people that like having a piece of paper, but we've really started to minimize that. We've got a lot more QR codes, a lot more scan-here type of stuff. You'll be pleased to know we're not handing out paddle numbers, Lori.

Lori: Yay.

Jeff: We are instead making coaster drink coasters that have the donate QR code. The hope is we'll put those all around and people can take them home. Who doesn't like to steal a coaster from a restaurant? And there is some software out there that also allows you to send out those pre-event text messages to those people that bought tickets and bidders and stuff like that. Just some software out there that does that.

Lori: Some software like Handbid.

Jeff: Well, speaking of the fact that we have software that we know of that might do a silent auction, we've yet to upload any items.

Lori: That's so funny that you say that because today when you guys were talking about the derby, I was like, ooh, I need to start looking at my items. And I want to start marking my items as favorites. And I got on there and I was like, oh, where's the items? They have not uploaded their items yet. And I meant to give you guys a hard time and I just forgot. So you should, because that committee needs to maybe step it up a little bit.

Elise: Yeah. When are you guys going to have your items put in?

Kari: Yeah. Auction committee. We're picking up some of them tonight. Some of them are in my car. We're still getting donations. It's funny. We have some really dedicated volunteers, and I was talking to them about these name badges, and she's like, I know I owe you the names. I need to go on the name badges. And we're not doing name tags, by the way. These are for ambassadors, greeters. Not name tags.

Lori: Okay.

Kari: So anyway, I was like, I need these because I've got to get them printed. And she's like, I'm out getting more donations. More auction items. I'm like, great, more auction items. That's awesome. But no, we hope, hopefully we will be uploading everything tonight. And I would suspect it will go live Thursday morning. Hopefully Wednesday.

Lori: I'll be looking for it. I'm hoping Wednesday. I expect a phone call to Kari, Lori, if you go on Thursday morning and the auction's not open. I need to mark all my things as favorites.

Kari: That's right. Register now.

Lori: I'm already registered. I'm already registered.

Jeff: Yeah. That's really cool.

Lori: So what are some of the loose ends that you guys are trying to tie up this week? Besides, we already talked about silent auction.

Kari: Picking up items that have been donated. For one of them's in Greeley.

Lori: Oh, two hours north of here. Oh, man, I wish I would have known about that this weekend. I was in Windsor. It was up there.

Kari: Well, it wasn't ready. It wasn't ready. But it's going to be really cool. It's going to be amazing.

Lori: Oh, nice.

Kari: So, yes, so we have to pick up those. We did go to Leopold Brothers on Saturday. That's up in Commerce City. And they're only open for six hours on a Saturday. So this is a lot of timing, but we have some really cooperative volunteers and board members and friends that are willing to drive around the city and pick all this stuff up. It's been great.

Jeff: I think the other last-minute things are always just those little detail things like you're laying in bed and you remember, oh yeah, I need to print this. I need to bring a poster board for this. I need to get a table cloth for here. We need to print the QR codes for the auction, the display sheets for the auction items.

Lori: Pull it all together.

Jeff: Yeah. It seems like you don't have a lot to do, but then...

Lori: You've got the ribbon around the package. You just need to pull it up and then tie it.

Jeff: We'll spend all day Friday at the venue setting up. And through that process, come up with a number of other things that need to be done. Everything like, oh, did we get those propane tanks refilled? We probably need to get that done. Or, we totally missed out on the table signage that needs to be put out. So that does-need-to-be-done stuff.

Kari: We all think that Friday night -- see, Kari's birthday is on Friday. It is always around the derby, which is obviously probably her favorite gift is having to run a fundraiser on her birthday. But we're always like, oh, yeah, we're going to hang out Friday. It's going to be great. We're going to celebrate Kari's birthday. We're all going to be on laptops with the printer connected between us. Saying, oh boy, what are we going to do now?

