What happens when a K-12 advancement team finally finds an AUCTION and GALA platform that actually talks to Raiser's Edge? GRACE Christian School spent over a decade on an auction platform that required manual card runs, triple data entry, and three-plus weeks of post-event data entry and cleanup — and some of that data never made it to RE at all. In their first year with a new approach, they ran a full gala evening — dinner, ticketing, raffle (not silent auction), live auction, and paddle raise — doubled their auction item values through engaged bidders, doubled their paddle raiser spend, raised 50% more than the year before, and closed the books the morning after with a few quick clicks on the Trellis platform, which directly integrates with Raiser's Edge.

This session is Michele Bandy's unfiltered story — what broke, what changed, and what's now possible when every part of your event night — from the moment a guest buys a ticket to the final paddle raise bid — flows seamlessly into Raiser's Edge without anyone typing it twice. No feature lists. Just a real school telling a real story that will sound very familiar to anyone who has ever spent weeks cleaning up after their annual gala.

Attendees will leave with:

• A clear picture of what a fully integrated event-to-RE workflow actually looks like in practice — from ticket sales through post-event reconciliation
• The questions every RE NXT user should ask when evaluating any event platform
• Three frameworks you can apply immediately:
  • Raise more without doing more: how the right platform unlocks revenue you're already leaving on the table
  • Reconcile in days, not weeks: what a same-night close actually requires and how to get there
  • Get your whole team bought in: how to set up your gala so donors love it, volunteers can run it, your database admin isn't buried, and your finance team closes clean
  • Manage every aspect of your gala and auction in one easy-to-use platform, including sponsorships, ticketing, online and live auctions, raffles, and paddle raises.

Built for fundraisers, it helps you create a mission-driven event where your cause takes center stage—not the technology.