Have a Thank-A-Thon with Your Donors After Your Fundraising Auction Event

We all understand, or should understand, that thanking your donors after your fundraising auction event has concluded is an absolute must.  However, the way that you thank your donors for their generous contributions to help your cause is so very important.  Many organizations simply send out a form letter showing what was purchased/donated and a generic message thanking the donor for their contribution.  This is obviously a good idea for their tax purposes, but how personal is this for the donor and does it make them feel special?

Imagine being a donor that just gave $5,000 or $1,000 or $250 of your hard-earned money to a cause that you believe in and just receiving this form letter, which is really a must for tax purposes anyway.  Do you feel special in any way?  Do you feel that the organization values your participation in such an important event?  Do you have any excitement or feeling of obligation to attend their next event?  In some cases yes, but in most cases not really.

I suggest that you get together your entire board and staff and have a Thank-A-Thon party.  Provide some food and beverages for your board and staff and start calling your donors on the phone.  Spend 30 seconds to a minute explaining how thankful your organization is for their donation and how the funds will be utilized to better your cause.  The purpose of this call is not to ask for anything but to simply thank your donors and inform them of how the funds will be or are being utilized to better your cause.  If the donor does not answer just leave them a message, no need to keep calling until they answer.   If you had 150 people give at your event then a board and staff of 10 people have to spend about 15-20 minutes each or about 15 phone calls each. 

Most organizations do not do this simple step, so imagine how much this will put you in the minds’ of your donors versus other organizations that they give to throughout the year.  Simply put, it makes them feel special and valued which can many times equate to future support.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS  
EliteFundraisingAuctions.com

Motivational Speakers at Your Fundraising Auction Event

Condoleezza Rice speaks at the Solutions for Change Auction

There are two very important segments of the event that a good motivational speaker is needed… before the live auction and before the fund-a-need.  The speaker prior to the start of the live auction should be someone that can somewhat educate the crowd about the cause and share a personal experience to get the crowd emotional.  Getting members of the crowd to “tear up” is always a good thing.  This speech should not exceed 2-3 minutes and the live auction should begin promptly following.  Videos are okay to utilize for this but they have to be great not good.  

The second speaker should come on following the live auction just prior to the fund-a-need.  This speaker needs to be extremely passionate, as the crowd is many times drained from the live auction that just took place.  The speaker must re-energize the crowd and talk about what specifically the fund-a-need dollars will represent (i.e. building a new structure for the organization to help kids, funding a specific cause, etc.).  I have found that younger teenagers or children that are good in front of people and have a personal impact experience to share are excellent for this speech.  Once again, a video can be used here but it must be great not good.  If you used a video for the first slot then try to have a live speaker for the second and vice versa. 

Motivational speakers are imperative to the success of your live auction and fund-a-need.  You can do without them but don’t expect incredible results.  As you can see so far, there are a lot of small elements that all add up to a big result.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS

EliteFundraisingAuctions.com

How should volunteers be utilized at my Fundraising Auction Event?

Volunteers are an extremely important part of your
fundraising event!!  Here are a list of "jobs" that your volunteers need to be placed in for optimal success from Mike Grigg at Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services:

• Live auction and fund a need recorders.  We recommend that you utilize three volunteers in this position to eliminate errors when recording winning bid amounts and donation amounts.  Make sure your professional auctioneer has a "pow-wow" with the recorders prior to the live auction and fund a need.
• Selling raffle tickets or entries to games.  Always put your volunteers in teams of two to maximize their efficiency.  If you have raffles or games going on at your event then send out 2-3 teams of two to sell those tickets or buy in opportunities.  You want aggressive volunteers that are going to sell not just stand in a corner and chat with friends.
• Check-in and check out.  You will need several volunteers to assist with checking in and out your guests.  This number varies dependent upon how many guests you have coming to your event.
• Silent Auction Assistants.  You will need about two volunteers per silent auction table to answer questions, assist with set up, and shutting down silent auction.  These volunteers will need to be able to get bid sheets off the table as soon as auctioneer closes the silent auction, and then move items (if needed) to the proper check out area.
• We recommend that you use professional ringmen rather than have volunteers as your bid spotters.  Professional ringmen are trained to get the best result from your bidders and leaving this up to volunteers simply causes more chaos than assistance.
• Obviously, you will need volunteers to help with setting up and taking down your entire event as well.

Volunteers that are not used or managed in the proper way can cause more problems than they help with, therefore make sure you have a manager in charge of training your volunteers.  Also, don't give each volunteer too much to do; If you overwhelm your volunteers they become less effective.  Good luck with your fundraising events and always make sure to hire a professional auctioneer/consultant to maximize your fundraising results!

