Mark Twain House Virtual Gala

Brief

To fundraise and captivate the audience given the challenge of pivoting to a virtual event.

The event needed to pivot from in-person in 2019 to virtual in 2020 due to the Pandemic and the state mandate of the number of people allowed in a room at the same time.

Having a virtual gala and continuing to engage the Mark Twain House constituents with their very broad, international email list (tens of thousands) *In-person event only had 200 guests.
Bridging the gap between in-person and virtual at a time when it was not customary.
Attracting viewers to the virtual gala by having celebrities as guest speakers (Brad Paisley, Jimmy Buffet, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Jodi Picoult, etc.).
Executing a multi-dimensional virtual gala while creating a “splash page” of activities for viewers to engage in prior to the virtual gala production.
Delivering “party boxes” to sponsors and ticket holders to enjoy while watching the virtual gala.
Launching an on-line auction (prior to pandemic was paper auction with bid sheets) which had a much broader reach (30,000 on mailing list).
Continuing to promote the virtual gala up to one month after the event by posting the virtual gala link on the Mark Twain House website. This increased donation opportunities.

Auction significantly increased in revenue in 2019 because a wider net was cast for bidding.
Donations did better than in 2019 because there were more people watching than at an in-person event; plus the gala link stayed on the Mark Twain House website for at least a month.
Sponsors continued to support even though the event was not in person.