There are other smaller tasks, too, like helping with registration or being on call to support any tech troubleshooting. Figure out what help you’ll need, then build your team around that. Assign everyone clear roles, responsibilities, and deadlines to keep you all on track. Avoid holiday and summer months when supporters are more likely to be out of town or occupied with social engagements. Likewise, you should avoid weekdays when they’ll be tied up with work.
Deliver a distraction-free reading experience with a simple link. Serving as a nonprofit board member can be a great way to give back to the community and share some of the expertise you’ve gained in your career. You should send the note up to one week after the event when everything is still fresh in the attendees’ minds. While silent auction donation of five leaders is preferable, you will need as many helping hands as possible.
You can pick a theme and gather items for a package that is compelling—maybe it’s a gift card to a nice restaurant and theater tickets in a “Night Out” package, or something more creative! This will make items more attractive and help to drive up bids. Focus on the experiences that you can offer, not just the opportunity for someone to purchase something for less than face value.
Through registration and bid tracking, you can gather valuable information about your supporters’ preferences, interests, and bidding behaviors. This data can be used to deepen donor relationships, personalize future engagement, and refine fundraising strategies. Silent auctions create an interactive and engaging experience for donors.
Silent auctions are auctions that occur during an event without using an auctioneer and do not demand the full attention of the guests. Items are placed out on tables with a bidding sheet next to each one. Guests can then peruse the items and write down their name and bid amount on the sheet next to the items they would like. At the end of the set bidding period, the person who wrote down the highest bid wins the item. When it comes to maximizing your auction revenue, how you procure items is just as important as what items you procure.
Depending on the size of the silent auction fundraiser you may not have enough committee members to do all the jobs needed – especially during the auction – and may need to recruit volunteers. As simple as it sounds, make sure your silent auction is set up in a space that has clearly marked stations. It’s important that your guests know where to go and what to do. Sometimes as organizers, you can get too close to your event and not see it through the eyes of your guests and what makes sense to you may not make sense to those who are holding the checkbooks! Here is a simple example of signage from a recent event at Hazeltine. Just like any networking event, your organization can facilitate conversations among your supporters with conversation cards and icebreaker topics.
Adding photos and graphics of some of your most exciting items to your marketing promotions will prepare people to open up their wallets and start bidding. This format is more bidder-focused than the traditional method. Instead of sitting and waiting for each auction item to be shown one by one, the silent auction format allows for a more involved experience driven by the guest, instead of the auctioneer. Your supporters can choose their own pace without having to sit through bidding wars that they aren’t interested in.
One site to search, one invoice for approval and one point of contact for all your party & event rentals. Blue Monday do not take a percentage of the monies raised, the charity keeps everything over the reserve. Although there are generally no reserve prices on our bid lots, The Store reserves the right to withhold award of any lot for any reason. Work with our event coordinators and hosts to determine the best package for your event. Whether it’s their work clothes or the living room drapes, nearly everyone has something that needs to be dry cleaned at least once in a while.