11 Ideas for Silent Auction Baskets or Raffle Baskets

Are you struggling to come up with ideas for your raffle or silent auction? The possibilities are endless, but I totally understand how sometimes it can feel like when the time comes your brain just goes blank and you don’t know where to start. This week I worked with a client who did a Basket Raffle who had a great selection of baskets for which the guests could drop their tickets. Below I’ve included several of the baskets they hosted as well as some ideas that were inspired from each of the baskets. After you take a look, make sure to share in the comments some of your favorite ideas or any new creative ideas you or your committee come up with. We’re all here to help nonprofits make a greater impact on our world!

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Netflix & Chill

I know they technically called this one the “Take-Out food and Movies” basket, but I would call it “Netflix and Chill,” because…you know. This basket included some gift cards to local chains. Another option would be Door Dash or Grub Hub gift cards so they could receive delivery from any of their favorite restaurants. Add in a Netflix gift card to apply to their current membership (because lets be honest, we all have one already) and it’s a great option for someone to bid on or win something that they know they will already use!

Family Game Night

This particular package was built around the popcorn maker, but included a few games. Creating a basket around family bonding is a great idea because family unity is a core value for so many gala guests. Add in your favorite games that are easy to engage multigenerational players and some snacks. You don’t need a popcorn maker to make this basket a success. Pick the things that your family loves and you can be sure that others will appreciate it too!

“Get Hygge With it”

Yes, I’m renaming the baskets here. Get over it. I love a good pun and so will your guests. This Hygge, or Cozy Night In, basket was filled with hot cocoa, mugs and included a gift card to Barnes and Noble for some new books. If you want something more tangible than a gift card, pick out whatever Reese’s most recent Book Club choice was for a best seller that would intrigue most any bidder at your event. Facial masks, wine or cozy throw blankets would also be a great addition to this type of basket!

S’mores Basket

This one is pretty self-explanitory. All the s’mores essentials. Instead of a basket, they packaged this bad boy in an actual fire pit which was a great way to display all the goodies and really made this basket stand out. It also may inspire other baskets like “grills night out” or “grills just want to have fun” with a bunch of grilling essentials all packaged in a small tailgating-ready weber grill. Also, if you have an idea for a basket and need someone to create a pun, please reach out because I will be ready with ideas. I am 💯 percent serious.

Lucky Lotto

This item received the most tickets. I can’t guarantee that it would be as profitable as a silent auction item, but for a basket raffle it made bank. This basket was filled with lottery tickets, scratch tickets and other lottery-based items. You could add a giftcard to your local Casino. Most of our local Casinos donate a one-night stay which includes a buffet for 2 to most nonprofits for fundraisers, so you could reach out and get an overnight to make this prize even more compelling!

Margarita Madness

This basket included all the fixing for a Margarita night. Vodka, Margarita Mix, Margarita glasses, salt for the rim, some small batch craft salsa and guacamole mix. The winning bidder just needed to provide some friends and chips for a great time. This is another basket that received a lot of tickets in this basket raffle and the winner had a lot of fun taking home! Some other ideas would be some fixings for tacos or gift cards to a local favorite Mexican restaurant.

Craft Beer Basket

Your town likely has a thriving craft brewery scene. A great basket to offer is a Craft Beer Basket including some of your favorites. In my experience if you approach your favorite local breweries with a pitch for your nonprofit, you will probably get a growler or 6-pack along with some brewery swag to add to your basket. It’s a great chance for them to get exposure and give back to their own community. Sure it’s easy to buy craft beer and add it to the basket, but your local breweries may surprise you, don’t be afraid to ask. See my post on how to get beer, wine and liquor donated for tips on how to get these items for FREE!

CRAP Beer Basket

This one made me audibly laugh out loud. I have never seen this one before, but place it right next to your “Craft Beer Basket” to amuse your guests and get some engagement. This would not be a profitable silent auction item, but worked great as an option in the Basket Raffle. Throw some of your favorite domestic options in this one. I know our craft brew scene is strong, but you may have some bidders who like their classic easily drinkable domestic beers. While this didn’t get the most tickets, it definitely had people talking. Very cheap to assemble but it is something people will remember.

