Free Seats Don't Buy Generosity: What One Gala's Data Revealed

EP 112: Free Seats Don't Buy Generosity: What One Gala's Data Revealed

Introduction

Welcome to Elevate Your Event, where high-stakes events meet high standards. If you've ever been told, “That's just how the system works,” and refused to accept it, you're in the right place.

Let's get into it. What if lowering your event ticket prices is actually costing your nonprofit thousands? In this episode, we're breaking down real fundraising data from a nonprofit gala that slashed ticket prices and gave away seats to fill the room. The results might surprise you. We'll explore why a packed room doesn't always mean a profitable event, what the numbers reveal about donor behavior, and how to price your next fundraiser to maximize revenue—not just attendance.

Ticket Prices, Attendance, and Donor Behavior

We're going to talk about a different event than mine. But my event has come up many times because people have always asked us over the 20 years we've done it: “How have you adjusted ticket prices over the years, and how has that impacted attendance?”

At our event, we have a solid average of 350 to 400 people who come. It used to be higher when we had more of a family event and kids would all show up. But, as you know, kids don't donate. They don't spend much money.

“Yeah, can I get some Apple Cash?” I guess I'm the one who's donating. They were sucking their parents away from donating to watch their kids. Anyway, the kids went away, and we have just adults now at this event. But we tried a variety of things.

We thought, “Let's have a ticket price of $150 and get 350 people to come.” Then people asked, “What if we lowered the price?” We had figured out that our rough per-person cost was about $70, so we were still making 30%. We lowered it to $100 to see if we'd get more people to come. We did. I'll be very frank and honest with you: We got more people to come.

A number of them were in the bathroom passed out because they came and drank free booze. They drank and ate, but they did not participate in the auction like we expected.

Back then, we didn't have AI to help us with this. We were literally crunching numbers, pulling data out of Handbid and spreadsheets, and trying to figure out the real result of doing that. I'm not saying that doesn't work in certain circumstances. I think you have to look at your event and decide. And I think that tees up this conversation, because I don't think that's what actually happened in the event we're going to talk about.

We were doing a little econ-class discussion earlier. For this particular event, and for my event as well as many others we go to, there's a certain—I'm going to use an econ term here—inelasticity in what your biggest supporters will pay for tickets. They're going to pay whatever the ticket price is. If you set it at, say, $400 (I know that sounds really high; I'm making up a high number), a lot of them will come at $400. If you drop it to $300, they won't complain, but they would have paid $400. Does that make sense? Absolutely.

When you price your ticket, you have to know your audience. You might think, “Maybe we just want a ton of people there, so we'll lower the price and bring a lot more people.” But that can defeat the purpose, because people who can afford a $50 or $100 ticket may not be the ones who will buy a $1,500 getaway or a $2,000 golf package.

I think it's not just about knowing your donor base or your customer. It's deciding who you want in the room. You're setting your ticket price to determine the level of donor you want in the room and what is affordable to them.

What Is the Ticket Price For?

When you look at what goes into a ticket, is the ticket the moneymaker? Some people view tickets as cost coverage. Either way, I've always thought that the cost of that particular seat—or the price you charge for it—is not the main moneymaker.

Concerts may be an exception. For certain concerts, they would give away tickets for the food-and-beverage revenue they get from people who show up and spend $15 on a Michelob Ultra. But in the gala we're talking about, ticket revenue was anywhere from 7% to 23% of the total draw. That's not the big part. The job of the ticket price is to get the right person in that seat.

There's fear that if the ticket is too expensive, nobody will come to the gala. One component to consider is the number of seats available. Exclusivity matters. If you only have 125 seats at a venue, you have to be very conscious about which 125 people you put in those seats. If you have a bigger venue, it can seat more people, and maybe your cost per head isn't as much. You may have more flexibility, or you can bring kids. But in this case, you're only reaching 125 people. You'd better make sure you've got the right people in the room.

You should look at how much it costs to sell a ticket and make sure you have at least a 30% profit margin on that cost—or whatever makes you comfortable, depending on your event costs. In this particular case, the cost per seat is about $125, and they originally priced it at $250.

This is similar to a golf tournament. A golfer's fee might be $125, covering a cart, lunch, perhaps a reception at the end, and some swag-bag items. Then they might charge $250 per golfer, or $1,000 for a foursome. But where do you make the real money in golf tournaments? Sponsorships. If you don't have those, you're not going to make significant revenue. My sister used to raise $250,000 at her golf tournament. It wasn't from selling foursomes; it was from selling 18 sponsorship holes, the beer-cart sponsor, the golf-bag sponsor, and all the other sponsorships. A title sponsor might pay $50,000 and bring four lobbyists to play with a congressman.

