The key to running a successful silent auction for your booster club is to prepare well in advance. Basically, the more you prepare, the more people will attend the event, and the more money you will raise. Sometimes people want to donate things they have in the house but that may not be items you and your committee think will attract bids at the auction. You’ll want to try and avoid this kind of awkwardness ahead of time if you can by setting clear expectations with your team and your school community.
Make the most of your donor engagement afterwards with a personalized thank you video — book a demo with our team to find out how it all works. Make sure you thank everyone for their support, both those who donate items and your supporters who bid on your silent auction items. And don’t forget to showcase the reason why you are raising funds in the first place because its an important psychological motivator. To help guests familiarize themselves with mobile bidding, you can include printed information about how to bid around your auction items. This information will help guide your bidders and reduce confusion.
Essentially, a raffle isn’t really an auction at all, since people don’t actually bid on items and the winner is left to chance. This provider offers several direct mail marketing packages for nonprofits looking to spread the word about their missions and upcoming fundraising events. Organizing virtual silent auctions is a complex, multi-step process. It involves everything from forming a team, procuring the right auction items, choosing the right online auction software and catalog, and shipping items to the highest bidders.
Overall, silent auctions are also more likely to make your fundraising event a memorable experience. If you’re planning a silent auction, there are many factors to consider to make the event a success. Silent auction items should be appealing and varied, while silent auction bid sheets can be time-consuming and prone to errors. To streamline the process, schools and non-profit organizations should consider software for silent auctions. Event.Gives offers real-time bidding, automated bidding increments, and streamlined checkout. Silent auctions have become a highly effective and popular method for fundraising and engaging communities.
Those interested in adopting or fostering an animal will be able to meet available animals. Attendees can watch The Millworks Artist-in-Residence P. D. Murray paint several whimsical commemorative pieces and then bid to purchase them. The BSCA allocated $1 billion nationwide; Maine’s allocation was ~$4,500,000, with the maximum award to any school district capped at $500,000. Fifteen awards were made, and the Biddeford School Department was awarded $449,586–the second highest in Maine. These funds are intended to establish conducive learning spaces, counteract bullying, violence, and hate, and nurture positive school cultures.
Since you will likely need to collect payment and contact information from walk ups, divert walk-ups to a secondary check-in table to keep the line moving. If you have donors’ physical addresses, consider sending a save-the-date and invitation via snail mail. Although you’ll pay in printing and postage, the physical mailer gives something for interested recipients to post on their fridge. Instead, offer multiple levels, such as Friend ($30), Patron ($50), Benefactor ($100), Silver Corporate ($500), and Gold Corporate ($1,000). Additionally, consider an early bird discount to encourage early commitments.
For fundraiser silent auction on fundraising software, check out the best free fundraising software in 2019. “My company switched from Greater Giving to ReadySetAuction this year for our Fall Festival and Silent Auction and what a difference did it make. This software is EXTREMELY user-friendly, their customer service is top notch and the price is right.”— ReadySetAuction review by Janine Z. Remember, the emotions we want to trigger during silent auction are “impulsiveness” and “competition”.
Specifying a minimum bid amount will ensure each successive bid is increased by a minimum amount or higher. This will encourage accelerated bidding by allowing higher bid amounts. It is advisable to specify the minimum amount you are prepared to accept for an auction item. This is often referred to as the ‘reserve price’ and at least one bid of that amount or higher needs to be reached before the item is sold.
As soon as your silent auction date is set, start sending invitations and rallying your community. Promote your auction on your website, in local print publications, and on social media. Plus, those who don’t end up winning an auction item don’t have to leave the event with empty hands. As a nonprofit, it’s perfectly okay to ask for additional donations at your event. You can do this when guests are buying tickets or a few times during the event itself. You can even encourage the auction winners to up their final payment to a round number.
Eye-catching posters and flyers are a great way to promote your silent auction in your local community. You can also group items together to create themed packages that may be more appealing to bidders. You can provide donors with a letter of solicitation outlining this information, as well as a donation form they can fill out to provide information about the donated item.