Single Cocktail Basket

This Old Fashioned Whiskey Basket was a hit among the guests. As a craft cocktail lover myself, I can imagine having an entire basket raffle filled only with single cocktail baskets. Think Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Moscow Mules, Margaritas, etc. Purchase everything you need to assemble the perfect cocktail, including glassware, and add a recipe card so the winner knows exactly what they need to create the perfect cocktail at home. The creator of this basket picked some tasty whiskeys which was definitely a selling point. This would be a great item to pitch to local liquor stores as a donation for some free publicity and community outreach!

Italian Dinner Basket

This basket includes everything you need for a delicious Italian dinner. Pasta, wine, seasoning, sauces and more. Like the Old Fashioned basket above, this item is a great jumping-off point for brainstorming basket ideas. How many meal-inspired baskets could you come up with? Juicy Lucy Basket, Homemade Sushi Basket, Instant Pot Success Basket, etc. The possibilities are endless. This was a fun addition to the basket raffle and inspires so many more ideas. I’d love to hear what you come up with in the comments!

Self-Care Basket

This self-care basket included home facial masks, a luxurious Volcano Candle from Anthropologie, a self-help book by the inspiring Brene Brown and more. You could also include salon or spa giftcards, bath bombs, body lotions and oils, hotel giftcards (which you should 100% be getting donated from local hotels), essential oils, spotify gift cards, babysitting coupons, wine, coffee, a cozy one-size-fits-all robe or anything else that you would consider self-care. Think of what you love to have to pamper yourself and add it in this basket for the most competitive bidding.

What are your ideas?

I would love to hear some of your most creative ideas for baskets for silent auction or raffles. Have you ever done a basket raffle? Give it a try. It gives donors a chance to pick which prizes they want to be drawn for while skipping over the baskets that don’t give them much interest. It also lets the guests who just want to win, stock pile their tickets in the baskets with the fewest tickets so they increase their chances of winning! Thanks to the Fridley Schools Foundation for letting me share your wonderful baskets!

Golden Ticket: A Fundraising Auction Enhancer to Raise Money At Your Next Event

The Golden Ticket is an exclusive high price point Raffle Game where the winner gets to pick ANY of the Live Auction Items as the prize.

I work with some local and regional nonprofits that have amazing donors and raise good money at their events through the Live Auction and Fund-A-Need, but struggle to solicit high value items. Their largest item may be a trip valued at $2,500 (though it would sell for more in the auction). The Golden Ticket is an excellent game for organizations like theirs because even though they may “lose” a live auction item through the Golden Ticket winner, the proceeds from the Golden Ticket sales far exceed what the item would have sold for in the auction. And, in my experience, roughly 50% of the time my clients play this game, the Golden Ticket winner donates their item back to the auction, generating even more revenue, because people are just amazing sometimes.

Who would benefit from offering this game?

This would benefit your organization and enhance your event if…

1. You are a small to mid-sized event (250-999 guests) that has live auction items with values all under $5,000.

2. You are an organization hosting a gala of 1,000+ because you have a larger pool of donors to whom you can sell the tickets

   Who should skip this game:

   If you are hosting an event with less than 500 people and are offering auction packages that have values over $5,000 there is a good chance you could actually lose money by offering the Golden Ticket to your guests. It works better when the ticket sales will exceed the price of your most expensive live auction item.

What you need to play?

• A roll of raffle tickets

• Dynamic and engaging Volunteers who can sell the tickets

How to set up and play:

Determine how much you want to make from the game:

Set a goal for how much revenue you want to earn from the “Golden Ticket” Game. Your goal should be equal to or higher than the value of your most expensive Live Auction item so you don’t end up losing money on your game.

Say your biggest Live Auction item is a trip to Italy valued at $6,500, your goal should at least be to sell enough tickets to meet $6,500 (though, if you have enough attendees, shoot for higher). For the sake of the instructions, I’m going to use the goal of $10,000, but know that depending on the number of people you have attending and their giving capacity, you will need to adjust your personal goal.

Decide how many tickets you should sell and how much to sell them for.

