Photography by Megan Mumford
This story is part of our annual Capital Region Gives Back initiative that honors 10 locals who are making our community a better place. Read up on all of the 2025 honorees and join us on December 2 for the 7th annual Capital Region Gives Back event at Putnam Place.
Lots of people work side jobs. Most side jobs, however, don’t involve raising millions of dollars for charity—sometimes in a single night.
One of the country’s foremost benefit auctioneers, Delmar resident Tom Stebbins specializes in the fine art of the paddle raise. He travels the country in a flashy suit jacket to attend charity fundraisers at which he asks attendees, who’ve already paid a pretty penny to be there, for more money. Some people would balk at the idea of flat-out asking those who’ve already supported an organization to give even more. Stebbins isn’t just willing to ask—he thinks it’d be a missed opportunity not to.
“The people who are at fundraising events are there for a reason,” he says. “Too often, charities spend time explaining to their audience the reason. If they’re there, they know. My job is to turn their emotion into donations.”
Over the years, Stebbins has developed a pragmatic approach to the business of fundraising events: Take the floor immediately following the most impactful part of the program, enthusiastically thank each donor to create an environment in which people feel left out if they don’t donate, and pull out a five-liter bottle of wine for the last person who donates in an effort to squeeze those last few dollars out of the crowd. But don’t think that this methodical approach to raising money makes him any less emotionally susceptible to the power of an impactful mission. Stebbins is especially moved by organizations that serve individuals with traumatic brain injury (his oldest brother was injured in a car accident that rendered him quadriplegic when he was 16) and has donated his auctioneering services to such organizations in the past. He also gives a significant discount to local charities, he says, “not just because it’s easier for me, but because it’s the community I live in.”
One local nonprofit that Stebbins is proud to support is the South End Children’s Café, an organization that provides underprivileged children in Albany’s South End with healthy, free meals as well as opportunities for physical exercise and creative expression.
“As much as I like the national charities and the big, million-dollar galas,” he says, “my favorite clients are my smaller clients, where raising an extra $30,000 or $50,000 really makes an impact.”