Jeff: Because everything's got to get printed. And I've been chatting with the printer today. And normally he's like, done, done, done, done, done. And now he's like, I'll get back to you. I'm like, oh, I did not want to hear that. You'll get back to me?

Kari: Although he was printing signs for us on Sunday. He was.

Jeff: So anyway, you've got to have a good army of help. Right. So our friends at Brand Viva are working on our video. We have the most amazing printer. He's just amazing. There's no other way to describe it. He's just extremely responsive. And so we can get all of those signs printed. We have a great venue with great staff there that's super helpful. We've got great volunteers. It's been great because you're scrambling. We have two designers. They're actually coming to the event. They actually live in Florida, but they're coming to the event. And they've just been super helpful. You should see the number of design documents we have. I mean, this is a very well-themed, well-designed event. Everything. That's one thing I would say I'm really proud of compared to years past when I've been involved. The branding and the theming that we've done, I think it's definitely a step above years past.

Lori: Are the t-shirts still the same famous derby t-shirt material?

Kari: We have donated derby t-shirts. Adam is very excited. Dot Company's doing them and they were like a blend shirt.

Lori: So I think that's what you're talking about. My husband Adam loves his derby shirts.

Kari: Mine does too. We actually had a talk the other day about our derby shirts needing to go away because they smell. After, I don't know, 12 years. I'm like, babe, he's like, no, I think I can rinse it and get -- I go, I don't think this shirt's ever not going to smell.

Jeff: We have a derby closet that maybe Adam can come shop. That would be funny. All extra-large t-shirts for Adam. Put that in the derby, and I'll buy it from you. I might have that. We'll hook Adam up. Then I can replace all those derby t-shirts that have just gotten a little old.

Lori: A little old. But it's great.

Jeff: I mean, like I said, so this week, we've got some finalized printing we have to do. Obviously get the auction up and running. We are doing something new we've never done before. The survey will be at the event. So we have a giant pull-up banner that's like, how do we do? When you walk out the door, you can scan that QR code and take the survey because we're thinking, if you're really mad, you're going to tell us right away. And I'd rather you tell me right away than get over it and be like, oh, it wasn't that bad, and just not say anything. No, I want to know right away. And if you really loved it, I also want to know right away. And everything in between. But as you know, most people only fill out surveys if they're really happy or really sad. So we'll see.

Lori: But anyway, so we've got to finish that. You've got a strong team for check-in.

Jeff: We do. We have a great check-in team. You guys have a nice long check-in time period.

Kari: Oh, I have to write the run of show. I cannot show up to the meeting with our event planners on Thursday without it completed. They're going to pull my toenails off.

Jeff: But the trick is, Kari, are you going to stay to the run of show?

Kari: I always do.

Jeff: We might put somebody else in charge. You're good at writing a run of show but probably not keeping with the run of show as well.

Lori: So people -- what is the run of show?

Jeff: Okay. So there is obviously an entire timeline that's already been done on who's coming when. And so we do that as a separate thing. This is more of the script for the MC and stuff. So when we think run of show, it's not when is the AV company arriving, when is the sound. That's a different work form. The event planners have done that. So when are volunteers showing up, all that's somewhere else. This is who's going on stage and what are they saying. So I have to work on that and that will start around 2:30 and then go through 8 o'clock really when we end the thing. So that's my project for tonight and for tomorrow. It won't take that long to do. And then I'll sit down with Mark who's our MC and we'll kind of go through what announcements need to be made and what's being said and stuff.

Lori: Yeah, well some of the tips and tricks we always bring up in the podcast -- opening the auction early, selling tickets in the software that you're using, and separate your run of show from your timeline.

Jeff: Yeah. And I'm just telling you, it's too busy. It gets way too confusing because I've seen them where they color code them and it drives me nuts. It's like all the green is the AV staff. And then all the pink is the auctioneer. And then all the white is the mobile bidding company. And it's like, I can't. All I see is lines of colors. And I just go -- and I can't read it anyway because it's always tiny.

