As a nonprofit skilled, you’ve in all probability heard that charity auctions are time-consuming. On prime of the venue particulars, ticketing, and advertising you’re used to dealing with for common fundraising occasions, there’s merchandise procurement and bid monitoring to contemplate. The introduction of digital and hybrid choices has additional difficult issues, too.

Nonetheless, with a strong fundraising plan, you possibly can maintain a extremely profitable charity public sale that may not solely enhance income however deepen engagement. Charity auctions are an effective way to create a sense of neighborhood—both in-person or on-line—and interact donors with pleasant competitors. 

Right here’s every thing it’s good to know to host your first profitable charity public sale:

1. What is a charity auction and what does it look like?
2. Which type of auction should you host?
3. How can charity auction software help?
4. Which team members do you need to recruit?
5. Which items should you procure, and how?
6. How do you promote an auction event?
7. How can you maximize incoming auction revenue?

A charity public sale could also be extra intricate to plan than your different fundraising occasions, however the payoff in fundraising income and donor engagement might be definitely worth the effort. Use this information for every thing it’s good to get began. 

1. What’s a charity public sale and what does it appear like?

A charity public sale is a fundraising occasion by which supporters bid on donated objects and packages. Your nonprofit is accountable for procuring objects or reserving packages (similar to vacation stays or consignment travel) that can get supporters excited to bid. These things might be procured as in-kind donations from sponsors, bought outright by your nonprofit, or by public sale merchandise consignment companions.

In the course of the occasion, your supporters compete to position the best bid on public sale objects. The particular person with the best bid wins, and your group earns the proceeds. On the whole, all charity auctions comply with an identical four-step course of. Use the next timeline as a tenet:

1. Open the bidding. In case you’re utilizing cellular bidding software program, no matter whether or not it’s a dwell, silent, or on-line public sale, bidding opens mechanically at your preset time. In case you’re internet hosting a standard paper-based silent public sale or a dwell public sale, announce the opening of bidding to the friends.
2. Start with a beginning bid. Every merchandise is assigned a beginning bid quantity previous to the occasion, often at 35-50% of the market worth. That is the minimal quantity that the primary bidder can bid.
3. Bid increments. Contributors will compete to position the best bid. Every consecutive bid on an merchandise should usually be 10-15% better than the earlier bid worth. Take into account including Purchase Now choices at 150%-200% of the merchandise’s worth to assist drive bidding and make it straightforward for supporters who wish to pay prime greenback.
4. Shut bidding. Whoever positioned the ultimate, highest bid is the winner of that merchandise. The winner pays the agreed funds on to your nonprofit. 

Bid increment directions needs to be given to members forward of time or configured into your cellular bidding software program so the public sale can run easily. For extra info on the fundamental outlines of a charity public sale, take a look at this OneCause guide to planning a charity auction. 

2. Which kind of public sale do you have to host? 

Relying in your nonprofit’s finances and measurement, some public sale sorts could also be extra favorable than others. There are 4 various kinds of charity auctions that your group can host:

• Reside public sale. A dwell public sale is the basic in-person occasion led by an auctioneer. Visitors announce their bids by elevating a bidding paddle, calling out quantities, or getting the auctioneer’s consideration in one other means. For a dwell public sale, you will have to hire a venue, rent an auctioneer, and certain provide catering to your friends as a part of a broader night of leisure. 
• Silent public sale. Not like a dwell public sale, the bidding at a silent public sale is extra discrete and fewer public. Contributors write in bids on sheets of paper and might test again to see in the event that they’ve been outbid, then write in the next bid quantity. A silent public sale can even happen with cellular software program. Due to its flexibility, you possibly can host an in-person, digital, or hybrid silent public sale. 
• Digital public sale. A digital public sale incorporates conventional silent public sale components however takes your complete course of on-line. Your nonprofit can attain folks from throughout. These occasions might be extremely cost-effective whereas nonetheless producing spectacular ultimate income numbers. A digital public sale can be longer in period than an in-person occasion. To make your on-line public sale extra participating, you should utilize a live-streaming platform to point out off the objects and generate bids in actual time. 
• Hybrid public sale. A hybrid public sale combines in-person and digital components for a memorable event. Usually, a hybrid public sale will contain a digital public sale with in-person dwell or silent bidding for a smaller viewers. For instance, with a hybrid silent auction, you could possibly invite a restricted in-person visitor listing to a venue and enable a digital viewers to interact in real-time bidding. 

The pliability of codecs permits organizations of any measurement to host an public sale. Take any considered one of these public sale sorts and scale them to your viewers measurement. A web based public sale might be an particularly great tool for smaller nonprofits to increase their attain. 