If you are hosting an event of 1,000, you should easily be able to sell 100 tickets and could likely sell them at $100 a piece to reach your goal of $10,000. You could also try for 200 tickets at $50/piece or 50 tickets at $200/piece. Remember the higher the price, the more challenging they are to sell, but the exclusivity of the raffle increases a lot which will be appealing to many of your donors.

Selling your tickets somewhere between $50 and $100 is a great place to start and fill in your numbers from there. If you have a group of 250 people, a goal of raising $10,000 with the Golden Ticket may be too high (unless you have exclusively high rollers at your event), but you could work to sell 50 Tickets at $100 and raise $5,000.

Keep in mind the winner may pick your most expensive item, so whatever you raise in the Golden Ticket needs to make up for the potential revenue you might sacrifice on that Live Auction Item.

Get the most charismatic and sales savvy volunteers you can and sell those tickets out STAT

This game can only be truly successful when you completely sell out your tickets. These volunteers should be fun, extroverted and feel comfortable chatting with strangers and know how to clearly communicate the message. I’m sure you can think of a few volunteers right now who would be perfect for this job. They will feel honored when you let them know they were the first person you thought of for this role!

EXPERT TIP:

If there is a trip or dinner experience for multiple people (say 6-8) on your auction lineup, have your volunteers go up to groups of people that are clearly friendly and have them each buy a ticket to increase their chances. “Hey, you should ALL buy one or two and then if one of you wins you can still all go to Mexico! Do it! How fun would that be?!” I have seen tables of friends go absolutely WILD when they win a trip with their besties!

Pull the Golden Ticket Winner right before the Live Auction

Bring the raffle tickets up to the stage and have the auctioneer (or whoever you want) pull the winner. Your auctioneer will remind the audience,

“I am about to pull our Golden Ticket winner. The winner will get the choice select any of the Live Auction Items we have tonight or donate it back to be bid on in the auction. Now let’s see who our lucky winner is…..Which item are you going to claim tonight?”

I like to give the choice to give it back BEFORE selecting the winner because it is off putting and a shame strategy to put a donor on the spot after you’ve called their name. Remember, every part of your event is about nurturing donor relationships because that is going to make you more profitable in the long run.

Remove the item from the live auction

When they announce their selection, congratulate them cheerfully and have your AV team remove it from the slide show or have the auctioneer skip it during the live auction, acknowledging the winner and thanking everyone who participated in the Golden Ticket Raffle.

Are you going to try it?

This game is a fun way to get more revenue out of your live auction items! It’s exclusive and a great way for donors who may not be able to afford bidding on the Live Auction, but have their eyes on certain items. They get a fighting chance as 1 of 50 people for only $100 instead of dropping a couple thousand on what it would actually sell for in the auction.

Comment below if you’ve tried this or have any questions.

I’m always happy to give feedback to make sure your event is a success!

Wine Pull: A revenue generating game for fundraising events

The Wine Pull is a great way game to play throughout the night of your fundraising auction or charity event. The majority of the wine pull will happen during the cocktail hour or silent auction.

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What you will need:

• A variety of donated wine: a couple really nice bottles, mostly $10-$15 bottles, and you can even throw in a one or two $3 buck chucks if you are feeling particularly silly (see here how to get wine donated for auction items). Ideally 25-50 bottles.

• Wine sized paper bags (these would work, but even though these are a little more expensive, people appreciate having a handle so they can still mingle while carrying their wine).

• Corks (as many as you have bottles), so start drinking. Only sort of kidding, you can get some on amazon too. I’ll let you decide how you acquire corks, but I know which one sounds more fun.

• A basket or something to place the corks in

• Permanent Markers

• 1-2 volunteers to run the booth

• optional: Red and White ribbon. This is if you want to give your guests the option of selecting a red or white wine. Poll your committee and see if this matters to them. I don’t believe it impacts the success of your wine pull, but some guests may appreciate it.

• optional: gift tags

How to set up the wine pull:

You will start by collecting all your bottles and placing them in the paper bags and then number each one. Then take your corks and use a permanent marker to number the corks. You will have the same number of corks as you have bottles. You can reuse the same corks year after year (yay!). If you are choosing to let your guests choose red vs. white, make sure you separate the corks with the corresponding bags so they don’t get mixed up.