So, what's going to get people into the seats? What are you offering that makes someone want to spend $250 to attend? The mission may be enough: I've attended many events because I wanted to support the organization. It might cost $150 or $200 per ticket, and I'm happy to pay that for my wife and me. I feel good that I've paid to attend. Then the question is: What happens next—auctions or something else—to get me to engage beyond that $400?

I hypothesize—and we can look at the data to see if it's true—that people willing to spend sponsorship-level dollars to attend your event will be your biggest spenders across the board. If you comp someone or invite them because they're well-known or wealthy, hoping to remove the hurdle of asking them to spend $1,000 to come, I think there's still a low likelihood they'll spend thousands a year. They probably aren't connected with the organization. If you're begging them to come, they're not the people.

I've been a participant in that situation: someone got a whole table, and I was last on their list. They asked, “Hey, do you want to come? I have two extra tickets.” I thought, “I guess, free dinner. Yeah, I'll go.” But when they tried to auction things off, I wasn't going to spend any money.

The Event and Its Pricing Change

Let's dive into this. The organization will remain unnamed. This is for learning purposes only. This was the organization's fifth year running the event. It had been similar each year, with some changes. There was a Sunday dinner, and this year they split the Sunday dinner from the golf day. They used to combine the golf on Monday with the event. This year, they moved the golf to a different date. They also started at one venue and then moved to another—a really delicious steakhouse.

Looking back at the revenue, when they moved to the steakhouse, they set the price per person at $250, and it stayed that way for several years. This year, they cut the price from $250 to $175. Why? To get more people to come.

One board member warned them that Denver is a late city: people make last-minute decisions around sponsorships, even at significant levels. It's the culture in this city, so they were told not to worry about ticket sales and to assume people were coming. They could continue to remind people and ask them to get their ticket sales in.

The board member admitted they didn't buy their ticket until the Friday before the Sunday event. They had said they would buy a ticket and a table, but hadn't gotten commitments from everyone who could come. They wanted to fill in all their guests when they bought the ticket and had asked the organizer to reserve the table. When they went in to buy the ticket, they wondered why it was so cheap.

Avoiding Last-Minute Panic

Some advice: Advertise consistently all the way up to your event. If you send one email a month or two before, then maybe one other email, and don't have data on click-through rates or site traffic, you might start to panic. A good email sequence helps. For VIPs or board members, call them directly and get a verbal commitment. Stay on top of that so you don't panic and drop your pricing.

They also comped a number of seats—at the end, when they were trying to fill the venue and thought it would be better if it were full. A full concert feels good; an event with 40 people in the room would feel awkward. You can take gambles, too: invite someone and comp a ticket, hoping they'll bring something. We've all tried that in the past, with little to no success.

What the Data Shows

The board member's perspective was that they would pay whatever the ticket price was, so reducing the price just took money off the top line. They reduced revenue from people who would easily have paid the full amount by roughly $6,000. They also set a new expectation for next year: “Where's my free seat?”

It's the same concept as discounting a product. If you significantly discount a product, you've anchored the customer to that lower price. The same applies to event tickets. In this case, the speaker compared it to walking into an Audi dealership: if the car costs $90,000 and you want an Audi, you pay $90,000. The same goes for an iPhone that costs $2,000. But if the dealership suddenly offers 50% off, you'd be happy to buy it. That's the inelasticity we were talking about: certain supporters will pay the price.

One speaker considered going into Handbid, creating a new table of six at $250 per person, and buying it. Their wife suggested donating at the event instead. They decided to donate at the event and make up the difference, because the organization was the victim of a bad choice. But there's both science and art in deciding between filling the room and maximizing revenue.

At a conference in May, speakers discussed how Delta Airlines, in Q1 of 2026, generated more premium revenue than non-premium revenue in the company's history. They showed a map of a large airplane, perhaps a 787, with three-quarters of the plane made up of lie-flat seats and only about 20 rows of standard seats at the back. Those lie-flat seats can cost $8,000 or $10,000, depending on where you're flying, or more. Delta figured out it could price those seats at a premium and generate more revenue than by packing another 150 or 200 people into the plane. Other industries are experimenting with similar models.

There's also a concert venue in Colorado Springs experimenting with premium options, such as boxes or suites with a fire pit. Those aren't cheap; people were paying several hundred thousand dollars to buy into them. The point is the kind of revenue people will pay. That doesn't mean every event needs premium revenue, but premium revenue will usually generate a bigger return for most events than $50 or $100 tickets. It's hard to get and very relationship-driven, but the advice is: get more sponsorships.

Revenue by Ticket Source

AI analysis can help identify what types of people are spending money at your event. People often ask for revenue per table, but it's also interesting to look at revenue per source of ticket.

The numbers were broken down, though not all of them were discussed. Paid tickets—including individual tickets, sponsor tickets, and tables—brought in a little over $2,000 per person on average.