3. How can charity public sale software program assist?

Planning and internet hosting a charity public sale is time, useful resource, and manpower-intensive. There are a ton of shifting components and managing all of them can simply get overwhelming. Nonetheless, working with charity public sale software program from the beginning of your planning course of drastically eases the effort. This software program will help you:

• Elevate extra money. This software program takes the bidding course of on-line, so these bodily in attendance and those that aren’t can each take part. Additional, you’re capable of present friends with further channels to donate outdoors of shopping for auctioned objects. For instance, you possibly can add a “Donate” button to your public sale webpage so supporters can merely donate any quantity to your trigger.
• Simplify the planning course of. All logistics are automated and run by the identical platform, eradicating a lot of the stress of coordination. Plus, as soon as your public sale is up and working, your supporters gained’t have to fret about navigating to a number of totally different websites to take part, which helps to maintain them engaged. 
• Add comfort for members. Donors can buy tickets, place and monitor bids, and checkout on-line. This simplifies the donor expertise and eliminates the effort of ready in lengthy strains to take a look at after the actual fact.
• Entry helpful metrics. Software program brings your whole planning into one platform, so you possibly can simply entry a whole view of your occasion’s success and evaluation alternatives for enchancment. 

Internet hosting a charity public sale is an effective way to spice up income and engagement, however you additionally must make the planning straightforward in your workers. That is the place public sale software program can turn out to be useful, particularly to streamline the behind-the-scenes group and execution. Plus, in case you select the appropriate software program it may be tailored for every type of public sale occasions you host sooner or later.

4. Which group members do it’s good to recruit?

Simply as with all different fundraising occasion, charity auctions require a devoted group of staffers and volunteers to run easily. You’ll want helpers earlier than, throughout, and after the occasion to verify it goes off and not using a hitch. Delegate duties throughout your group, guaranteeing you may have people or teams to deal with the next components of your public sale:

• Occasion planning. This group plans the occasion, together with selecting the date, reserving the venue, recruiting volunteers, and even spreading the phrase. Your group will want a strong nonprofit marketing plan to draw as many individuals as attainable to your public sale (thereby rising the quantity of income it would generate!). In case you’re internet hosting a digital or hybrid public sale, you’ll profit from having a devoted sub-team or committee for dealing with know-how, as properly.
• Merchandise procurement. This group solicits public sale objects for the occasion. Every member must be comfy soliciting donations and accustomed to which sorts of items would do properly amongst your nonprofit’s viewers. 
• Occasion volunteers. Volunteers are important to pulling off any in-person public sale occasions, whether or not they’re serving to with arrange or tear down, aiding as public sale spotters/screens, or working registration and checkout.
• Emcee or auctioneer. You’ll must recruit an emcee or an auctioneer, relying on which sort of occasion you’re internet hosting. An emcee retains an in-person or digital silent public sale on monitor whereas an auctioneer is the ringleader of a dwell public sale.

To make your public sale as profitable as attainable, make sure to plan early. Selecting and establishing the appropriate software program and procuring objects is usually a very prolonged course of. The easiest way to keep away from overwhelming your group is by getting ready as quickly as attainable. 

5. Which objects do you have to procure, and the way?

The charity auction items you procure will rely largely on what your donors are keen to pay and the place their pursuits could lie. Brainstorm which objects would possibly enchantment most to your particular donors utilizing the next ideas: 

• In case you’ve held an public sale up to now, mirror on its success. Evaluation which objects have been in style sellers and take into account bringing them again or comparable objects that might equally appeal to curiosity. 
• Take into account your friends’ worth vary. Don’t procure costly spa weekends in case your donors could be extra prone to bid on reasonably priced restaurant present playing cards and even nonprofit merchandise like t-shirts.
• Perceive your friends’ pursuits. Take into account what’s in style in your neighborhood and what would genuinely be desired. For instance, in case you’re an animal rescue nonprofit, your supporters would in all probability take pleasure in a day hanging with puppies or kittens! 
• Bear in mind provide and demand. Public sale objects which are uncommon or distinctive are more likely to be of curiosity to most audiences.
• Differ your objects. Keep away from procuring objects that every one fall in a single class, similar to solely expertise packages or solely merchandise. 

Begin with asking coworkers, associates, relations, and some other private {and professional} connections to donate objects. Flip to native companies and retailers to see in the event that they’ll donate services or products as in-kind items. When looking for corporate gifts, you’ll must do your analysis on potential company companions and decide a enterprise with comparable values. 

