A Run of Show Consulting session
Your gala already has a script. Let's read it out loud.
The Table Read is a one-hour working session for nonprofit leaders who want their next gala to raise more. You leave with your numbers, a clear score on your gala and messaging, and three moves in the order to make them.
Pick your time at checkout. Your questionnaire arrives right after.
Brands that Trusted Our Work
Sound familiar?
You send the save the date. Then the invitation. Then two reminders and a logistics email. The room fills up, the program runs on time, and the ask lands on people who have not heard one word from you about why this night matters.
You know the moment. The auctioneer calls for the first paddle, and the room gets polite. Guests thank you for a lovely evening on the way out. Monday morning, you are the one explaining the number to the board.
Most galas send the same handful of emails: when, where, what to wear, how to buy a ticket. Those emails tell people where to be. They never give anyone a reason to care.
By the time a donor sits down at table 12, her giving decision is mostly made. She made it over the weeks before, in her inbox, from whatever you sent or did not send.
Why a table read
Fix it at the table, not on gala night.
Before a single frame of a movie gets shot, the director and cast sit around one table and read the script out loud. That's where you hear the line that falls flat, the scene that runs long, and the moment the story loses the room.
Fixing it at the table costs a pencil. Fixing it on set costs a fortune.
Your gala is a show. Your invitation, your emcee, your executive director's remarks, your Fund-a-Need ask: that's your script. Most organizations never read it out loud until gala night, when it's too late to change a word.
You don't need a marketing department to fix this. You need to see it clearly, with someone who has done this for a living.
Structured, with room to talk
A plan for the hour. Room for the conversation.
A real table read is not a lecture. The director stops the read, asks what the scene is really about, and the writer pushes back. The best fixes come out of that conversation. The Table Read works the same way.
There's a plan for the hour, so it doesn't wander and you leave with something you can use. And there's room in it, so it goes where your gala needs it. If you say something that opens a better door, we walk through it. If you want to dig into your board, your emcee, or the email that went sideways last spring, we can.
I come in with my homework done, so none of our hour gets spent on paperwork. The structure keeps us honest. The conversation is where the aha moments come from.
How it works
Three steps, start to finish.
STEP 1
Before We Meet
A short questionnaire: your numbers, your gala, your messaging, in your own words. About 45 minutes. Ballpark is fine. Due 48 hours before we meet.
STEP 2
The Session
One hour together in a shared workbook. I've already run your numbers and pre-scored your gala. We pressure-test it, rewrite one piece of your real copy, and agree on your three moves.
STEP 3
Your Roadmap
Within 48 hours, your written Roadmap and the recording land in your inbox. It's built to forward to your board, and they'll get it in five minutes.
In three acts
The three things you walk away with
Your Numbers
What your last 3 to 5 years are really telling you, in plain English. What you net per guest, what it costs to raise a dollar, how much of the night comes from the ask, and how many gala donors give again.
Your Score
Your gala and messaging, graded on the five steps of SCORE: who's in the room, the story the night tells, one message everyone says the same way, the minute-by-minute plan, and the follow-up. Your lowest score is usually where the most money is being left on the table.
Your Moves
The three fixes that will do the most for your fundraising, in the order to make them, with who owns each one and a timeline to gala night. Not ten. Three you can actually do.
What's included
A pre-call questionnaire and my review of everything you send
Your numbers run and your gala pre-scored before we meet
A 60-minute working session in a shared workbook
A live rewrite of one piece of your real copy: your Fund-a-Need script, invitation, appeal, or donation page
Your written Roadmap within 48 hours, ready to forward to your board
The session recording
Your $297 credited in full toward the Full Playbook or White Glove if you move forward within 14 days
Who's at the table
Who's at the table?
Hi, I'm Rick Toone.
I spent 25 years in Hollywood production: more than 50 Super Bowl commercials, Emmy-nominated, and the Got Milk campaign when they were funny. As an art director, my job was selling the scene to the audience and making it believable.
I've also sat on your side of the table, as development and marketing director for a nonprofit. Today I bring that same craft to fundraising events through Event Message Strategy, so the people in the room feel the mission and give to it.
Rick Toone, Run of Show Consulting, www.runofshowplaybook.com
This is for you if
Your gala is 3 to 12 months out and you want it to raise more than last year
Your gala net has been flat or sliding, and nobody can say exactly why
Your ED, board chair, emcee, and invitation each tell a slightly different story
You'd rather talk it through than read another article about it
You want a clear plan your team can run, whether or not you hire help
This is not for you if
You're looking for help with catering, seating, or AV. That's a great event planner's job.
You'd rather keep your real numbers and real copy off the table. The rough version is the useful version.
No risk to the session fee
Today isn't a cost. It's a deposit.
Every dollar of your $297 credits in full toward the Full Playbook or White Glove if you move forward within 14 days. And if you don't, the Roadmap is still yours to keep, share, and run with on your own.
Your gala is going to happen either way. The guests will come, the program will run, and someone will stand up and ask the room for money.
The only question is whether you read the script out loud first.
One hour. Your numbers, your score, your three moves. And a written plan in your inbox within two days.
Instant download.
The Table Read · Your Gala Messaging Roadmap
$297
Credits in full toward Full Playbook or White Glove within 14 days.
Questions
No. You get a full hour of real work and a written Roadmap you keep either way. At the end I'll show you the options for working together, including doing it on your own with the free and low-cost tools. You choose.
Both. There's a clear agenda so we cover your numbers, your score, a rewrite, and your three moves. But it's a conversation, not a presentation. If something about your board, your speakers, or your donors needs airtime, we make room for it.
That's normal. Ballpark is fine, and if you don't know something, put a question mark and keep going. Part of the work is finding what's missing.
Whoever owns the gala's message. Usually that's the executive director, the development director, or both. Your gala chair is welcome too.
Not at all. Your Roadmap includes a timeline from now to gala night. Even close in, one rewritten Fund-a-Need script can change how the night ends.
Your written Roadmap and the recording arrive within 48 hours. I check in a week later to see how the first move is going.
P.S. The Roadmap is yours whether we work together or not. And if we do, every dollar of the $297 goes toward the Full Playbook or White Glove.
Audience First | Every Time