The tagline on a recent John Tobey Events newsletter advises that “small is the new big.” Add “virtual is the new reality,” and you’ve nailed the outlook for charitable fundraising events in 2021.

Denver seated events are currently capped at 150 attendees indoors and 175 for outdoor events, but if COVID-19 positivity rates take a dip from the present 7.5%, it may not be long until hotel ballrooms buzz with the movers, shakers and policymakers who dutifully donned tuxedos and ball gowns to sip, sup and raise big bucks for hundreds of worthy Colorado causes before the pandemic hit.

Don’t get ahead of yourselves, though, warned those in the know. Just because venue capacity is increased one day, things can and do change, often on a day’s notice.

“I’m prepared for all events in 2021 to be virtual,” said former Denver Bronco running back Reggie Rivers who since leaving the gridiron has forged a career as one of the region’s most popular auctioneers and masters of ceremony. In 2020, Rivers, founder and president of The Gala Team, conducted 61 virtual auctions; 84 are already on his calendar for 2021.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been busier,” added Kelli Kindel, founder, guru and chief go-fer of Kelli Kindel Events. In her 38 years as an event planner, Kindel produced high-revenue fundraisers for such prominent clients as Children’s Hospital Colorado, the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and the Dumb Friends League.

“Everybody is feeling super optimistic about a return to things as we once knew them, but honestly, we are living in a pandemic world and have to keep people’s safety in mind. And for that reason alone, virtual and/or hybrid events are here to stay,” she said.

Which isn’t a bad thing, Kindel said, because virtual events by and large are less expensive to produce. For example: Firefly Autism saved $65,000 in catering costs alone when its signature event, Laugh Yourself Blue, went virtual in 2020.

“That’s not so good for our wonderful friends in the catering business,” Kindel admitted, “but it makes a big difference for the nonprofit’s bottom line.”

Other examples: Hope House Colorado, an Arvada-based nonprofit serving teen moms, raised $405,000 from its virtual Maskerade 2020, a $110,000 increase over 2019’s in-person version. The Eating Disorder Foundation, a longtime John Tobey client, spent about $80,000 to produce its annual pre-pandemic Icebreaker Gala, a dinner and auction whose proceeds account for 51.1% of the EDF’s annual budget. Tobey said that by switching to virtual status in 2020, production expenses were cut by half, enabling the Denver nonprofit to net $208,000.

Diana Backstrom, an executive clinical account manager for the international biopharmaceutical company Sobi, chaired the Nathan Yip Foundation’s 2021 Chinese New Year Gala and found it easier and less expensive to execute than an in-person event.

The foundation’s executive director, Tarika Cefkin, engaged Rivers, Kindel and Rollins Productions to give the virtual audience the feeling of being at an in-person event, which made the chairwoman’s job “Pretty much of a breeze. We didn’t have to deal with collecting and transporting auction items to the venue and working with the chefs to be sure we had a terrific Chinese menu for the dinner,” Backstrom said. Also, all correspondence – save-the-date notices, invitations and reply cards and a frequently asked questions list – were done via email, which eliminated printing and postage costs.

Another advantage to virtual events, according to Backstrom, is that participation isn’t limited to venue capacity. “We had people logging in from Australia, Palm Springs and New York City, just to name a few. A virtual event literally opens our doors to the world.”

Literally, indeed. The 2020 Carousel of Hope Ball attracted a worldwide audience pegged at 2 million, thanks to People magazine streaming recorded-for-the-occasion songs and messages from celebrities ranging from Rod Stewart and Jennifer Hudson to George Clooney and Dionne Warwick on PEOPLE.com, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The production raised $1 million for the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

Still, Kindel and Tobey advised groups to be mindful of the elements involved in staging a virtual fundraiser and to not “wing it.”

“Last April, when virtual events were new, you could get away with something simple, like a Zoom setup and no fancy backgrounds, just a lot of faces on little squares on your computer screen and a single camera pointed at the host, speakers and auctioneer,” she said. “Today you need to give your audiences more.”

Which means broadcasting from a studio with professional sound, lighting, cameras and more, such as Rollins Productions, JSAV Denver, CEAVCO and Seawell Ballroom in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. 

National Jewish Health, for example, is featuring entertainment by the Broadway cast of “The Prom” for its virtual Beaux Arts Ball on March 6. Western Fantasy 2020, benefiting Volunteers of America, treated its viewers to a virtual concert by country music’s Lee Brice, and Firefly Autism’s 2020 Laugh Yourself Blue featured comedian Michael Jr., a veteran of “The Tonight Show,” Comedy Central shows and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

2021, John Tobey said, “is going to be all about utilizing innovative spaces and (an event planner’s) creativity.” As attendance restrictions loosen, Tobey and Kindel predicted an increase in “hybrid” or tiered events, where a limited number of people gather in person while others access it virtually.

“Whatever the state says we can have, we will have,” Kindel said, adding that “nontraditional” venues such as tents, parks and beautifully landscaped back yards are bound to be popular going forward. Organizations opting for indoor spaces will choose their venue based on such features as updated air-flow systems and how meals are plated and served.

“Right now you can’t have cocktail hours with passed hors d’oeuvres, buffets where guests serve themselves or entrees that aren’t pre-plated and covered,” Tobey pointed out. But that doesn’t mean masked and gloved waiters handing out plates with soggy food covered in Saran wrap. Tobey recently did a wedding where, instead of one large dance floor, he set up several small ones. He also had the chef prepare individual wedding cakes served in domed containers. “When someone says you can’t do something I follow the rules – but I make it cool.”

One of 2021’s first hybrid events was Arrupe Jesuit High School’s annual fundraiser, where 119 VIPs were grouped throughout several of the school’s classrooms to enjoy a pre-plated dinner, program and auction while an additional 285 VIP ticketholders had dinners delivered to their homes. Five hundred others tuned in to the virtual presentation for free.

The biggest stumbling blocks for in-person events revolve around mask wearing and whether guests need to provide proof of their COVID vaccination. Those are “sticky situations,” Rivers admitted. “The organizations aren’t going to want to nag people and risk alienating a donor. And what liability would the host, the venue or the committee have should there be an outbreak?”

His suggestion: A “third-party enforcer” for mask compliance. “The vaccination question,” Kindel added, “raises huge questions of equity and fairness, but it’s something we have to address. No organization or venue wants to be the lead story on the 10 o’clock news.”

Another concern with a hybrid event is determining who gets to be there in person. Kindel said she is already working on solutions for dealing with the people who want to attend the live event but aren’t one of the organization’s higher-end donors. “Maybe it’s a production like ‘America’s Got Talent,’ where the camera follows the host around as he or she gives a running, behind-the-scenes commentary so those participating from home feel like they’re getting something those in the actual venue aren’t privy to. It isn’t going to be easy, but we’ll figure it out.”

Still – and no judgement as to whether it’s right or wrong – there will always be organizations that do not embrace the virtual world and will continue to fundraise the old-fashioned way: by making direct appeals to their donors via snail mail.