The comp tickets brought in $83 per head if you eliminate the one person who spent $16,000. That person was an anomaly. The free tickets didn't even cover dinner. Table guests—people who were guests of others—generated about $234 per person, slightly more than the ticket price. Some may not have attended, may have bid remotely, or may have been guests of someone who bought a table of eight.

The key point: The price was lowered for the exact people who spent $2,000 per person. The comp tickets were already free, and the organization lost money on those guests because it had to pay for their dinner—about half the dinner cost.

We've seen this at other events, too. At our derby event, we lowered the price to $100 and got a bunch of people who came, ate, and drank. At another event a couple of years ago, we dropped the price to $50 because we wanted it to be family-friendly and bring everyone together for firefighters. It hurt us.

Alternatives to Lowering Ticket Prices

There are other options.

Sell Sponsored Seats

It's 100% okay to give a free seat to someone. You may want to support young people, people coming up in the field, or people who have been positively affected by your organization. One way to do that is to sell sponsored seats.

School events do this often, and it works. People want to give back to teachers, so they buy a ticket at cost and pay for a teacher. At these school events, every teacher who comes has a ticket paid for by someone else. People don't even blink; they want to support. At this organization, donors could also buy an extra ticket to support people working in the organization or with kids.

Use Early-Bird Offers and Create Urgency

Another idea is to incentivize people to act early. You don't have to comp tickets in every situation. You could offer early-bird discounts to get people committed early and reduce the board's fear that the venue won't be full a week before the event. Make it time-driven rather than simply putting people in seats.

Creating scarcity can also help. Emphasize that there are only 125 seats and that it's going to be an amazing night people won't want to miss. Offer an early-bird special—perhaps at cost or 50% off if people buy now—so you can see how many people buy early. Then keep promoting the event, including at the last minute, to build excitement and urgency.

Many clients aren't experienced or skilled in sales. This isn't a criticism; it's an observation. Many people on nonprofit boards aren't, either. You may need to make more direct calls: “I've got four or six tops left for the event. Are you ready to nail down this one? Are you looking for this particular table or that particular table?” You don't need to know who they're bringing yet; just get them secured into a seat. Make those more aggressive calls to get people committed.

People may assume the price will be similar to last year. With inflation, tickets being a little higher isn't surprising. If they were lower, people might be surprised and question whether the food or the booze would be worse. Hold the price—or even increase it a little.

At our derby event, we have four sectional sofas for the outdoor band and concert, and they've always been $5,000. People ask how you get someone to spend $5,000. The answer is: “Because that's what it costs.” If you want to sit there and sponsor the event, you can sponsor it and get one. We sell them every year.

There are 22 possible fire-pit tables, and 15 sold for $2,500 each. Someone asked, “What if we lowered the price?” The answer was that we'd lose money, because we'd probably still sell only about 15. The other six couldn't be placed in a good spot for the concert. If we can sell another one, we sell it for $2,500, not a cheaper price. We haven't saturated the Denver market with 15 tables at $2,500; there are millions of people here.

The mentality that lowering the price gets you more people may be true, but those may not be the people you want.

Event Results and Experience

We're looking at five years of data, and this event did really well. The donors who paid for their seats and showed up definitely showed up. It was the best paddle raise they'd ever had, and the live auction was great.

One speaker won a trip to Dollywood. The package was a chalet near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and the advice was to reformat it as the “Dolly Parton package” to drive more revenue. They added Dollywood tickets. Sometimes you can reformat things into something better.

Looking at bids per active bidder, the event went from five to 11—more than double. The items felt similar, so the result may come back to the types of people in the room and their level of engagement. They had a really good MC, which helped, and a special VIP guest who was amazing.

It's also interesting that people who bought individual tickets paid less and got a much better VIP experience. The organizers did a really nice job, and the experience was very much worth last year's price, if not more. One speaker had attended every single one of these events.

Key Takeaways

• Price to select, not to fill.
• Free seats fill tables with people who already love you; they do not recruit givers.
• A discount that does not grow the room is a donation to your guests.
• Market early and often.
• Think about what will excite people to attend and what kind of experience you're giving them. A good MC can pull things together and get people engaged.

Closing

If you want more tips, tricks, and content in this realm, give us a like and subscribe so you get notified every time we release a new episode. That's going to happen now. If you've been with us, you're hanging out. All the maternity leaves are over, and we're going to get back on schedule, hopefully bringing you great tips and tricks that help you elevate your event.

Until next time, happy fundraising. Bye.

Thanks for joining us. If today's episode resonated with you, share it with someone on your team who's tired of settling for good enough. If you're ready to see what a real experience-first platform looks like, visit handbid.com. We don't just support your event. We handle it.