So you are planning a Fundraising Auction! That is so exciting, and I know how much work that can be to get going. If you are like me, you are probably looking for all of the ways to increase revenue at your event besides the Auction and Fund-A-Need.
Lucky for you, I’ve rounded up my 5 Favorite Revenue-Generating Activities for Auctions.
Wine Pull or Whiskey Wall
This is an easy activity to set up and run. As the organization you will get wine, whiskey or spirits of your choice donated to your event.
See how to get booze donated to your event here!
Donors will pay a fixed amount to blindly pick a bottle of whatever you are serving up! Some bottles may be worth less than the given price and some bottles will be worth way more. Learn more about how to play The Whiskey Wall or Wine Pull here!
Punch Board
This is a great activity for nonprofits who have a lot of smaller gift cards or smaller auction items that wouldn’t bring in a lot of revenue during the silent auction. The guests get to pay to play. I recommend $50 to play. When clients sell $25 opportunities, it tends to sell out really fast, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a sign they could have earned more money. They will punch the board and find out what item they won. It could be a gift card or a physical item or literally anything that the organization had donated but didn’t put on the silent auction. See the best practices and full instructions of the Punch Board here.
The Dessert Dash
Would you spend $1,000+ on a cake? Me neither, but guess what? Your gala guests will. The Dessert Dash is a silent bidding system where the tables pool their bids together and submit them anonymously. When it is time to do the “dash” the facilitator will read the table numbers starting with the table with the highest bid and goes down from there. Each table will send their designated dasher at the time of the reading and they will literally run to pick out the dessert for their table. This is a profitable and fun way to bring in a lot of extra cash for your fundraising event!
Learn more here.
Heads and Tails
If you’ve ever been to a gala fundraiser, you’ve probably played “Heads and Tails.” This is a game that guests pay to play and the winner gets a prize which is either a donated item with broad appeal or something like half of the pot raised.
To play, the facilitator will flip a coin and guests will predict if it will fall on heads (by placing their hands on their heads) or Tails (by placing their hands on their booty). Those who guessed wrong are out and those who were correct stay in the game. You play until there is only one play staying. See the full rules, best practices and a video example of Heads and Tails Here
Golden Ticket
The golden ticket is a high end raffle where the winner gets to pick one of the live auction items from the auction prior to the live auction starting. The tickets should be priced high enough to accommodate an exclusive raffle so people realistically feel like they can win. Bidders will purchase the tickets like in any raffle and the auctioneer will pick the ticket prior to the live auction and ask which item they want. I’ve seen these raise $10,000 (100 tickets sold for $100 each) and then have the winner auction their ticket off raising an additional $5,000! See the best practices for the Golden Ticket so you can have a successful event!
What will you try?
I’d love to hear which of these you are most looking forward to trying at your event! Keep in mind that too many activities can spread your guests thin and end up losing you money in the end, so pick one or two of these to beef up your next fundraising event so you can raise more money!
