Build Your Paddle Raise Ladder from Your Own Donor Data

Most paddle raise ladders are built backward. A committee picks a goal and chooses a familiar sequence of levels, such as $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, $1,000, and $500. Then it hopes the room will fill them. When the top level draws no response or the middle levels draw only one or two hands, the problem is rarely the auctioneer or the story. The ladder was never tested against the people who would be in the room.

A ladder built from your own giving history takes a few hours of work. Well before the event, it tells you whether your goal is realistic and what has to happen to reach it.

Start with last year's results

Pull the paddle raise results from your last event and count the gifts at each level. You need two numbers for each level: how many hands went up, and how much the level produced. Then compare those results with your current guest list and major donor records. Note who gave at each level, who is likely to return, and who could give more than they did last time.

Usually a few gifts at the top produce much of the total, and some middle levels draw far fewer hands than the committee assumed.

Set the top level where you have a donor

Set the top level at an amount you have already secured from a specific donor before the event, or are confident you can secure. A common guideline in campaign planning is that the lead gift provides 10 to 20 percent of the goal, and that proportion works well for paddle raises. For a $100,000 goal, a lead gift between $10,000 and $20,000 is appropriate.

Opening at a level no one intends to give creates an awkward pause. Opening with a committed lead donor signals seriousness and gives everyone below that level permission to act.

Build each level from expected hands

Work down from the top, and for each level estimate how many hands you can reasonably expect. Base the estimate on last year's count at that level, and adjust for donors you know are moving up or not returning. Here is an example for a $100,000 goal:

This ladder projects $104,500 from 75 gifts. Compare that number with the households in the room. With 400 guests, or roughly 200 households, more than a third must participate. If your history shows lower participation, adjust the goal. Also look for any level that depends on donors you cannot name, and do that work before the event, not during it.

Give donors room to stretch

Look closely at the steps between levels. On most ladders, each level is twice the one below it. The exception is the step from $1,000 to $2,500, which asks a donor to give two and a half times as much, at the point where many donors are deciding whether to stretch. If last year's gifts clustered at $1,000, a $1,500 level gives those donors a natural way to move up. The same reasoning applies higher on the ladder, where a $3,000 level may suit donors who have been stopping at $2,500.

Research on suggested donation amounts, most of it from mail and online appeals, shows that lower options can pull some gifts down. A live paddle raise largely avoids this problem. Because the auctioneer calls the levels from the top down, and guests never see the ladder in advance, a donor ready to give $2,500 commits before a $1,500 level exists in the room.

To keep the ladder from growing too long, trade one level for another. When you add a stretch level, remove one that last year drew only one or two hands. Seven or eight levels are usually enough, with each step between one and a half and two times the level below it. Keep the final level one that nearly every household can join, often $100 or $250, because the lowest level has the strongest effect on whether people give at all.

Seed every level

Once the ladder is set, the same data become your seeding plan. For each level, identify at least one donor who will raise a paddle promptly when the auctioneer calls the amount. Board members, committee members, and loyal donors are natural choices. The first hand at each level tells the room that the amount is normal and expected.

Share the ladder with your auctioneer in advance, including the expected counts and the names of seed donors. Knowing that three hands are likely at $5,000 changes how long the auctioneer holds that level and how the room is worked.

Use the ladder again after the event

Record the actual count at each level beside your projection. The comparison shows where your assumptions held and where they did not, and it becomes the starting point for next year's ladder. Over several events, this record becomes one of the most reliable planning tools a development office can have.