01 Prepare
Establish the room.
Start with the mission, audience, event history, goals, run of show, tools, and team already in place. Identify the decisions that will shape the room.
FUNDRAISING CONSULTING
Build the event before you build the ask.
The live auction is only one part of the night. Beymer can help your team look at the room, timing, transitions, fundraising moments, and the path into and out of the ask—whether Tanner is conducting the live auction or advising from outside the program.
FUNDRAISING CONSULTING
Build the event before you build the ask.
The live auction is only one part of the night. Beymer can help your team look at the room, timing, transitions, fundraising moments, and the path into and out of the ask—whether Tanner is conducting the live auction or advising from outside the program.
Scope and team participation confirmed before work begins • Montana-based • Travel and availability confirmed per engagement
The consulting process
The auction does not begin when the microphone turns on.
A room can lose energy in the handoffs: a delayed transition, an unclear item sequence, a stage that disconnects the auctioneer from the guests, or an ask that arrives without enough context. Consulting looks at how those moments connect.
02 Shape
Design the sequence.
Work through timing, item order, stage and room considerations, fundraising moments, silent-auction choices, and the transitions surrounding the live call.
03 Review
Document the results.
After the event, examine what moved cleanly, where the room slowed down, and what the team should document for next year. The depth of review depends on the agreed engagement.
Outside perspective
Already have an auctioneer? The event can still benefit from another view.
01 The Event Path
Arrival, Program, Story, Auction, Fundraising Ask, Close.
The auction is just one stop on that path. If the transitions before it run long or the story doesn't connect, the room is tired before the bidding even starts.
02 Consulting-Only Support
Beymer has provided consulting when a long-standing client used another auctioneer or when the event team needed planning support without a live auction.
The engagement can focus on the program, the fundraising moments, and the lessons gathered from working across different rooms and regions.
03 Planning Parameters
Built around the event—not a preset package.
Consulting can support a live auction, a Fund-a-Need or appeal, or an event that needs a stronger fundraising plan without an auction component. The work begins with the goals, the program, and the decisions that will shape the room.
For a typical first-time benefit auction, Tanner begins with one planning hour before the event and one post-event review hour. Repeat and custom engagements are shaped around what the event needs.
Event preparation · Venue layout
Start with the mission, audience, event history, goals, and the team already in place.
FUND-A-NEED & APPEAL PLANNING
The appeal needs a plan before the room hears the first giving level.
A strong Fund-a-Need moment depends on more than a compelling story. Tanner helps teams think through the goal, the place in the program, the giving sequence, the role of the mission moment, and how the room will stay engaged through the ask.
The details matter. A goal display, a speaker, a transition, or a giving level can change the room’s attention when it is not timed to the rest of the night. The right approach is shaped around the event, the audience, and the people carrying the moment.
Talk Through Your Fund-a-NeedTHE TEAM
Live-room experience, informed by event-planning perspective.
Tanner leads each assignment. When an event calls for broader support, Beymer can draw on a trusted network of specialist collaborators in fundraising consulting, emcee support, and production coordination.
Tanner Beymer
Tanner brings more than 15 years of auction experience across benefit, livestock, commercial, and contract work. His consulting perspective comes from seeing what rooms do when the timing, tools, people, and call are—or are not—working together.
Kelsey Beymer
Kelsey Beymer brings a decade of corporate and nonprofit event-planning experience and a master’s degree in communication from Johns Hopkins University. Her event-planning and communications perspective helps the team think through program flow, guest experience, and the decisions surrounding the live fundraising moment.
TRUSTED EVENT NETWORK
When an event calls for broader support, Beymer can draw on a trusted network of experienced professionals in auctioneering, fundraising, emcee support, production, and event technology.
Hannah Busby
Bozeman, Montana
Auctioneer · Fundraising Expert · Instructor
Hannah Busby is a certified Benefit Auction Specialist (BAS) and third-generation auctioneer from Bozeman, Montana. Hannah has spent the past decade onstage as an event host, interviewer, and fundraising auctioneer.
Mitch Royer
Nampa, Idaho
Auctioneer · Emcee · Software Specialist
He supports events as an auctioneer, emcee, and software specialist, bringing a versatile skill set to assignments that call for additional event or technology support.
Rich Linden
Overland Park, Kansas
Auctioneer · DJ · Production Guru
Collaborator involvement is based on the needs of each assignment.
Scope Areas
Run of show
Place the auction and fundraising moments where the room can follow them.
Room and stage
Consider sightlines, movement, sound, access, and the auctioneer’s relationship to the guests.
Live-auction sequence
Order items and transitions so the call can build instead of restart.
Fund-a-need or paddle raise
Shape the path into the ask and the information the room needs.
Team responsibilities
Clarify who owns the handoffs, information, clerking, and event-night decisions.
Post-event review
Capture what should change and what should stay.
Perspective from across the room.
Every room has a different threshold for energy, pacing, and fundraising tolerance. Consulting draws on a diverse history of benefit auctions, commercial sales, and high-stakes rooms to help your team anticipate what the audience needs before the first bid is called.
See Benefit Auction ServicesStart with the part of the event that feels unresolved.
Tell us what you are planning, what is already decided, and where the team wants another perspective. The first conversation can begin before the full run of show is final.
Discuss Your Event PlanScope and team participation are confirmed before work begins.