NiSHA: Un-Leashed Gala

AJ Events was hired on the spot to fundraise, brand and elevate the event experience for Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals’ (NiSHA) annual fundraiser, although the event had already hired a local planner. Services started with fundraising consulting and a goal-setting session to increase needed dollars. The event is heavily themed on a garden party and its mission around animal shelter and welfare for animals and families for the community of Nantucket. The event had inconsistent event names and logos, so we conceptualized an “Animal Wonderland” theme where guests could bring their pets and renamed the event to “un-Leashed!” We launched a campaign to create buzz, worked with NiSHA’s Executive Director on an event strategy and worked with the event’s committee and co-chairs on auction management and event promotions. The event design, program, event publicity, and graphics were handled by our team. Night of the event, we coordinated timelines, registration, solicit and secure auction items and donors, program scripting for all speakers, stage management, design of the PowerPoint slides, the night of live auction fundraising, the fundraising script, overall logistics, activations on-site, volunteer training, and VIP handling.  The results: • Created buzz and media • Elevated overall attendee experience for people and their pets • Increased the level of attendees • Raised $176k night of during the live auction (in 2018 they raised $106k) • Raised a total of $390k