The success of your table hosted event lies in the hands of your table host. Essentially. But you have to make sure they are being ‘fed.’ If you are new to the table-hosted event world, you are currently dealing with properly training your hosts and making sure they have the information they need to successfully recruit guests. If you are a veteran at your table hosted event, you may be dealing with how to ignite passion and enthusiasm to those recurring table hosts.
All in all, whether your table hosts are brand new or have known you for 10 years, you need to ignite their passion of your mission.
As we all know, the more connected each guest and table host is to your organization prior to your table hosted event, the greater their propensity to give. We want that, don’t we? Of course!
Utilize your table host training time for exactly this purpose. Don’t just look at the training time as 30 minutes to cover the material in a packet. Utilize the time to have each person in attendance tour your facility. Stop them at specific places – program support areas of your facility – where you can have a program staffer share a story of transformation that recently happened. We all have them, I know it. Some of your long-term table hosts may even be surprised to hear a true-life impact story and if they don’t learn something new, they certainly will be reminded of why they are involved. You’ve ignited their reminder button: “Oh, right. This is why I love this organization! People need to know about this!” Your newbies, well, you just found a great way to showcase your mission. They will be more excited than ever to start recruiting for your fabulous organization.
Did you find this worked for you? Try it in other capacities then. Board meeting coming up? Have a program staff share a 5 minute story before you kick off that meeting. And an extra bonus, your program staff will LOVE the opportunity to showcase the work they do.