Houston Ballet’s Charity Ball Offers a Blueprint for Pandemic-Era Hybrid Events

As more people across the country receive Covid-19 vaccines, nonprofit leaders are starting to consider what a cautious return to in-person fundraising events might look like. The Houston Ballet’s successful 2021 spring ball offers a blueprint for charities that want to experiment with hybrid events that include a combination of socially distanced in-person gatherings and virtual programming.

Prepandemic, the organization’s spring ball was one of its biggest fundraising events. The February 2020 gala celebrating the ballet company’s 50th anniversary raised $1.8 million, the most its ever raised at a charity ball. The group’s fundraising team knew the Houston Ballet Ball Home Edition couldn’t come close to raising that amount this year, but the event found success in other ways. The March 6 program included micro parties in private residences in addition to a lively virtual program and raised nearly $850,000, much more than the $500,000 the group’s fundraisers were hoping for.

Based on that experience, officials at the nonprofit shared their advice for planning a safe and successful program. Among the key ingredients: Invite only a small group of people to the in-person portion, provide donors who host small gatherings with planning and other support, and make sure the videotaped content has the feel and energy of a live event. Flexibility is also critical.

“We knew we had to have a flexible model because we really didn’t know what we were dealing with every day and every month,” says Angie Lane, the organization’s chief development officer. “We were not sure what our longtime patrons would be comfortable with, what protocols our city would require, or what the impact of vaccines might be.”

Keep It Flexible

Over the past year and a half, Lane and her team had become familiar with uncertainty. After the February 2020 spring gala, they were all set to start planning the ballet’s 2021 event. Then the pandemic hit, raising questions about how to proceed. Would the pandemic subside enough in the coming months to make it possible to plan a big in-person gala? Even if that sort of event were possible, would people want to attend?

In addition, the ballet company suspended all performances on March 13, 2020, and the loss of ticket revenue over the following months took a devastating toll on the organization’s earned income. That prompted the launch of an emergency campaign to raise $5 million to keep the ballet company’s dancers and staff afloat. (The organization reached that goal in addition to what it raised at the gala.) With supporters already being tapped to donate to the emergency fund, would they want to buy tickets to a charity gala as well? There were so many unanswered questions.

As the pandemic stretched on, it became clear that an in-person spring gala inside the organization’s Wortham Center was out of the question. So was spending precious resources on an expensive outdoor tent that had as much potential to facilitate a super-spreader event as a fancy indoor ball. Also unclear: when vaccines might be available to the public.

While it was impossible to predict what spring of 2021 would look like, Lane and her team were committed to finding ways to hold a fundraising gala that would be both fun and exciting and would balance safety with patrons’ varying comfort levels.

“We kept hearing vaccines were coming so we said why don’t we make this a flexible model so that people can gather in their own homes,” Lane says. Last summer, she and her team of 16, including three special-events staff members whom Lane says deserve much of the credit for the ball, began planning the hybrid event.

Houston Ballet officials sought input from an infectious-disease specialist and medical professionals at Houston Methodist Hospital to help the entire organization ensure safety protocols would be in place at all events, including when dancers were being filmed for some of the virtual content that would be presented during the gala.

Detailed Support

Houston Ballet’s creative teams started producing the video content while Lane and her development crew got to work designing two options for participants. Those who wanted to host black-tie in-person gatherings where they could invite a modest number of guests into their home for a catered, multi-course dinner and watch party; and another for those participants who wanted to stay home and view Houston Ballet’s virtual content with family members from the comfort of their sofa.

In all, about 250 supporters participated, says Lane. The entire event cost $110,000, compared with the roughly $300,000 the organization usually spends on the gala. At least four trustees hosted watch parties in their homes, and many supporters held mini soirees in their backyards with about 10 to 12 guests. One host held a slightly more elaborate affair with 30 guests, all of whom had been vaccinated.

