Planning a fundraising auction or gala can take a lot of work and the idea of soliciting new items can be overwhelming. I get it! What if I told you that you don’t need as many auction items in your auction?
What if I told you having fewer auction items will actually raise you more money?
How?
Well, there are a couple reasons for this.
Supply & Demand.
Simple and straight forward. The fewer auction items available to your attendees mean that the bids will compound on the items that exists rather than being spread over hundreds of items. Not everyone will walk away with an item or spend money in the auction, but that is the magic of it. Those bidders will have more money to spend in your Fund-A-Need. So not only are your auction items raising more money, but you will begin to see more revenue in your Fund-A-Need.
Your mission matters
The second reason is that more and more, people are caring less about getting something in return for their money. When we remove distractions like hundreds of auction items, you can focus on the core of your mission which will lead to a powerful Fund-A-Need. Auctions are still a powerful for building momentum and raising literal thousands of extra dollars at your event, but a Fund-A-Need will capture donations from more of your audience and allow you to develop lasting relationships with them as donors.
CASE STUDY: Campfire MN
I had a first time client this year called Campfire MN (they provide outdoor education opportunities to underprivileged youth in our community). I do not have the official Fund-A- Need totals yet as it was very recent, but am happy to send them once I receive them.
Here is a note from their development person about the live auction,
“And in terms of revenue, our live auction did so much better than last year (6 packages gained $10,400 revenue) whereas this year 3 packages gained $13,000. Our Fund A Need was extremely successful as well! Thank you again.”
We intentionally reduced the number of live auction items to keep momentum high for the Fund-A-Need moment so we could engage more donors. In the live auction, with similar items as they had the year before, I was able to increase the average auction price item from $1733 (with another auctioneer) to $4,333 (with me as the auctioneer). The Fund-A-Need was increased from $28,860 in 2017 (with their previous auctioneer) to $38,550 in 2018 (with me as their auctioneer).
This is not an isolated experience. Time after time, I work with nonprofits who are tired of spending weeks or months soliciting items or paying out the big bucks to consignment shops who are going to take the majority of what they “raised” in the auction.
You can do this too!
How many auction items should you have?
For a Live Auction shoot for 4-6 items. This is enough to build momentum, but won’t be too long to take away from the mission of the evening or lose the interest of the non-bidders in the crowd.
For a Silent Auction try for 1 item per 5-10 guests. I can hear you sighing with relief from here. You. Are. Welcome.