Lori: You got to finalize your live auction.

Jeff: We have two amazing auctioneers coming that are going to do that. So we just need to get those items finalized with them. They'll get a separate script, and usually they make their own. But yeah, I think we just have to give them the items. We need to figure out which items those are going to be. Again, can you believe all these listeners are thinking, I don't understand, they run a mobile bidding company and they're still trying to figure out what items are going in their live auction?

Kari: Yes, we are. Yes, that's true.

Jeff: When we say we know what you've been through, we really mean it. Well, it's a little political, too. Let's be honest. When you're dealing with your tactical committee, and there's a bunch of us on this tactical committee that are board members, you kind of get to the point where it's like, these are decisions we're just making now, because if I take this back to the board, it's never going to get done. Too many opinions. We'll apologize for it later. And so for some of the live auction items, there's an element of that where it's like, we just need to get this done, because otherwise we're going to have 15 live auction items and I'm not sticking around for that.

Lori: No. Especially with your venue, three to five max.

Jeff: Yeah, that'll be good.

Lori: I'm glad you guys are doing a live auction. And so people are wondering, why are you not doing a paddle raise? Because this is an outdoor concert venue. It is really hard to do a paddle raise. It is so loud there that for a really effective paddle raise, you really need the attention in the room, and you're just not going to get it at this event.

Jeff: And it's too big of a space.

Kari: Yeah, there's no room. It's a space.

Jeff: We're going to have a 20-foot LED screen with a massive QR code on it. The other thing that is very different about this event is because you have the betting, a lot of people will say, okay, well, I was going to donate $100. I'll just bet in the horse and might turn my $100 into something more. If not, that was my $100 or my $500 or my $1,000. So I think people sometimes -- maybe not the first time because it's different, but people that have been, and we have people that are going to be there that have been to all 15 derbies -- they know, and they're like, if I'm going to donate anyway, let me try and win something. So the whole point of the paddle -- I mean, you kind of lose the whole -- a lot of people just donate in a different manner at this event.

Lori: No, I love that. All right, so let's think about the tips and tricks and how we're applying those tips and tricks to this event. So we said we have a good check-in team. We have a long period of time for check-in as well. You're not just saying, okay, everybody show up at six and the event starts at 6:30.

Jeff: Yeah, we're going to start off with some entertainment and you kind of dribble. We like a dribble-in check-in. We like a little dribble. And I think we actually did say doors open at 2:30 versus check-in.

Lori: Nice. I do like that verbiage.

Jeff: Yeah, that sounds good. Then you have your silent auction in a strategic area. Is it still when you first walk in?

Kari: No. We actually, yeah. So we really liked it there thinking, hey, everyone's going to walk in and see it. Well, the problem is then you walk into the actual venue and you never go back until you're leaving. So we actually put it in a very central spot.

Jeff: Well, it's not right by the bathroom. Let's be honest. It was going to be. This is a concert venue, and the bathroom is in this massive portico patio area. So everything is by the bathroom, right? Food, the bar. Think of leaving a concert venue and going out into that big area where there's bathrooms and food trucks. It's just like that. So it's out there. And I think that's going to be a good spot for it.

Lori: Yeah, I agree. I think that's going to be a great spot. But we do have a photo booth up front.

Jeff: And we've changed that this year. So we are going to turn it into kind of like a step and repeat. But instead of trying to figure out what backdrop do you put -- and I've seen some really impressive photo booth backdrops, everybody, a lot of you on the phone have done these -- we bought a green screen.

Lori: Ooh, okay.

Jeff: And our photo booth software puts it on. It is slick. And then all you're doing is getting your designers to give you just a giant image. And you could just use it over and over and over. And the green screen is so reusable. And so every year we just have to come up with a new digital image. Think of all the things we can do with that green screen. You can have some fun. And we're letting them pick their backdrop. So there's some that have like Churchill Downs in the back. And then some that just say Derby Days.

