From $7,800 to $27,000: What Changed in Move2Learn's Paddle Raise

On September 26, Move2Learn hosted its annual casino night, The Winning Hand, at a private home in Alexandria. When the paddle raise ended, the total stood at $27,000. The year before, the same event's paddle raise had brought in $7,800.

More than tripled. Here is what changed.

Preparation started weeks before the event

The biggest difference was not anything that happened on stage. It was everything that happened before the guests arrived.

Move2Learn's president and CEO, Brooke Sydnor Curran, worked with our team for weeks on the structure of the ask. Together we built a giving ladder from $5,000 down to $100, with each level tied to something concrete the gift would provide: movement clubs, active seating, classroom toolkits, athletic shoes, healthy snacks. Donors were not giving to a number. They were giving to a picture.

We also secured advance commitments at the top levels, so the bidding opened with confidence instead of silence. An opening gift, given gladly and acknowledged warmly, gives the whole room permission to follow.

The story came before the ask

Before our auctioneer George Tsamouras asked for a single dollar, Brooke told the room why the money mattered. She described children arriving at school early, running and playing together, their energy fading after two or three hours of sitting in class, and Move2Learn's movement tools giving them a second wave of focus and joy.

Nobody gives generously to an abstraction. They give to children they can picture.

The room was given space to decide

On the night, George conducted the paddle raise while I ran the room: no projections, no bid numbers on a screen, just paddles in the air and a clear call at each level. We left room between levels for donors to decide, instead of rushing past anyone who needed a moment.

Even the weather played along, in its way. Rain moved the party indoors, which put every guest closer to the stage and to each other. A smaller feeling room is a more generous room.

What your nonprofit can borrow

You do not need a casino night to use any of this.

• Tie every giving level to a concrete outcome. A dollar amount is a number. What it buys is a story.
• Secure your first gifts before the event. An ask that opens with momentum closes with momentum.
• Tell one vivid story before the ask, not five. One picture, held long enough to land.
• Give the room a beat between levels. Rushing hurries people past their generosity. A pause lets them catch up to it.

The result

$27,000, more than triple the prior year, from the same event a year later. The donors were always capable of this generosity. This year, the evening was built to receive it.

Brooke Sydnor Curran, President and CEO of Move2Learn, reviewed and approved this article.