When you get to the venue, you will have all the bottles out on the table, with the numbers facing forward. (note, if you would rather have the bottles on display, you can use gift tags to number the wines).

Place the numbered corks in a basket (two separate ones if you are doing red vs. white)

How to play the wine pull:

After the guests pay to play “Wine Pull” the volunteer will hold out the basket and the guest will pick a cork. The volunteer will grab the corresponding wine bottle for the cork.

Side note: many guests will ask if the volunteers can hold their bottles until the end of the night. This is why I recommend using the bags with the handles because it allows the guests to take the wine with little inconvenience. If you have multiple volunteers at the table, you could receive the bidders name and bid number and bring the bottle to silent auction checkout. It’s a hassle, so my recommendation is that you just encourage the guests to carry the bottle with them so there are no mix-ups at the end of the night.

How much should a single “wine pull” cost and how should they pay?

If you are asking the guests to pay cash, it should cost $20. Most of the bottles donated will be around that $10-$20 mark, but a few will be worth way more. This is the fun of the game.

If you are using a mobile bidding software, talk to your contact with the software you chose and they can help you set up an option to buy a turn at the wine pull in the mobile bidding software. This is my recommendation because fewer people are bringing cash to these events since mobile bidding makes purchasing items and donating so accessible.

If you are not using a mobile bidding software, and you want to offer your guests an option other than cash, have the volunteers collect the guests’ names and bidder numbers and then they can pay at the end of the night during checkout with the rest of their auction items and donations.

3 Ways to get Wine and Alcohol Donated for Auction Items and Fundraising Games

One of the most important questions to ask yourselves about auction items is, “Does this item have broad appeal?” Meaning, is this something a lot of people like and would be willing to bid on? If there is one thing that you can guarantee a lot of people could bid on it is….(drumroll please)… alcohol.

There are several different auction packages you can compile around a theme of wine, beer and/or spirits. To see some ideas, check out this post on Alcohol-related auction items or grab my FREE AUCTION ITEM GUIDE below:

Once you brainstorm a bunch of items that you know will get your guests’ hands high in the air, the question remains…

How do you get wine, beer and other forms of alcohol donated to use at a nonprofit auction or for fundraising games?

When I go to events, I see the three different types of donors of wine/beer/alcohol items.

1. Ask a local, privately owned, Liquor Store to sponsor your auction item or game.

   What do I mean by this? Say you are doing a Wine Pull and need 50 bottles of wine. You can pitch this to local liquor store owners and ask if they would be interested in Sponsoring it. You could even name the game after them: “Anderson Liquor’s Wine Pull.”
   How does this benefit the liquor store? The same way any sponsorship (either cash or in-kind) benefits a person or company. They get name recognition and advertising at the event. Asking them to sponsor a game is especially appealing because they are typically in a prime area at the event and get a lot of attention. They should also be listed in all other places that sponsors are listed.

2. Ask the board to come together and donate

   Alcohol-related items are commonly donated by the board. Things like the “Wall of Wine” or “Wheelbarrow of Booze” that are compiled of several different types of wine, beer and spirits can be pulled together by several different people. Ask the board to contribute one to two bottles of their choice (remind them they need not be stingy 😉). This is a great way to easily collect a wonderful collection that can be used in auction items or for a game like a Wine Pull or Whiskey Pull.

3. Reach out to restaurants, breweries, wineries and distilleries in your community.

   Similar to reaching out to a liquor store, the local restaurants, breweries, wineries and distilleries in your community can gain name recognition, advertising and good will with your guests through sponsoring your event by providing beer, wine or spirits. This is a great option if you have a venue that allows you to bring in your own alcohol at the event because they could even sponsor the bar.

   Could they sponsor the bar, or offer up one case/keg to sell at the event?

   I went to an event recently and a local brewery was willing to donate a keg of a crowd favorite beer. At the event, the organization let everyone know that if they selected that specific beer 100% of the proceeds could go back to the organization. So instead of paying $8 to the venue, they were racking up $8 donations one after another.

   Could they donate an alcohol-related experience?

