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FUNDRAISING AUCTION IDEAS - CANCEL YOUR SILENT AUCTION

10/31/2016

FUNDRAISING AUCTION IDEAS - CANCEL YOUR SILENT AUCTION

As a Fundraising Charity Auctioneer, I have witnessed many organizations either eliminating their silent auctions altogether, or making it as a separate event from their annual gala. The main reason that my clients say they are eliminating their silent auction is it’s time consuming for both staff and volunteers. You need massive amounts of volunteers and staff time to procure the items, set up and break down the silent auction area, and chase donations. When all the work is completed, often times there’s not a high return on investment, especially when you account for the time spent by staff. These days organizations would rather focus on putting together a Gala event with higher ticket live auction items and stellar Fund-A-Need|Paddle Raise and skip the silent auction part of the event.

However, canceling a silent auction doesn’t work for all groups. K-12 schools, for example, may choose to keep the silent auction as it raises additional, needed dollars for scholarships, operations and STEM programming. Here are some tips if you choose not to cancel the silent auction aspect of your fundraising efforts.

Hold Two Events
There is no rule that says you can’t hold two separate events. Save your gala for your formal event with big ticket items and a direct appeal. If you hold your gala in the fall, consider having a separate, silent auction only event in the spring. You’ll be able to capture a different audience when you hold two events.

Take It Online
In order to keep costs down, save your staff and committee time for your gala. You can list silent auction items online, two to three weeks before your gala. By listing your items online, you provide promotion for your event and you open up the amount of people who can participate in your fundraising efforts. Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and co-workers will be able to participate even when they may not be able or interested in attending your gala, but they will be more than happy to purchase an auction item online to help support the student. Furthermore, we live in an an era of technology - why not bring your fundraising into this millennium with online bidding technology?

Hit The Carpool Lane
A tip for a school charity auction, use the area where parents gather to pick up and drop off their kids as a place to display silent auction items. Set up standard silent auction tables in the gym or hallways and display items and have good old fashion silent auction bid sheets. This encourages parents who are waiting for their children to peruse and bid on silent auction items. The silent auction can be open for the entire week leading up to the gala and close the day before the event. This also allows parents who are not coming to the gala to bid on items and support the school as well.

For more Charity Auction ideas and helpful tips on planning your next charity fundraiser, follow Generosity Auctions on Facebook or Instagram @GenerosityAuctions. Abra Annes is the leading Charity Auctioneer based in California. Abra is the owner and founder of Generosity Auctions, the premier choice for Non-Profit Organizations looking to maximize their event fundraising.

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Is A Mobile Bidding | Auction Technology Right For Your Charity Fundraising Event?

10/24/2016

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As a Charity Fundraising Auctioneer, one of the most common questions that I am asked is: “Should we try Auction Technology | Mobile Bidding?” There isn’t one straight answer, but if you’re looking into it, here are some things you should think about before adopting mobile bidding at your next charity auction or fundraising event.

Great for a Big Crowd
If your live auction will have at least 400 guests, you’ll want to consider mobile bidding. Mobile bidding is great for a large crowd as you and your development team will have a much easier time on the back-end. This means once the event is over you won’t have hundreds of follow-up calls and emails to make to secure payment of pledges. If you are short on time and staff to follow up with donors, and don’t want to keep track of a stacks of paper with bids and contact information, mobile bidding/bidding technology would be a great choice for you.

Anonymity
Certain donors seek anonymity in their contributions. You may be losing potential donors because they do not want to divulge their contact information on your bid sheets. Even the Wall Street Journal reported that electronic bidding satisfies the long-held preference for anonymity among bidders.

The Under 40 Crowd
According to a Huffington Post article in which I was quoted, “young donors are going to be more willing to donate if they have easy access via their smartphone”. If your auction seeks to attract younger donors, think about incorporating mobile bidding.

Works Best for Silent Auctions & Fund-A-Need/Paddle Raise
Mobile bidding works for both silent auctions & Fund-A-Needs | Paddle Raises. However, one of the things that makes mobile bidding technology truly unique is its capabilities in the Silent Auction. For example, donors can set a maximum bid for the item(s) they are most interested and certain technology will automatically bid for you when you have been outbid. Mobile bidding systems will also send alerts to bidders when they are outbid and when their maximum bid is reached. In this way, the silent auction can stay open during dinner and guests won’t be getting out of their seats to check their bids.