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS with Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services

Signs Your Organization might be ready for Benefit Auction Software

Imagine an event night with seamless transactions and automation systems that track bid packages, bids, and donor activity. Many nonprofit organizations are managing their single largest fundraising event on Access or Excel spreadsheets. This can create certain challenges like version control if there are a number of people managing the events details.  It might be time to consider software if your organization:

1. Has high volume of new volunteers each year. Software maintains history
2. Has multiple people who need to enter attendees, donations, items etc. – Cloud software can have unlimited users and real time updates
3. Needs to sell tickets and take donations online – Software reduces data entry
4. Is not able to tell its auctioneer or board which part of its auction raises the most money
5. Is not able to tell your auctioneer or board the average % of value your silent and live auction delivered at an event
6. Doesn’t know what sold well the year before
7. Doesn’t know who its most generous donors are
8. Has long lines at check-in and out and spends weeks afterwards collecting the money
9. Doesn’t know who was thanked from the event guests to coordinators
10. Needs to reduce the stress of its volunteer and paid staff

There are many types of software out there.  Determine what actions your organizations need to be able to do.  For example, do you need a website to share information about your event? Do you need to take donations, ticket sales, preview your catalog, sell sponsorships and display your sponsors?  Do you have one person entering and managing auction data or a team?  Once you’ve answered some of these questions, start comparing and contrasting software to your list of musts.

A PC version is nice for one person but when an organizations has multiple people managing auction details,  an online version means multiple users can work at the same time. Furthermore, the IT team doesn’t have to install it on a network.  Information is available 24/7 for the auction team.

Software helps you keep the history of the event to hand off to next year’s team.  Also, software that runs reports helps organizations measure areas of success and opportunities to improve.  Lastly, it can help with quick registration, entering winning bids and checking attendees out quickly.

It might be time for software if you’ve recently said, “I’ll never volunteer again!”

Debby Roth-Bush, Greater Giving for Elite Auctions& Fundraising Services

How important are recorders for your live auction and fund a need?

One of the most important jobs at a fundraising auction event are the recorders.  These are the people that are logging in the winning bid amounts and donation amounts from the live auction and fund a need.  They will also be the people running the recorder sheets to the check out personnel.  Sounds simple right?  We see more mistakes made here than almost any other volunteer job… it is a tragedy because this is where serious money can be lost!
 

Here is the formula for success with your recorders: 

1. Don’t have volunteers that like to drink alcoholic beverages handling your recording.
   
2. Assign this job to three people with identical recorder sheets to prevent missed bid amounts or bidder numbers.
3. Have pre-designed recorder sheets that are simple to understand.  Lay out your live auction sheet in the same order of the actual live auction and let recorders know if there are any items that have the potential to sell twice.  Design your fund a need sheet in columns with the same levels your professional auctioneer will be asking your guests to give.
4. Make sure that the three recorders check each other’s sheets and combine to one sheet for the checkout personnel.
5. All recorders need to be placed in a quiet corner close to a speaker, so they can hear, and just listen, logging in data based on what the auctioneer says.  DO NOT HAVE RECORDERS TRY AND FIND THE BIDDER NUMBERS THEMSELVES; THIS IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER!
6. Have the recorders meet with the auctioneer prior to the event to go over the system.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS
EliteFundraisingAuctions.com

How many items should we have in our live fundraising auction?

How many live auction items should we have?  This is one of the most popular questions asked when planning a fundraising auction event.

In a standard “Gala style” event with silent auction, welcome speech, live auction and fund a need there is what’s called a “Golden Hour”.  I would suggest that an hour for a live auction at a fundraiser is a bit too much, but it is a good rule of thumb to keep your live auction no more than one hour long.  I really like to be more in the range of 30-45 minutes if possible.  

Now, that brings up the question: “How many items does that mean we can sell?”  A good professional fundraising auctioneer will take around 3 minutes per item (including the item description).  If you do the math that means that 15 items are the most you should be selling, but ideally you want to stay between 8-10.  Be careful of filling the auction with lower quality items just to say you have ten items!  I would rather have quality, not quantity in the live auction; even if that means having an auction with 4-5 items.  You only have a short attention span with your guests, so make it count!

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS

EliteFundraisingAuctions.com

Checking In and Out Guests at a Fundraising Auction Event & Where Guests should be Seated

When guests arrive at your event make the check in process simple by dividing them alphabetically by last name or company name in about five to seven different check in areas.  This will help cut down on long lines and crowd size.  

I highly recommend collecting credit card numbers upfront at check in and assigning bidder numbers to each person.  This will make check out much easier and more efficient.  If people are not willing to give credit card numbers upfront explain to them that their check out process may take a little longer.  You can even have VIP check out for those that submit credit cards upfront as an incentive.  Come up with a perk that VIP check out can offer your guests.  You could deliver their items to their tables or they could simply have a special checkout line.

In order to have the most successful fund-a-need, silent auction and live auction, assigning

bidder numbers is a must.  It will help tremendously to have everyone identifiable by bidder number rather than name, and it will dramatically cut down on the amount of runners and people having to collect information throughout the event.  The fund-a-need alone can almost not be done with a big group if bidder numbers are not assigned to each person.

Guests with the means to support your cause should be strategically placed at the front of a room or near the auctioneer.  These guests will more than likely bid several times and it helps to keep the flow of the auction if the auctioneer can easily find them.  Let the auctioneer know where the guests with the means to support will be sitting prior to the start of the auction, and don’t hesitate to introduce the auctioneer to the high rollers so he can build some rapport with them.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS

Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services 

EliteFundraisingAuctions.com