   Could they host a tasting or a tour? Could their craft bar tender put on an exclusive cocktail class for 12? If they can add some food to this, even better! This is a great LIVE AUCTION item!

   Could they put together a basket or donate a gift card to the silent auction?

   I go to a lot of silent auctions… A LOT of them and since my husband loves craft beer, I keep a close watch on the brewery donated items. It will usually be a couple 6-packs, a brewery gift card and some swag (sweatshirts or coozies or anything with the name on it) and even in the silent auction these items go well above retail value because of their broad appeal. It’s a great, low cost way for the breweries, wineries or distilleries to give back and be involved in their community.

Give these a try and watch those donations come in. Keep coming back for more ideas on auction items, fundraising ideas and how to get donations.

How many live auction items should you have at your fundraising auction?

Today, I want to focus on something easy. I am often asked how many live auction items you should have in your live auction. 

In the past, auctioneers recommended having 8-12 auction items, but over the past couple years the intrigue of the live auction has faded and with the rise of the Fund-A-Need, it has become the primary source of revenue for most of my clients. This means that the live auction is evolving and becoming a source of momentum that leads up to the giving moment. How many auction items is perfect for building momentum and raising lots of money?

The number of Live Auction items I recommend having in your Live Auction:

4-6

Why? 

Because your guests don't have the attention span for any more than that.  

I have found that after 6 items, you begin to lose your audience's attention. You may engage the few people interested in those last items on your list, but other than that your guests are tapped out. 

Why this is important? 

For most of my clients, the Fund-A-Need is conducted after the live auction. And you want everything in your program to support your Fund-A-Need. Sometimes it is even more profitable to have the Fund-A-Need before the Live Auction, which is a topic for another day. For today, I want to focus on how the live auction can build momentum up to the Fund-A-Need.

What's the big deal about the fund-a-need? 

The fund-a-need is where most of my clients bring in the majority of their revenue. It is when they can involve everyone in the audience and welcome them to join in on the incredible work their organization does. If you want to learn more about that, please watch my videos from last week and the week before to get a very thorough overview of how to have a profitable fund-a-need.  

You actually lose money by having too many live auction items

You do not want the live auction to run too long because it will only engage a small percentage of your audience, and the rest of your crowd will eventually tune out and you will have lost their attention for the Fund-A-Need where they are mostly likely to give.

While I make sure my live auctions are fun and exciting and that everyone is in on the fun by making jokes and playing with the audience, after a while it becomes a lot of the same. You do not want your auctioneer to take away from the work your organization does.  

By including 4-6 live auction items in your program you will: 

Cultivate Competative Bidding

By having fewer items in your live auction (this is actually true of your silent auction too), the few items you have will go for more than they would have if you had more items in play. I have many clients who cut their live auctions in half and made the same amount of revenue (if not more) in the live auction and made even more in the Fund-A-Need. 

Create Momentum

This is a stop while you are ahead mentality. The live auction is fun and exciting and I get everyone laughing and playing along. You want to stop at the height of your energy and conduct the fundraising appeal or Fund-A-Need. People become swept up in the energy and are ready to give at this time. 

Build Trust

This is probably the strongest argument for having the live auction before the Fund-A-Need (again, you do not have to do it this way). As the auctioneer, I am an outsider. Your audience does not know me, and therefore they don't trust me. I have no credibility with them at the beginning of an event and therefore no authority to ask them to give money. After about four or five live auction items, we've gotten to know each other pretty well. I approach every auction with authenticity and quickly build a rapport with my audience. This means when it is time to do the ask, they trust and respect me and are more comfortable opening up their pocketbooks when I tell them to. 

How to Pick a "Need" For your Fundraising Appeal

Today we are going to cover How to Pick a "Need" for your fundraising appeal. 

This is often why we call it a "Fund-A-Need" at events. 

First, let me do a super brief history of the fund-a-need: 

Once upon a time, people had fancy pants galas and they brought in an auctioneer with a cowboy hat and bow tie who looked sharp as hell who sold 10-12 auction items. This meant 10-12 people got to be donors for the evening, and the other 478 people were chumps who just got to eat a chicken dinner and enjoy the open bar. Then one day, the auctioneers said, "hey, we're missing out on some money here, because the losing bidders still have some cash in their pockets." So after their auction, they would say something like, "hey, if you didn't win anything, you can still give money." And the fund-a-need was born. Fast forward 10-15ish years, the fund-a-need is the bread and butter of every event.  

