Event Planning Advice from the Pros: Pamela Mohr, American Cancer Society

How the “Taste of Hope” raised over $170,000

Pamela Mohr, Division Director, Distinguished Events for the American Cancer Society

How did you get into the field?

My original career path was going to be social work.  As a college senior, I had a 30 hour/week internship at the American Cancer Society, working on school health education and cancer prevention programs.  I volunteered at my first gala that year (1995) and loved it.  My father was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma a few months into my internship and I decided to put my social work degree on hold.  I took a job out of college with the American Cancer Society on Long Island after graduation and have been with them over 11 years in total.

What is your favorite or most successful event fundraiser that you were involved in?

I created a 6-figure fundraiser in Manhattan called “Taste of Hope”.  A culinary, wine and spirits tasting event featuring some of New York’s hottest and most popular restaurants and food & beverage vendors.  Hosted annually by the American Cancer Society, all proceeds from Taste of Hope go toward our goal of eliminating cancer as a major health problem.  We are entering our 6th year and the event expects to draw 1000 attendees and raise $170,000.  It will be held on May 5, 2011 at 82Mercer.  For tickets, go to http://community.acsevents.org/tasteofhopeny

I started this event from just a simple idea, recruited a brand new committee and solicited all of the restaurants and vendors with their assistance.  Now we have an amazing and sustainable fundraisier that appeals to an audience the American Cancer Society was unable to reach before

What was the best method for securing sponsorship?

The best method for securing sponsorships is working with your committees or boards to identify key relationships that they might have.  A cold ask from the organization will never generate the same response as a warm ask from someone they know.  When a committee member is able to get a meeting for me, I will go in with sponsorship levels listed on individual pages.  I base my ask on the conversation.  You never want to ask for an amount that is less than the company is willing to give – and most of the time you won’t know that amount until you meet face-to-face.

What unforeseen problem did you run into? How did you solve it?

That very first event, I ran into 2 major problems.
#1.  Electricity.  In 2006, our event was held at the Puck Building.  I did not realize that I needed to hire an electrician to provide outlets for the restaurants that needed them.  After I faxed my electrical map over to the catering office, they called to tell me. Needless to say – I ended up with $2500 in expenses that I did not anticipate.
#2.  Upon arriving at the event, many of the restaurants and vendors needed ice.  I did not put this on my “confirmation form” and did not have any extra ice to give them.  At the last minute, we had the catering company who sponsored our bar run out and purchase ice, which we had to then pay for.
#3.  I relied on volunteer bartenders and waiters to serve the guests and deal with the garbage.  (At a tasting event for 800 – we order 17,000 paper plates).  The volunteers just were not committed enough and I learned that I needed to hire an event staffing agency. (Plug for Bob Hall, owner of Kensington Staffing – he’s AMAZING)

If the auction was successful what would you say were the keys to the success?

Since our Taste of Hope venue is so large – and we are selling tickets at $150 (general admission) and $250 (VIP admission) – we have to consider 2 very important factors.
#1.  Auction placement – you want to put your auction in a highly visible area, but you can’t put it in a place that will block the flow of your event.
#2.  Variety of prizes at different price points – for some – the $150 ticket is a lot of money, for others, it’s the best deal in town.  You want to make sure that you have auction items that appeal to everyone – at different price points – so all are enouraged to bid.  This particular event appeals to many different types of people.  We try to have items for families, singles, and professionals.

What were your best selling items?

Trips, special dinner packages, jewelry and handbags

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

We have a hard time with PR – since there is another Manhattan tasting event every night of the week in the Spring! We work closely with Wine Spectator Magazine and they write an online article about our event.  This year, we are about to secure a chef who is also a cancer survivor, so we will work with our in-house PR team to pitch a story.

This year, we were able to secure Chef Eric Levine who is also a five-time cancer survivor, cookbook author and winner of the Food Network’s “Chopped”.  He is now the Executive Chef at Montammy Golf Club in Alpine New Jersey.  We recently interviewed him and plan to pitch the media with his amazing and inspirational story of success despite his long cancer journey.

What’s your best host committee tip?

You must must must give your committee clear roles and responsibilities from the very beginning in order for them to take ownership of the event.

Best sponsorship acquisition tip?

Again – it’s all about the relationship.

Any vendor negotiation tips?

If you work at a larger organization, talk with your internal team.  See if there are additional opportunities to use that vendor again in order to get the best price.  For those that work at smaller organizations, network with other event planners.  There is always strength in numbers and if you present multiple business opportunities to the same vendor, you’ll have more room for negotiation.

If you were to do it all over again this year, what would you do differently?

We do the event annually and are always learning something new.
I would say that hiring a staffing company was absolutely necessary.  We reply on volunteers for registration, auction, raffle etc – but when it comes to cleaning and “bussing” – we need professionals.
This is the first year we were able to get all of our paper goods donated – this is a $2500 savings to the organization!