The face of the traditional charity event has changed beyond all recognition in recent years. it’s out with the old jumble sales and cake sales. Today’s philanthropist wants glamour and glitz. That accounts for the surge in popularity of charity dinners and balls, each complete with its own after dinner speaker. There is an obvious outlay involved in using and after dinner speaker: they will charge a fee. However, don’t write off the idea: the benefits can far outweigh the costs.

When organising a charity dinner or ball, organisers are obviously keen to improve attendance. This is especially important when the majority of revenue will be coming from ticket sales. When organising a charity event, there is almost always a group of local, loyal supporters of the cause who can be relied upon to attend, the problem is encouraging other people to attend. Attracting their interest in your event by hiring an interesting and well known after dinner speaker can only be a good thing. Book an after dinner speaker who is famous, whether a TV personality, a local celebrity or a sports star and advertise the fact in the local press and you will attract attendees who might otherwise not have been interested.

Hiring a celebrity after dinner speaker will start the ball rolling and get people talking about your cause, giving you extra publicity. If just one person carries out an internet search about your charity as a result of the presence of the after dinner speaker and mentions its work to their friends then raising awareness of the charity has to be a positive.

Donations can be seriously boosted if the after dinner speaker can talk passionately and in a convincing manner about your cause. Famous people are often looked up to as role models so can work wonders in encouraging people to take up your cause.

Finally, don’t just leave your after dinner speaker to do just a speech; involve them in other parts of the event. Is there an auction they could host? Get business from the area to donate gifts and the speaker’s charisma and stage presence can be manipulated to encourage bidding.

Don’t let the after dinner speaker’s fee put you off hiring one: they can bring huge benefits. Give it a go and you might just be surprised.