Now, you should also know MY personal fundraising philosophy.

I believe that every single person wants to feel impactful. They want to know that at the end of their life, their existence made a lasting difference in our world. I believe it is our job as fundraisers to give them that opportunity. The opportunity to make a meaningful difference. When we begin to look at fundraising through this lense, it becomes just as important as the work you do directly through your organization, because it allows us not only to serve the people (or animals, or environment, or whatever it is you serve), but it also allows us to serve your donors, but giving them a genuine opportunity to make a meaningful difference.

With that in mind, why should you pick a "need" in the first place? Why can't you just raise "as much money as you can" towards your general fund? 

This is a great question that I get all of the time. So let me address it.  

Your guests are more likely to give if they can tangibly understand who or what they are helping. You may do great and amazing world-changing work, but if your guests do not understand what they are funding, they will not give. It's that simple.  

Let's simplify it for them so they don't have to think about it. All they have to do is raise their hand. 

Select a "need" that is inspirational.

If you can make them cry, that's perfect. Inspirational may seem obvious, but it is a key characteristic to conducting a successful fund-a-need. If your need, isn't that "sexy" try looking at it from a different angle. I had a client two years ago, who had to build a bathroom facility in a Haitian Village they serve. Toilets are definitely not sexy, but rather than focusing on all of that crap, we focused on human dignity. We focused on the jobs it would create to build these bathrooms. They shared stories of what it was like to go to the bathroom in that village. Using a toilet in private is something we all take for granted here in the US, but they showed their audience that they could provide a sense of dignity to the people of Haiti. Because of this inspirational take on the least sexy subject ever, they were able to build the bathrooms. And when the hurricane hit the following fall, it was the only facility left standing, which was a testament to the heart and quality they put in to this project, which made it even easier the following year when we had to rebuild the dormitories for this community.

Give them a "need" that is financially transparent.

They should understand where their money is going and that it is going to directly impact lives or make this world the kind of place they want to live in. The majority of your guests have a limited amount of resources. If this is not you, you are #blessed. But for most nonprofits, you know that charitable giving is competitive, and you have to prove to your guests that you are going to use their funds wisely.  I'll use the potty example again. This organization is 100% volunteer run out of someone's home, so they were able to share that. The donors knew that all of their money would be an act of love as they provided a sense of dignity to this Haitian Community. You are probably not a volunteer-run organization and that's okay, because you are able to commit more time and energy to the work you do. I encourage you to find a project or a need that will use 100% of their gift towards affecting change or solving a problem. Then reassure them that their money will be going directly to this project. It doesn't take much here other than something like, "100% of the money you give tonight will go directly to fund scholarships for young women in the Congo." And then follow up with them with updates about the young women they impacted. This is their reminder that they did well and that their contribution made a difference.

Your "Need" should be achievable.

This means that you need to fund it in completion that evening. Assuming the number of attendees you plan to have stays the same year over year, shoot for a project that is approximately 10-20% more than you raised last year. I will circle back to the bathroom example. They decided to fund it by breaking down the costs of the facility. I don't always recommend it, but with building projects it makes the giving super tangible. The frame and roof will cost $10,000, the labor will cost $5000, the sheetrock will cost $2500, the tile costs $1,000, a toilet costs $100, etc. For this group, since they did not have a "momentum donor" which I will talk more about in detail next week, I would try to find 10 people to fund the frame and roof at $1000 a piece and go from there. It works for this group. What I would generally recommend is being clear about the cost of the project as a whole and starting higher at $5,000 and go all the way down to $25 explaining that $25 will fund a day of work for one person, so that those $25 donors know how impactful their donation is.

I bet you didn't think I'd use a bathroom project as a good "need" to select. I'd love to hear what you have funded in the past! Let me know in the comments. Also, if you are working on framing your fundraising appeal right now and are trying to decide which way to go, share that and we can work as a community to give you feedback and ideas! It's all about how to inspire your donors this year! 

