Fundraising Auctions How-to Guide

Fundraising Auctions How-to Guide

This how-to guide on fundraising auctions is written by marketing experts and continually updated by our Editors based on our research and input from the community.

There are 110,000 searches done on Google each month by people looking for "fundraising auction" and "auction fundraising." All these people want to know: What works and what doesn't; how to save money; how to use volunteer time most efficiently; what things cost; who can help; how to save money...and how to get it done well to raise as much money as possible.
 

From our experience:  Planning, marketing and hosting auctions is a lot of work for the volunteers.  Here's our gift to you to help make that process go easier and faster, and be as successful as possible. 

We're starting the conversation.  Give advice about fundraising auctions.  What have you learned works?  Doesn't work?  Share what you know and learn from others by reading their advice on the tabs on this article.  The MarketingZone Editors will highlight the best ideas shared by the community. 

If you're planning an auction, you'll want to read How to Host a Fundraising Event.  That covers the specifics on how to plan a successful event.  This article on fundraising auctions shares tips for ensuring your auction is a success.

Tips and advice about fundraising auctions

 

The honest advice from people who have run fundraising auctions...

• Most of the money gets raised in the live auction

  • "The key is simple but not pretty: you seat the most competitive wealthy men at tables near each other, serve them a good dinner with great wine, have the dress code be formal (so their wives look just smashing) and have a professional auctioneer.  Sex + alcohol + testosterone + competition = new technology center. It works every time. As my wife points out to me regularly, men aren't all that complicated."

  • "Don't forget that the live auction is NOT RATIONAL, get a professional auctioneer, I highly recommend that you get someone youthful and not some old cattle cowboy-type. Get someone to make an emotional speech or toast before the auction begins."

  • "Give people access to something you just can't buy. A walk-on part in a Harry Potter movie; two seats to the Celtics owners box when they come to your town. Dinner with the Principal and Assistant Principal..."
    

• Have a paddle raise as part of the live auction so everyone can give what they can
  

  • Most people come to an auction with a budget in mind of what they will spend.  A paddle raise is an effective way to allow everyone to give.

  • Don't be shy to start at bids of $5,000 or more and work your way down to $25 or a number anyone can afford. Make sure you pre-recruit someone to raise their paddle for that first high number, you may get someone else to jump in too, make sure your live items are PRICELESS, things that require the right connections or that you would never have the time or the contacts to arrange, things that are personal.

• Market the live auction items before the event to give people time to dream what they will buy
  
  • Put the live items on a website and promote them, especially important for things that have date restrictions or vacation homes with blackout dates. You want people to come to the auction prepared to buy.

 

• Have a "Best of Live" Raffle
  
  • "We have raised a lot of money by letting everyone at the auction buy raffle tickets for $75 to choose one 'Best of Live' item.  Do the math to figure out ahead of time how many raffle tickets you need to sell to raise enough money to make this worthwhile and let everyone selling the raffle tickets know how many tickets they need to sell.  Get the people who are in sales to do this job. They will be motivated by meeting and beating a quota for raffle tickets they need to sell. Then at the beginning of the live auction draw one winner from the raffle and let them choose one item from the live list. This will generate a lot of excitement."
    

• During the live auction, focus on just ten to 15 high-priced items

  • People will get bored if there are too many items.
    
    

• You need to get items donated that people can convince themselves is worth spending a lot of money on

  • For example: Use of a vacation house in Cabo for a week is perfect. "Yes, I can picture myself on that deserted beach with my wife, fluffy white sand and no kids... and everyone I care to impress will know I am on aforementioned beach with this gorgeous babe sitting next to me... yeah, that's it, $15k is a darn good deal... 'I'll raise you $500!'"

  • It's best if several people on the auction committee are or have been in sales and will be responsible for procurement (asking individuals and businesses to make donations of items worthy of being featured in the live auction). This is the hardest and most important job of all the volunteer positions, and the hardest to fill so start your planning early.

• The leg work to get the items donated is time-consuming, threatening (asking local stores and companies for favors) and generally unrecognized

  • "Here it is: An 18-month long process that takes an army of volunteers (read "moms") that is very refined and advanced. Selecting the leaders is akin to selecting a new pope. It depends on an intimate knowledge of who is good at what (Susie is natural at design & invitations, Kate is a real accountant that does not take any crap about over-run budgets, and everyone likes Lori and is willing to work for her). You get the idea.  It also burns people out and has ruined several friendships."
    
    

• Do the math and consider ROVT (return on volunteer time) 
  
  • What's the best use of all the volunteer time to plan and run an auction versus a direct mail letter to ask for the money needed?
    
    

  • "We just took the amount needed and divided it by the number of families and sent out a plea letter.  We raised $50,000 in the three months prior to Thanksgiving and then had the Auction in February which raised another $60,000. You’ve got far more families to pull from with a letter. A lot of people won’t come to the auction so this is a way to tap into everyone's wallets and by being very specific about exactly what money is needed and what it will be used for. Writing an incredible plea letter is a lot less work than planning and hosting an auction. Look at the ROT (return on time) for all the volunteers."

  • "We wanted to raise $200,000 from about 800 families. That means if each family would need to donate $250 to raise this.  But all the families won’t/can’t give, some will give less, and some will give more. And at the auction event, there's only enough space for 400 people (200 couple “giving units”), so we’d need each couple to give $1,000. Is that reasonable?" 

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Next page: Alternatives to an auction