Lori: Oh, I love that. That's going to be super fun.

Jeff: Yeah, it's going to be good. We need to figure out how to get those into the live viewing, though.

Kari: Yeah, that's on -- see, this is what we do all week, Lori. It's like, oh yeah, put that on the list.

Jeff: Yep, mark that down. So our photo booth software allows us to have a live feed of the images that we can push up onto -- I mean, we do have this 20-foot video wall to show the race.

Lori: You're going to show Handbid TV?

Jeff: Not sure we're going to do that. I need to sit down with the AV folks and coordinate different views. We were going to try and show the actual -- as people are taking photos, they'll be on the big screen.

Lori: Oh, that would be really cute.

Kari: In the past, we've done slideshows of previous years' photos. And I have that, and it's ready to go. I cranked that out last week.

Lori: My kids are like two.

Kari: Yeah, exactly. I don't know if we're going to do that again this year, but we are going to have -- so what some of the stuff that came out of that slideshow I do like, which we might do, is like how to bid. And so we literally had a how to bid in Handbid slide in the slideshow and then it had an animated video showing how you swipe through the app and bid on stuff.

Lori: Oh, that's cool. So we could try to put something like that together.

Jeff: I think it would be fun though if we can get the photo booth live.

Lori: Yeah, me too.

Jeff: Yeah, we'll take it. That was a great idea.

Lori: You got to be really careful. This is a piece of advice for everybody: at some point you have to cut off the ideas. Right? Because you do.

Jeff: I would say your idea cutoff time is now. Like way before now.

Lori: When you run out of time.

Jeff: So the item we're picking up in Greeley is a custom-made derby-themed cornhole board for our cornhole game. And we came up with this a week ago. And so when you call cornhole companies up and our designers turn the design around in literally an hour -- boom, it looks amazing. I was like, this looks great. How are we going to get this thing made? People are like, you need it in a what? I need it in a week. And ship to us. And they're like, well, if you come to Greeley and pick it up, I'll have it done in a week.

Lori: That's awesome.

Jeff: Yeah. So a lot of times, that's just those last-minute ideas. You're like, why didn't I think about that? So you do need to cut yourself off at some point or you'll be pulling all-nighters trying to get stuff done. We're still going to be pulling all-nighters. That's what this week looks like. I'm trying to pull them tonight and tomorrow and not Thursday and Friday. That would be nice.

Kari: We got to make our hats on Friday.

Jeff: We got to make our hats on Friday. But I'll tell you what, we also divide and conquer very well, which is nice. I think just because there's a lot of trust in the team on who can get what done. And I would figure if you're on a group committee or an auction committee and you feel like you're the only one that can get everything done, find a new committee next year because it's going to drive you nuts. And if you're the control freak that's like I have to do it all my way, you're the wrong person. You need to let some things go. You're just going to have to learn how to let certain things go. And I've had to learn how to do that over the years because I have very high standards on how I think certain things should work and then it's like, you know what, if I really want it to work that way, I'm going to have to do it, and I don't have time to do it. So fine, do it that way. And we've seen that over the years. People still have a good time.

Lori: Oh yeah, you have a great event. Super fun. Super fun event. All right. So any last parting words of wisdom, the week of your event, what words of wisdom would you give our listeners?

Kari: I would say, don't stress too much. What's done is going to be done. What's not? No one will know what was supposed to be.

Elise: And don't worry about the things that you can't control.

Jeff: 100%. Like for an outdoor event, the weather. Pivot. Be flexible.

Kari: I will tell you, the Derby Committee has downloaded 15 different weather apps.

Jeff: And we all say that, right? Because a lot of people, they run golf tournaments too. It's the same thing. And here's the problem -- maybe not where you live, but in Colorado, the beginning of May is extremely unpredictable. If this event was in July, I'd be way less worried about it. But it's in May. And the beginning of May, it can be 75 degrees and sunny. It could be 80 and sunny. It could be snowing. And there's usually nothing in between those. As it did last Saturday. As it did three days ago. And it's apparently supposed to snow on Thursday. So we're just in that stage of the late spring season and this is what you get. So you can't stress about that stuff.

