Professional charity auctioneer & host
Your fundraising target, smashed cheerfully, on a night that feels like a celebration.
I’m Kevin Durham. I’ve spent twenty years taking the timing and stagecraft of live television into charity ballrooms, and pointing all of it at one number: yours. Your guests get a brilliant night, your charity clears its target with room to spare, and I get the best job in the world.
- £10m+ raised for charity
- €1m in one Monaco night
- 5-star reviewed
The honest version
Most charity auctions leave money on the table. Not because your lots are wrong or your room is cold, but because nobody is driving.
I read a room’s momentum, name it out loud, and use it. That is the difference between hitting your target and doubling it. It is also why I will happily tell a gentleman he’d be sung about around campfires if he found another hundred pounds. He found it.
Why the room responds
A volunteer reads out the lots. I run the room.
I started out in television, interviewing the likes of Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon and Robin Williams for Fox, Warner and Universal. Fundraising gets the best of that training: the timing, the stagecraft, and the knack for holding a room exactly where it needs to be. It is why donors stay engaged and why the bidding keeps climbing.
- Momentum is a skill, not luck
- A structured pledge drive usually out-earns the lots
- Lots sourced in-house keep more with your charity
- Twenty guests or two thousand, I hold the room the same way
What I do
Everything your fundraising night needs
From the headline live auction to the games that keep your guests smiling, all of it built around your target.
Live charity auctions
The main event. Sharp calls, live banter and real strategy to keep competitive bidding alive and push the top lots well past their reserves. I am told I am politely difficult to say no to.
Live pledges
Often the highest-earning part of the night, and the part where I put the jokes down. I connect the room to your cause, then run tiered giving that lifts the total sharply. This is where the real money lives.
Event hosting and MC
The full programme, from arrivals and speeches to dinner transitions and the close. Pacing, energy, and a room that never once checks its watch.
Entertainment packages
Games, quizzes, table-to-stage competitions and comedy. Very few charity auctioneers can bring the whole show. I can, and I do.
Fundraising games
Interactive moments built to lift donations and hold attention. Heads or tails takes ninety seconds, costs nothing to run, and warms a room up beautifully.
Strategy consultation
A pre-event partnership on lot sourcing, programme structure, bidding strategy and audience psychology. The first consultation is free, which I am reliably informed is excellent value.
A rare combination
I don’t just call the bids. I bring the whole show.
Interactive games, quizzes and table-to-stage competitions, hosted with a TV presenter’s timing. Very few charity auctioneers offer the entertainment too. It means the whole night lands, not just the auction.
Run your silent auction in-house, and keep the commission.
Most platforms take a slice of everything you raise, which has never sat right with me. When you hire me, I set you up on my own software for free and help you source the lots, so thousands more stay with your charity.
- No per-lot commission handed to a third party
- Free software, set up for your event size
- Mobile bidding, joined up with the live auction and pledge
A signature night
Over €1 million raised in Monaco, in one evening
The Sheba Medical Center gala, held under the high patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Yacht Club in Monte Carlo. A high-net-worth, multilingual room, and I held it from the first lot to the final pledge. Nights like that belong to the cause and the team behind it. I just made sure nobody left quietly.
“Due to his brilliant auction and donations we raised over 1 million Euro, so a big congrats on this fantastic job.”
What organisers say
The results, in their words
He owned the room as he conducted the live auction, more than doubling our target. It was not just during the event where Kevin showed his skills, but also in guiding our planning.
We were able to 10x our original fundraising target, and our guests enjoyed the entertainment that came with the auction itself.
We hosted just over 300 guests and raised more than double what we achieved last year. Kevin’s key suggestion, the live pledge alone, brought in nearly £20,000.
His energy, enthusiasm and natural charisma lit up the room. We’ve already booked him for the next one.
He was absolutely brilliant to work with. He cared about the professionalism of the event and reaching our targets. We look forward to working with Kevin again.
He added a pledge element we hadn’t considered and it became hugely successful. He made our first charity auction a huge success.
Trusted by fundraising teams at
How it works
Four steps to a total that beats the plan
- 01
A free consultation
We talk through your event, your target and your room. No fee, no obligation, and if I am not the right fit for your night, I will tell you.
- 02
Strategy before the night
Lot selection, sequencing and the pledge structure, planned together before the night. This quiet part is where most of the extra money is made.
- 03
On the night
I host, I read the room and I drive the bidding, so the programme runs to time and the energy never drops.
- 04
The total
You clear your target, and more often than not you beat it. The final figure is the only review that really matters.
About me
From live television to the fundraising room
My first charity event, back in 2005, put me on a stage alongside Annie Lennox. I have been chasing the feeling of that night ever since.
Before fundraising it was television and comedy: presenting and interviews for Fox, Warner and Universal. These days I run 60 to 80 events a year across the UK, Europe and the US, and I stay virtually teetotal on the night. Your total matters more than my glass of red.
See it in action
Watch me work a room
Let’s talk
Tell me about your event
A free initial consultation to talk through your goals, your room and your target. I work across the UK, Europe and the US, and yes, that really is my own mobile number.