Kevin The Event Host and Charity Auctioneer

Full Biography

Kevin Durham is a professional charity auctioneer, event host and MC who has raised over £10 million for good causes since 2005. He works across the UK, Europe and the United States, from 100-guest charity dinners to galas of several thousand, and has hosted more than 800 events.

The auction and the pledge

Most charity auctions underperform. Not because the lots are wrong or the room is cold, but because nobody is actively driving it. Kevin's job is the momentum: pacing the bidding, reading where the money actually sits in the room, and building to the point where giving feels like the best part of the night rather than the part everyone endures.

The live pledge, sometimes called fund-a-need, is usually the highest-earning ten minutes of a gala when it is structured properly, and it is the segment Kevin is booked for most often. At a Monaco gala for the Sheba Medical Center, the evening raised more than €1,000,000. Other clients have doubled their target on the night, and one tripled it. A single pledge segment has brought in close to £20,000 on its own.

Kevin also works on the parts that happen months before he picks up a microphone: which lots to source and which to leave out, where the auction sits in the running order, and how to structure the pledge so the room lifts instead of stalling. Every booking includes that planning conversation. Silent auctions are run in house, on software with no platform commission, so more of what is raised stays with the charity.

The entertainment

Very few charity auctioneers arrive with an entertainment package. Kevin does, and it is built from broadcast game show formats rebuilt for a live room:

• Family Fortunes, with 100 people surveyed on your organisation and the answers up on screen. The wrong ones always get the bigger laugh.
• The Generation Game, conveyor belt included, and the segment that gets photographed most.
• Play Your Cards Right, higher or lower on screen, with the whole room shouting at one person holding a card.

Each runs 15 to 20 minutes, and every question is written for the audience in front of him. Alongside those there are table-side rounds played between courses so the meal never goes quiet, comedy quizzes with a live scoreboard set up so the trailing tables stay in it, and whole-room icebreakers such as heads or tails that have everyone standing inside two minutes and raise money while they do it.

A room that has laughed together bids differently. The entertainment is not a separate act booked to fill a gap in the running order. It is what warms the room before the evening asks it for money.

Master of ceremonies and event host

Kevin hosts the whole evening: arrivals, speeches, dinner transitions, awards, entertainment, the auction, the pledge and the close. Booking one person for the hosting and the auctioneering removes the handover between an MC and a separate auctioneer, which tends to cost a room its energy at exactly the moment the energy matters most.

Outside charity work he hosts corporate award ceremonies, conferences, product launches and family festivals, and has presented to crowds of over 80,000. Deborah Meaden and Ray Parlour are among those who have publicly endorsed his hosting, and he holds a 5.0 star rating across 29 reviews.

Background

Kevin's first event, in 2005, put him on a stage with Annie Lennox. He spent years in television presenting for Fox, Warner and Universal, interviewing Will Ferrell, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon and Robin Williams, and came close to landing his own chat show on Comedy Central. That is the difference on the night: twenty years of live television and stagecraft, pointed squarely at a fundraising total.

Momentum is a skill, not luck, and it shows up in the final figure.

Fundraising

• Live charity auction
• Live pledge drive (fund-a-need)
• Silent auction, run in house
• Silent auction software, no platform commission
• Auction lot sourcing and selection
• Running order and auction placement planning
• Pre-event fundraising strategy session
• Raffle and prize draws
• Heads or tails
• The envelope game
• Table-versus-table donation rounds
• Donor thank-yous and on-stage recognition

Hosting and MC

• Charity gala and fundraising dinner host
• Award ceremony host
• Conference host and chair
• Panel moderation
• Speaker introductions and Q&A facilitation
• Product launch host
• Venue and brand launch host
• Family festival and outdoor event presenting
• Wedding toastmaster and wedding MC
• Wedding 4K video guestbook, included
• Streamed and hybrid event hosting, to camera and autocue
• Script writing, rehearsal and running order management
• Pre-event briefing and planning call, standard with every booking

Entertainment

• Family Fortunes, surveyed on your organisation
• The Generation Game, conveyor belt included
• Play Your Cards Right
• Bespoke game show formats, written for your audience
• Comedy quiz with live scoreboard
• Table-side rounds between courses
• Whole-room icebreakers
• Table-to-stage competitions

30 Customer Reviews

Artist Location, Travel & Pricing

Price from £1,078 + travel from Kent

Based on 1 person performing 5 hours hosting.

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