For the Fund-A-Need portion of the evening, auction technology works wonders if you have a leaderboard. Givergy has a lovely, classy looking leaderboard that allows for any donor to see their name appear on the screen no matter what the size or amount of their donation. It also allows for a total to appear on the screen so that you and your guests know when you have exceeded your fundraising goal or how much more you need to go.

Cost Savings
Mobile bidding is a cost savings mechanism and a great tool for development professionals. Think about your last charity fundraising event and the time and effort it spent to gather those straggling donations. With mobile bidding, the bids are linked to a credit card. You get your payments that night. The cost of a mobile bidding platform negates the time and effort spent to gather your straggling donations.

Generosity Auctions uses a variety of mobile bidding platforms and recommends the following:

For more Charity Auction ideas and helpful tips on planning your next charity fundraiser, follow Generosity Auctions on Facebook or Instagram @GenerosityAuctions. Abra Annes is the leading Charity Auctioneer based in California. Abra is the owner and founder of Generosity Auctions, the premier choice for Non-Profit Organizations looking to maximize their event fundraising.

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The 7 Best Branding Secrets Through Celebrity Fundraising

10/19/2016

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Business 2 Community is a great resource that creates an open community where business professionals can establish their thought leadership, increase exposure for their business/organization, and network with others. I spoke to Clayton Wood with Business 2 Community about branding your next celebrity fundraising event. Click the link here to read the article.

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Win Big with a Wine Pull

10/17/2016

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As a San Francisco Charity Auctioneer I know that wine is HOT!!! Each year more people are becoming educated about wine, drinking wine and collecting wine. Which is why, having a wine pull raffle at your next fundraiser is a great way to have an additional revenue source as well as a fun activity that is perfect for donors of all sizes.

Wine pulls can also be a great way to save money for your charity event budget. Open bars, even if they are just wine & beer & done on consumption are one of the largest line items on a charity auction budget. Wine pulls are a great idea for organizations, like schools, that are operating on a limited budget. A wine pull allows for the organization to not provide any alcoholic beverages at their event, thus encouraging anyone who wants to drink at the event to purchase a bottle to drink at the table. Most locations will then just charge for corkage if they even charge you at all.

STEP 1) PLAN: To have a successful wine pull, you’ll need bottles of wine, and lots of it. Make sure you have enough wine to accommodate about 30% to 40% of the guests at the event. Thus if your event is 400 people you’ll want about 130 bottles of wine.

STEP 2) PRICE: Next you’ll need to set the price of your wine pull raffle. After working at hundreds of Charity Benefit Auctions the most typical and popular price points are $20 or $30 or $40. Note that in order to ensure your wine pull is the most profitable, all bottles should be valued at equal to or greater than the price point. Thus you could say in your marketing materials, Wine Pull $20 - you are guaranteed to win a bottle of wine worth at least $20.

STEP 3) ASK: Go to your board members, local wineries, and wine shops to request donated bottles of wine. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how many people are willing to help with your cause.

STEP 4) DECIDE OPEN OR CLOSED:

OPEN: A wine pull can either be closed or open. A closed wine pull requires all bottles to be covered in wrapping paper/burlap/inside wine bags. The donors then pick a bottle of wine from a table or display. Whichever bottle they pick becomes their bottle of wine. At a closed wine pull, all bottles should fall in between a set price range.

CLOSED: Another variation is an open wine pull. At an open wine pull, all bottles are on full display and marked with a number. The fundraising auctioneer allows each donor to reach into a fishbowl and pick a number. That donor then receives the corresponding bottle of wine. In order to make more money, ask donors to purchase multiple opportunities to ‘pull’ for a bottle to increase their odds in getting the bottle they really want!

For more Charity Auction ideas and helpful tips on planning your next charity fundraiser, follow Generosity Auctions on Facebook or Instagram @GenerosityAuctions. Abra Annes is the leading Charity Auctioneer based in California. Abra is the owner and founder of Generosity Auctions, the premier choice for Non-Profit Organizations looking to maximize their event fundraising.

