Living Legends Gala
The Assignment & Challenge:
Living Legends Gala is an annual fundraiser held in December to support the Museum of African History in Boston and Nantucket. The gala is the museum’s largest fundraiser and over the past 5 years the gala became stagnant and donors decreased. The Museum turned to AJ Events with the hopes that we could increase fundraising, reduce expenses, expand partnerships and sponsors and ultimately maximize revenue in addition to producing the gala.
Event Execution:
We listened to the Museum’s overall goals and future plans. With a tailored and strategic approach, we developed an event plan and fundraising campaign for the 2018 Gala. AJ Events secured and managed an event committee and co-chairs, Living Legend award recipients US Attorney General Eric Holder and Black-ish star, Anthony Anderson which created buzz and star power. We solicited and secured corporate sponsorships, new and past, as well as handled the overall event logistics including program script writing which added better content to the Gala. Guests learned more about the Museum and black history in Massachusetts. With our Guidance in 2018 we were able to increase their fundraising goal which created energy for the 2019 Gala.
As a result the Museum rehired AJ Events in February 2019. AJ then created another fundraising event in June to support the Nantucket site. The event was called Night in White and in just a few months we executed a must attend event on the island of Nantucket. Anthony Anderson returned to host the Gala in Boston as host and the event sold out even though we doubled the ticket price. At the end of the year, AJ Events raised $750,000 in 2019 for the Museum.
The Results:
The results were substantial
SOLD OUT all 3 events
Created needed exposure for the Nantucket site
Increased the level of attendees for the Boston Gala
Raised Sponsorships in the amount of $100k in a short 2 months prior to event date and $150k during the live auction
New key corporate partnerships were established
Engagement increased due to storytelling
Raised $1,090,000++ to date and counting
Received countless media in Boston and Nantucket
Momentum was built to carry the Museum forward into the next decade
Photos by: Michael Blanchard Photography
