Toast for the Coast, an evening celebrating the beauty of the region’s coastal communities while investing in their future, is planned for Nov. 21 from 5:30 to 10 p.m.
The fundraising gala will bring together community leaders, conservation advocates, local businesses and supporters for a night of food, cocktails, live entertainment and a silent auction.
Where the Money Goes
The event will benefit nine environmental organizations working across the central Gulf Coast:
- Mobile Baykeeper
- Sea, Sand and Stars
- The Perdido Key Association
- The Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation
- The Gulf Coast Eco Center
- The Auburn University Gulf Coast Engineering Research Station
- The Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program
- The Alabama Coastal Foundation
- Alabama Coastal Cleanup
A Deliberately Wide Net
The beneficiary list is unusual for a single gala, and its composition says something about how coastal environmental work is organized in this region.
The nine organizations do different things. Mobile Baykeeper is an advocacy and water-quality watchdog. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation supports marine science research and education. Sea, Sand and Stars is an environmental education center. The Auburn University Gulf Coast Engineering Research Station conducts applied coastal engineering research. The Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program is a watershed-scale planning body. Alabama Coastal Cleanup organizes the state’s largest annual volunteer litter removal.
Together they cover advocacy, research, education, restoration and volunteer mobilization — and they operate across a coastline that crosses the Alabama-Florida state line without regard for it. The event’s geographic reach, from Mobile Bay to Perdido Key and Pensacola, mirrors the watershed rather than the jurisdiction.
For smaller organizations in that group, a share of a single well-attended gala can represent a meaningful portion of an annual operating budget.
Tickets and Sponsorship
Tickets are $250. Sponsorships are available starting at $5,000.
The pricing places this in the category of a major annual benefit rather than a general-admission community event. At that level, sponsorship revenue typically exceeds ticket revenue substantially, and the ticket price largely covers the cost of the evening itself — the food, venue, entertainment and staffing — so that sponsorships and auction proceeds flow through to the beneficiaries.
The Evening
The program includes food, cocktails, live entertainment and a silent auction, running from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on Nov. 21.
A November date places the event after hurricane season and well into the coast’s most comfortable weather, in a stretch of the calendar when regional nonprofits concentrate their major fundraising.
Ticket and sponsorship information is available through the participating organizations.