A guest raises bidder paddle 305 during the live auction in a full ballroom at the Buckhead Rotary Foundation Benefit.
Buckhead Rotary Club Foundation Benefit

The room you want to be in front of.

One black-tie night each spring draws the widest cross-section of Buckhead’s movers and shakers you will find in one place. These are the people who run this city’s companies, and the ones most inclined to give back. Sponsoring puts your name in front of all of them, and a table in the middle of it.

Sign up to sponsor
$638,736 raised across the last three benefits
Up 31% sponsorship growth, three years running
~250 guests, most of them decision-makers
75 years of Rotary service in Buckhead

Who’s actually here

Buckhead Rotary is not a mailing list. It is a 75-year-old club of Atlanta owners, principals and executives who show up in person every week. Once a year they bring their spouses, their clients and their checkbooks to the same ballroom.

Bank presidents, developers, agency owners, hospital and university leadership, franchise operators, and the people who run this city’s largest nonprofits. Sponsoring the benefit puts your name in front of them for four hours while they are relaxed, generous and paying attention.

It is the only night of the year when all of them are in the same room, and sponsor tables sit right in the middle of it.

Six guests in black tie gathered around a table at the benefit, several wearing sponsor badges.
Sponsor tables sit in the heart of the room, not at the back.
Guests talking and laughing during the cocktail reception before dinner.

Nearly $640,000 raised in three years

Rotary clubs are famous for good intentions. This one keeps books. Here is where every dollar came from across the last three benefits, straight from the Foundation’s own accounting.

Buckhead Rotary Foundation Benefit: funds raised by source and year
Revenue source 2024 2025 2026 Three-year total
Sponsorships$84,840$95,344$111,250$291,434
Auction$84,695$52,425$44,730$181,850
Donations and Fund-A-Need$25,660$28,599$26,658$80,917
Admissions$26,906$28,441$29,188$84,535
Total raised$222,101$204,809$211,826$638,736

Figures are funds raised, before event costs. Patron sponsorships are counted as sponsorship revenue in all three years; the 2024 year-end statement listed them separately, so $5,840 of 2024 patron support appears here under Sponsorships rather than Donations. Both readings total the same $222,101. 2026 reflects receipts recorded as of April 14, 2026. Proceeds go to the Buckhead Rotary Foundation, a 501(c)(3), and out to local grantees.

Sponsorship has grown three years running

Auction totals rise and fall with whatever trips and paintings get donated. Sponsorship has done one thing: gone up, by 31% in three years. Companies that buy in tend to renew, which is the clearest signal we can give you about whether this works.

$84,840

2024

$95,344

2025

$111,250

2026

Organizations represented at recent benefits

A partial list, drawn from who bought tables, sponsored, and bid over the last two years.

The network meets every week

The benefit is one night. The club is every week. Roughly 160 members meet over lunch, and the podium is a standing invitation to the people running Atlanta and Georgia. Members ask questions and stay afterward to talk.

A sponsorship buys into that network, not just a table at a party.

Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta, addressing the club from the podium beside the Buckhead Rotary Club banner.
Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta
Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, addressing the club from the podium beside the Buckhead Rotary Club banner.
Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia
Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta Chief of Police, addressing the club from the podium beside the Buckhead Rotary Club banner.
Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta Chief of Police
William Pate, President and CEO of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, presenting from the club podium.
William Pate, President and CEO, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau
Kim Greene, Chairman, President and CEO of Georgia Power, taking questions in a seated conversation at a club meeting.
Kim Greene, Chairman, President and CEO, Georgia Power
Kathy N. Waller, the 2027 honoree, pictured against an Atlanta skyline with the Buckhead Rotary Club logo.

The 2027 honoree

Kathy Waller

On the night, the Foundation will honor Kathy Waller, Executive Director of the Atlanta Committee for Progress. Founded in 2003, ACP brings together 40 of the region’s key business, civic and academic leaders to work alongside the Mayor on the issues shaping this city.

Kathy spent 32 years at The Coca-Cola Company, retiring in 2019 as Chief Financial Officer and President of Enabling Services. She led the company’s global finance, technical and shared services organizations, represented it to investors, lenders and rating agencies, and was founding chair of its Women’s Leadership Council. She serves on the boards of Delta Air Lines, CGI Group and Beyond Meat.

Her service to Atlanta runs just as deep. She is a trustee of United Way of Greater Atlanta, Spelman College, the University of Rochester, the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, Achieve Atlanta, the Woodruff Arts Center and the Atlanta History Center.

She rolls up her sleeves, gets the work done.

Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta

What a sponsorship buys

Seats first. Visibility second. Each level includes everything in the level below it, so the higher you go the more of the room you are in front of.

Presenting

  • Admission for 10 guests, with a thank you at your table
  • A speaking opportunity, plus recognition of a designated representative at a weekly club meeting in 2026-2027 and at the event
  • Prominent Presenting Sponsor recognition in all communications
  • Everything in Diamond

$15,000

Diamond

  • Admission for 8 guests, with a thank you at your table
  • Photo opportunities with the honoree at the event
  • Prominent Diamond Sponsor recognition in all communications
  • Everything in Gold

$10,000

Gold

  • Admission for 6 guests, with a thank you at your table
  • Recognition of a designated representative at a weekly club meeting in 2026-2027
  • Prominent Gold Sponsor recognition in all communications
  • Everything in Silver

$5,000

Silver

  • Admission for 4 guests, with a thank you at your table
  • Prominent Silver Sponsor recognition in all communications
  • Everything in Bronze

$2,500

Bronze

  • Admission for 2 guests
  • Your logo on the event website, linked to your own site
  • Sponsor recognition displayed at the event
  • Sponsor recognition at Rotary Club of Buckhead weekly meetings

$1,500

Sign up to sponsor

Want to talk about additional sponsorship opportunities and benefits? Ford Donohue, our Sponsor Chair, is the person to ask. His details are at the bottom of this page.

The evening

Cocktails, dinner, a live auction, and a Fund-A-Need where the whole room gives at once. Then the band plays and people stay to the end.

A raised bidder paddle numbered 211 under the ballroom chandeliers during the live auction. Two guests laughing at their table, one holding bidder paddle 140. Gala entrance signage beside the silent auction display tables. A speaker at the podium with the Buckhead Rotary Club banner, joined on stage by family members. A bartender pours drinks for guests during the cocktail reception. A couple dancing in front of the live band at the end of the evening.

Come see it for yourself

The next Foundation Benefit is Saturday, March 13, 2027 at 7:00 PM. Sponsorship commitments are taken through the fall, and the best tables go first. If you would rather walk the room before you decide, say so. We will get you a seat at this year’s club luncheon and introduce you around.

Sign up to sponsor Or talk it through first
Ford Donohue
Sponsor Chair, Buckhead Rotary Foundation
ford.donohue@hbwealth.com
404.264.1400