Kari: But the funny thing is, we're like, oh look, it looks like it's going to be partly cloudy and maybe 20% chance of rain. We'll check another weather app and see what it says.

Jeff: I'm thinking about all the years I've been at the Derby. And I think it was, if I remember correctly, only last year that I remember it was raining.

Kari: A couple years ago at Infinity Park. Oh, we were indoors, though. We've had weather. But out of 17 years, we've been incredibly -- I would say two or three years were complete rainouts. So that's not bad.

Jeff: No. And so one year, I remember, this is when it was still at our house. And this is when we had 200 plus people coming to our house. And we put a -- so it snowed. And then my dad and I shoveled all the snow out of the backyard so we could put the tent up. Because once you put the tent up, no snow's melting inside of the tent. So we shoveled this massive 20 by 40 area, and then we put the tent up. And then we had to connect the tent to the house because it was supposed to rain or snow that day again. So we had to connect the tent to the house, and it was so windy through our back patio we had to put flaps up everywhere. I literally put the eyehole screws into the side of my house, and we had ropes pulling giant tent flaps down just to cover the back.

Kari: Oh my gosh. We took all the furniture.

Jeff: Some of those are still in our house. I know. The guy doing the siding was like, what are these? I'm like, oh, from 15 years ago when we had a giant fundraiser. We had a giant tent connected to the house.

Lori: So anyway, those were the days I remember having some of that. Every once in a while you get a little thunderstorm or a shower.

Jeff: We did for Country for a Cure. That was in October. And we were super nervous about that because that's also unpredictable weather in Colorado. And we actually had this beautiful day -- from four to five. And the guests were showing up at five. From four to five it poured. So we quickly got all the cushions off all the sofas and tables and stuff, and then it poured, and then the sun came back out and it was a gorgeous night.

Lori: But you did lose your jacket.

Jeff: I had to get my jacket -- it's fine.

Lori: Anyway. Yeah, that's it. Kari's right, Elise is right: don't stress about the things you can't control. And you're going to have to let certain things go and say it is what it is. And we always say this and we have lots of podcasts on event problems. It's not if something happens at your event, it's when. And we have stories. We have run out of mint for the mint juleps. We have had the internet go down. All of these things have happened to us. And you just have to work through them. And I think what's exciting me this year is that we're going to have an event planning staff that's going to take the front lines on that.

Elise: Yep.

Jeff: And just remember, everybody's coming because they love you. They love your organization. They want to give. They want to donate. And all in all, that's the main thing. They love you for what you do, not for your event planning and execution skills. And people forget that. Like, oh, my guests had a terrible time. Well, maybe they did, but they don't hate you for it. Blame somebody else or they'll get over it. We've had all of that. You don't think we've had people upset that they didn't win a certain auction item? We have. You don't think we've had close relatives and board members mad about where you put them in terms of their table? We have. We have all of those same issues. Maybe we just handle them differently.

Kari: Tell the board member he can take a hike. I don't care. I got an event to run. I don't have time for this. Go find another spot. You and your ego can sit at any of these tables you want.

Lori: All right, well, it is a busy week for you guys. So I appreciate you getting together and just chatting about your event and relating to all the listeners. And we will end this podcast so you can get back to work and get those silent auction items up. Since Kari was like, I told Kari we're doing a podcast. She goes, I don't have time to do a podcast. Do you know how much derby stuff I have to do? In the middle of our workday. Derby, derby, derby.

Kari: So thank you for joining us and happy fundraising.

Jeff: Thank you for joining us as we chatted about our Derby Days fundraiser here, our in-house fundraiser at Handbid. We hope you guys enjoyed a little bit of our tips and tricks and maybe some humor as we head into the derby. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.