There are several options and it will depend on the flow of your evening. Are you having a dinner?
Do you have a performance or speakers?
The one thing I suggest is not to wait until the end of the night when your guests are stuffed, tired, drunk and sick of all the small talk. It’s important to put the live benefit auction at a time when people are engaged and excited to be there. As soon as they become fatigued, you start loosing money – literally! People spend less when they start looking at their watches. A lot of people assume that the best time for the live auction is after dinner. I like to do the live auction during dinner for the following reasons:
1. It’s extra time to raise more money that most people don’t utilize.
2. They have something to do that keeps them in the room.
3. People expect to be entertained during dinner.
4. They are still fresh and excited to be there and become more engaged with the bidding.
More bidding = more money for your organization!
5. Once people finish their dessert they are mentally done and start thinking about leaving.
6. Their mouths are full and therefore less chatty. Once they don’t have food to stuff in their mouths, they start talking to the people around them and become distracted from your #1 goal…giving to your organization.
If you have concerns about when to start your live auction at your charity event, reach out to me and I will walk you through what will work best for your fundraiser.