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TRENDSPOTTING 2016: TOP 5 LIVE AUCTION ITEMS

10/10/2016

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These days it seems as if every weekend another organization is holding a charity/benefit event with a live auction. The majority of the time these auctions will have the same types of items up for bid. How do you freshen up your organization’s live auction while appealing to new and returning bidders? Check out the Top 5 Live Auction Items for that are trending for 2016/2017 Season.
1.     Fireman Parties - Adults and kids alike will swoon with this desirable and always popular package. Your local fire department will gladly support you with this request which is certain to get bid paddles flying. Promote it as an adult dinner party (maybe a girls night) or as a birthday party for kids. Think outside the box for fun additions to make this package truly unique. An after school pick up by the fire engine or a sunset cruise on the fire boat are excellent ideas.
2.     Walk-on roles in Commercials or movies - Check with your local film board to see what is filming in your area. Many large cities have commercials and small independent films shooting all the time. Walk-on rolls or days on set are easy to ask for, exciting for donors and great publicity for the production company.
3.     Wine Experiences - Wine tastings are a dime a dozen these days. The hot trends in wine experiences are more unique - such as blending camp or crush parties. Additionally, we’ve been seeing more and more barrels of wine coming up for auction with the opportunity to bottle the barrel in any format from piccolo (the smallest of wine bottles) up to a Jeroboam (equal to 4 full size bottles) or larger formats. These types of packages are great for groups to bid on together as they are easily divisible and shareable.
4.     Choose your own vacation - This package works best with timeshare options that are open and flexible to the donor. Instead of choosing one specific location, let the winning bidder decide. Would they rather have a week in Spain or a week in Aruba? Additionally, by leaving it open to the winning bidder's choice, you’ll have more bidders involved which leads to a higher selling price and more dollars raised.
5.     Internships - An internship with hip, cool companies in your area is the top trend of 2016. Internships are something that you cannot purchase outside of a live auction no matter how much money you have. Being able to have the opportunity to network and interact with the CEO of a well-known company, as well as gaining valuable industry insight is priceless. Additionally, the option of giving this as a gift to a son/daughter or even grandchild who is currently in or fresh out of college is appealing to many donors. Look for companies that have great name recognition and a solid reputation in your area.

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School Auction Season is Approaching - Get Ready Now

10/3/2016

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Now that the kids are settled back into their school routine, it’s time for you to start thinking about your school’s annual fundraising auction. School auctions are a great way to raise money for tuition scholarships, general school upkeep, and extra activities like art and music programs. School auctions are also a great way for the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) to engage parents and create community and camaraderie.

Most school auctions take place in the Spring, so, start thinking about planning with these successful school auction tips

Flyers in Backpacks

Sure we have Facebook pages and listservs for our schools. But, sometimes the best way to share information is the old-fashioned way. Use a flyer to promote your premier fundraising item. If your prime auction item is a trip to Club Med, create a flyer and make sure it gets in every child’s backpack. When parents empty the backpack when their child gets home, they are sure to see information. Keep in mind that most people don’t make the decision to buy an auction item at the event. Parents most likely will have a kitchen table discussion about the Club Med trip and see if it fits into that year’s vacation options before they bid. By sending home information with the child, you’re able to increase your reach with this simple, old-school tactic.

Promote, Promote, Promote!

After making a flyer with featuring your top auction items, don’t forget to use high tech ways of promotion as well. School Listserv, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email blasts are great ways to promote your auction. Use these channels to promote an item per week. Write a blog about an item and how it would enrich families and help towards particular school goals. It’s not just parents who subscribe to these channels. Alumni, grandparents, and friends also follow your school on Facebook and Instagram. They could be some of your largest contributors to your fundraiser.

Get the Kids Excited

If you have an auction item that appeals to children, such as ‘Principal For A Day’ you should promote those items at school. Ask teachers to mention it in their morning announcements or have the principal talk it up during an assembly. This ensures that the students will be creating a buzz both in the schoolyard and at home for these coveted item. A parent who may not have considered participating in the auction may decide to participate because they want to buy an item for their excited child.

Call in the Professionals

Running an auction is a lot of work. It requires complicated coordination, negotiation skills, and attention to detail. While a group of volunteers can put together a silent auction, if you want to take your fundraising efforts to the next level, you should hire a professional charity auctioneer. A professional fundraising auctioneer will ensure that your event is engaging, fun for everyone, and most importantly will turn guests into donors. Abra Annes is the premier charity auctioneer in California and can provide assistance to your next school auction. Follow her on Facebook or contact her here for more information.

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FUNDRAISING AUCTION IDEAS - CANCEL YOUR SILENT AUCTION

Is A Mobile Bidding | Auction Technology Right For Your Charity Fundraising Event?

The 7 Best Branding Secrets Through Celebrity Fundraising

Win Big with a Wine Pull

TRENDSPOTTING 2016: TOP 5 LIVE AUCTION ITEMS

School Auction Season is Approaching - Get Ready Now

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