6. How do you promote an public sale occasion?

Start with compiling a visitor listing, maintaining the dimensions of your venue in thoughts. Ship out invitations and, in case you’re utilizing public sale software program, carry the ticketing course of on-line for comfort. It may be useful to faucet into a number of advertising channels to carry consideration to your occasion, similar to:

• Social Media. Social media is a strong instrument to increase your nonprofit’s attain and get lots of (and even hundreds) of individuals to find out about your occasion. Resolve on which platform could also be only to unfold the phrase about your occasion. This might be based mostly in your meant viewers’s demographic and which platform they’d be most certainly to make use of. Then, create participating graphics or video content material creating pleasure round your public sale with directions on how to enroll. 
• E mail. Ship out an e mail to your supporters highlighting your occasion with a hyperlink on to your registration web page. Your e mail ought to emphasize an important info and embrace a number of visuals to interrupt up lengthy paragraphs. 
• Textual content. When you have your supporters’ cellphone numbers and a text-to-give platform arrange, texting is an effective way to succeed in out to supporters and ensure they see the message. In keeping with 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics, textual content message audiences grew by 26% final yr, which implies that texting is a superb alternative to market your public sale. You’ll be able to even embrace an choice in your message to donate earlier than the occasion. 

By giving friends a style of what your public sale will maintain upfront, you’ll be capable to successfully drum up pleasure. You can too arrange an internet public sale web site by your public sale software program to function a catalog for the occasion, supplying you with one other helpful advertising asset.

Embody all important details about the occasion itself on the web site. This features a quick introduction to your group, the occasion title or theme, the schedule, what the proceeds will profit, the principles for bidding, and directions for utilizing your cellular bidding platform if relevant.

7. How are you going to maximize incoming public sale income? 

Public sale occasions are inclined to get donors within the temper to present, so put together to take advantage of this momentum whereas it exists!

Take into account the next methods to maximise income at your subsequent charity public sale: 

• Make a dwell enchantment. Your emcee or auctioneer asks friends for donations, reminding them of a fundraising objective your group hopes to succeed in by the top of the evening. Show a fundraising thermometer all through the occasion so friends can monitor how shut you’re attending to the objective.
• Promote mounted priced objects. These are objects which are bought, not auctioned, for a set worth. This consists of additional occasion actions (similar to present playing cards or a thriller field drawing) and even occasion merchandise and equipment.
• Create occasion sign-ups. Plan a enjoyable occasion and promote visitor spots on the occasion. Examples of this may be a film evening, a gaggle cooking class, or perhaps a themed occasion. These work properly for digital or hybrid occasions and might be led by volunteer ambassadors.
• Use a donation sales space. It is a great way to offer a giving alternative to those that don’t find yourself leaving with an merchandise. As a substitute of ready in an extended checkout line, friends can provide shortly and simply. In case you’re utilizing cellular bidding software program, there’s no want for a bodily sales space as donors can provide by their telephones.
• Goal your audiences. In case you’re internet hosting a hybrid public sale, you’ll must develop methods that can interact each in-person and distant attendees. For instance, invite a smaller group of main donors to the in-person occasion and everybody to the digital occasion. Then, goal your totally different objects to every viewers as wanted—dwell bidding for luxurious trip packages, hybrid bidding for the fuller vary of things in your catalog, and many others. This helps you fundraise extra effectively and lower your expenses on the in-person logistics.
• Promote adverts in your catalog. Each attendee will browse your public sale catalog whether or not it’s a printed model or on-line, and that’s an enormous promoting level! Present merchandise donors and native companies with the choice to purchase an advert in your catalog (digital or paper) and have their emblem featured someplace inside.

These are just a few methods you possibly can maximize income at your subsequent public sale. your viewers finest, so tailor your fundraising methods to your supporters to extend your occasion’s success. 

Wrapping Up

Auctions is usually a lot to plan, however the fundraising potential of those occasions is excessive. Whether or not you intend to host your public sale in-person or virtually, you possibly can successfully interact your viewers with pleasant competitors, enjoyable objects, and alternatives to present again to your nonprofit. With the assistance of charity public sale software program, the planning course of might be a lot smoother to your group. 

Concerning the Creator

Kelly Velasquez-Hague

Kelly Velasquez-Hague brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit administration, and gross sales/advertising expertise to her position because the Director of Content material Advertising for OneCause. As a member of the OneCause gross sales and advertising group, Kelly manages all the firm’s content material technique and execution. She is keen about empowering nice missions and loves that her present position permits her to proceed to assist nonprofits attain new donors and lift extra funds for his or her trigger.