A working guide from The Scottsdale Signal newsroom — reviewed and revised on a rolling basis. Last reviewed May 2026.

There is no faster way to meet the room you want to know in Scottsdale than to buy a table at the right gala. The season runs roughly October through April. Below is what you need to know to navigate it.

A note on culture: nobody in this town will think you're trying too hard if you show up to your first ten galas. They will think you're not serious if you show up to none.

The marquee nights

These are the four largest, longest-running, and most socially central events of the year. New arrivals should plan to attend all four within the first season.

Heart Ball — American Heart Association. February. The single largest black-tie of the season by attendance and ticket revenue. The Phoenician historically; venue has rotated. Tables: $7,500–$50,000.

Symphony Ball — Phoenix Symphony. Late winter. The classical-music establishment of the metro turns out for this one. Tables: $5,000–$25,000.

Phoenix Art Museum Annual Gala — November. The arts establishment. Tables: $5,000–$30,000.

ASU Foundation Gala (when held; also called the President's Club Gala) — varies. The university's largest fundraising night. Tables: by invitation tier, generally starts at $25,000.

The high-impact mid-tier

A second tier of galas with more focused constituencies — pick the one or two that match your philanthropic interests.

Mayo Clinic Arizona Forum — Mayo Clinic philanthropic events. The medical-establishment dinner of the metro. Tables: by invitation, generally $10,000+.

Phoenix Children's Hospital — Beach Ball / similar — fall. The pediatrics/healthcare crowd. Tables: $5,000–$25,000.

Banner Foundation events — Banner is the metro's largest hospital system; multiple events per year, several gala-tier.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale Annual Auction — March. A surprisingly central gala for the Scottsdale-establishment crowd specifically (vs. the broader metro).

Make-A-Wish Arizona Wish Ball — March. The local Wish chapter is one of the largest in the country; this is one of the biggest single-night fundraisers in the metro.

Fresh Start Women's Foundation — fall luncheon and gala. Influential women's-philanthropy crowd.

ICAN Power of Children Gala — supports East Valley youth services. Long-running and respected.

Phoenix Open Week — adjacent to the season

The Waste Management Phoenix Open (WMPO) runs late January / early February. A tier of charity events anchors the week:

Thunderbirds Charities events — the Phoenix Thunderbirds civic organization underwrites most Open-week philanthropy and has skybox stake structures that effectively double as fundraising. The biggest single revenue event of the metro's social calendar.

Marshall's Open / pro-am — by invitation; the social adjacency to the Open if you're not on the Thunderbirds list.

Phoenix Open week effectively functions as an unofficial city-wide gala season-within-a-season; if you attend nothing else in your first year, attend the Phoenix Open social circuit.

How to think about it

Buy one table early. The Heart Ball is the safest first table because the room is the broadest cross-section of the metro. The Phoenix Art Museum gala is the safest if you skew arts and culture. The Phoenix Open social circuit if you skew business and golf.

Sit with people. A table is 8–10 seats. Fill it with mixed company — one or two close friends, the rest as introductions. The point of a table is to broker relationships you don't already have.

Show up early; stay through the program. Most galas have a 6:00–6:45 reception, a 7:00–8:30 dinner-and-program, and an 8:30–11:00 entertainment / dancing / paddle raise. The networking happens in the first hour. The auction happens in the middle. The relationships consolidate in the last hour. Skip none of it.

Bid the paddle raise. The fundraising structure of every gala includes a "paddle raise" or fund-a-need where the auctioneer asks the room to give at fixed levels ($25,000, $10,000, $5,000, $1,000). This is not optional if you're a table host or sponsor; it's a quiet expectation.

Cost realities

A starter posture in your first season: $5,000–$10,000 for one table at one marquee gala, plus $1,000–$2,500 for individual tickets at three or four others. Total seasonal investment: $15,000–$25,000 for someone establishing themselves.

A senior posture (multiple tables, sponsorships, chair roles): $75,000–$250,000+ across the season. This is the level at which you start getting invited to the smaller pre-events, dinners-of-eight, and after-parties that drive most of the actual relationship-building.

What to wear

The Heart Ball, Symphony, and Art Museum nights are full black-tie — black tuxedo for men, formal gown for women. The mid-tier nights drift toward "creative black-tie" or "Arizona black-tie" which means your tuxedo is fine but not required, a dark suit and a serious shirt is acceptable, and women have wider latitude. Phoenix Open week is golf-resort cocktail; dark blazer over open-collar shirt is the safe default.

Where to find the calendar

The metro's social-calendar publications — Frontdoors Magazine, So Scottsdale, and Arizona Foothills Magazine — track the calendar in detail. Frontdoors is the most useful editorial source; the others are more lifestyle-oriented but include their event listings.

Bottom line: Scottsdale is unusual among American cities in how cleanly its social and philanthropic calendar overlap. The same 200-table room appears across most of the marquee events, which means a year of consistent attendance gets you to "known" faster than in a city like New York or Los Angeles. The opportunity is real if you take it.

This guide is part of The Scottsdale Signal's evergreen reference set — the long-lived companion to our daily reporting. For current coverage on this topic, see our Lifestyle archive.