On the day of the gala, Lane’s team sent dinner and gift bags to those who wanted to stay at home. Her staff had provided people who wanted to host a micro event with a list of several local caterers and event planners. The ballet covered the costs of the meals, drinks, and basic décor like floral centerpieces up to a certain level based on how much the host had donated for the event. If hosts wanted to upgrade the decorations or meal, or add special wines or other extras, they paid for it themselves.

This year’s Ballet Ball had a 1970s disco theme, so the organization created retro-looking holographic goody bags filled with disco ball cups, sequined face masks, a silver tote bag, two Houston Ballet T-shirts, and a tie-dye kit.

Lane and her colleagues also handled much of the nuts and bolts planning for the micro events. They coordinated with each host on details like the best times for the event planner to set up tables and decorations. They provided hosts with a custom playlist of 70s-era music that people could use as the soundtrack for their parties. They also coordinated the meal and acted as liaisons between hosts and the caterers, helping to determine which meal would work best for guests, what time the caterers should show up at a hosts’ home, and when a ballet staff member could drop off the gift bags.

Beth Zdeblick, a board member who held one of the micro events in her backyard, says Lane’s team provided her with a level of support that made hosting the event much easier than it would have been if she had had to do it on her own.

Wilson Parish

“They were like the behind-the-scenes angels doing everything for me,” says Zdeblick.

Since part of the videotaped program included speeches by several former Ballet Ball chairs, Lane’s team also provided a script or talking points to board members who wanted that assistance, as well as instructions about how to record and film the speech at home for the team putting the video content together. Zdeblick, who gave one of the taped speeches for the video, says the extra help Lane’s team provided put her at ease and saved time.

“You can go off script if you want, but they help you stick to the main points,” she says. “It’s really helpful from a time perspective to not have to sit down and write my owns scripts.”

Zdeblick says her event went smoothly. Keeping the gathering small helped her and her guests feel comfortable enough to enjoy the night. She had 12 people (all vaccinated) seated socially distanced at one large outdoor table. To further cut down on the number of people entering her home, just one masked server from the catering company brought the precooked dinners, heated and plated the meals inside her kitchen, and then served the guests outdoors.

“I was really worried about all of the food being served by just one person, but they prepped it really well,” says Zdeblick. “From a safety perspective, it felt good that there was only one person instead of multiple people in my kitchen.”

‘Make It Feel Celebratory’

Whether Ballet Ball participants were celebrating at black-tie gatherings like Zdeblick’s or quietly at home with one or two family members, the main event was the 45-minute video created by the ballet company. To create a sense of excitement in the moment, Houston Ballet staff sent party hosts and other participants a link to the taped content that didn’t go live until 7 p.m. that evening.

When they tuned in, they were treated to a cheeky and stylish intro — a remake of the opening scene from the classic disco-era film Saturday Night Fever and a humorous mash-up of Houston Ballet dancers in full-on disco regalia dancing to one of the film’s iconic songs. That was followed by a taped greeting from one of the company’s principal dancers and a company executive who thanked sponsors and others who helped bring the event to life. Speeches from artistic director Stanton Welch, another company dancer, and several trustees were interspersed with footage of exciting moments from past galas, a raffle, and excerpts from a film of Welch’s new ballet, In Good Company.

“We wanted something that felt like live and would have the excitement of live without actually being live,” says Lane. “We wanted to give some sense of urgency that the content was only available during this time and make it feel celebratory.”

The raffle helped create that in-the-moment energy. Gala participants were eligible to win several items or experiences (a gift certificate to a local jewelry store, for example, or a private wine tasting), and winners were announced during the video. Houston Ballet employees were informed ahead of time which participants’ names were randomly chosen. They were positioned outside a raffle winner’s home, and when the winner’s name was read on the video, they knocked on the door and presented the prize certificate.

As other nonprofits plan small in-person or hybrid fundraising events, Lane advises leaders to keep the patron experience top of mind.

Organizations have a tendency to think about events from the perspective of their own fundraising needs, she says. But that won’t necessarily make them a success.

“We always want to think about it from the guest perspective,” Lane says. “I’ve attended a lot of virtual balls where it was a lot about the organization’s needs, and that’s not what these programs should be. Patron experience should always be the guiding light.”