Market your Live Auction Items before the Event

You have spent so much time and energy getting ready for your BIG fundraising gala. You’ve secured some kickass items that you think people will really LOVE, now you just cross your fingers and hope they bid (or expect your auctioneer to work some voodoo magic on them to make their hands go in the air). Here’s the deal, sometimes people spend the big bucks without any planning or forethought, however I can guarantee you that you’ll make so much more money on your live auction if you Market the items before the event happens.

Just think of the last major purchase you made. Maybe it was a car or a vacation. You likely did not do it on a whim (if you did, we could probably be best friends). No, you thought long and hard about what you wanted and how much you were willing to spend on it. Your gala guests and donors are no different.

You must absolutely market your Live Auction items before the event. 

This may be obvious to some of you, but you'd be surprised how many events I've shown up at where the guests had no idea what was on the Live Auction that night. 

Start Soliciting your items early

One reason most organizations don't market their items is because until the last minute, they have no idea what they are. As soon as you think about planning your event and setting a date, start talking about live auction items. Brainstorm them with your team and take action on pursuing the items. 

Get firm commitments and all the details from your item donors ASAP

As soon as you think you have an item. Close the deal. As soon as you have the firm (hopefully written) commitment from the donor, get all of the details including pictures, dates, etc so you can start an item write up early on in the event planning process. The more you know ahead of time, the more effectively you'll be able to market your items during the planning process. 

Feature the items in the Save-The-Date

Because we are focusing on spectacular items that are exclusive and offer a broad appeal (see my video from Monday if you aren't sure what I'm talking about), you are going to want to tease your guests with these items from the moment they think about the event. This will help them to prepare accordingly. If they are already thinking about taking a trip in the next year, they can plan to bid on the trip in your auction.

Help them remember the items are 100% for a good cause

I welcome you to use tag lines like: 

"A trip that's for the kids, except you don't have to bring your own." 

"A dinner experience that feels as good as it tastes." 

Ths is a playful way to remind them that while they are getting amazing items, they are also supporting your organization. It's more than a large purchase. 

Share the items in your email and social media communications leading up to the event

The two weeks or so before the event, send out emails and social media posts featuring the items. You want your bidders to be thinking about these as they plan the budget for the evening. Whether you like it or not, everyone comes to your event with a budget in mind, but you can help them determine whether they will spend their $5,000 at your event or at the one the following night, by letting them know what you have to offer.

If you are sending things via social media, share it multiple times because everything moves so fast online and you don't want anyone to miss it. 

Feature them online through your mobile bidding website

Even though bidding is not available online for the live auction items, you should still list it on your mobile bidding website. Most companies allow you to have items that aren't open, but you can list a picture, description and all the nitty gritty details for your guests to view before they arrive. 

Some organizations mail out programs in advance. This can get expensive because most people forget to bring the program to your event, so you have to print twice as many. This is a great alternative.  

Keep marketing them the night of the event

Most of you know to have a clearly marked display of the live auction items where everyone can view them. While this is so necessary it still doesn't give people all the time they need to read all the details they need to make an informed decision. All of the items should be listed and described with all the details in the program as well. 

Get creative

I recommend printing the live auction items and putting them on the doors of the bathroom stalls and by the line at the bar. This is a perfect place where you have a captive audience to view the items.

Why this is so important: 

You want your guests to come to your event with the decision to bid so that you can leave it up to your auctioneer to get them to give beyond their budget.  

It is much more impactful to get more money out of a guest who already decided they wanted the item. They've been thinking about it for weeks and will be disappointed if they don't win it. Compare this to springing live auction items on your guests and expecting them to drop $1,000 let alone $10,000+ without any prior thought.  

Get those live auction items out there before the event, so that your guests come to the event ready and excited to bid. 

2 questions to ask before you put an item on the Live Auction

I want to introduce the 2 questions you need to ask before you place an item on the live auction.

Hopefully you have gone through my posts from last week featuring how many Live Auction Items you should have, the 5 live auction items you should look for and mission-centered live auction items. Now, once you have identified items that would be great options for the live auction, there are 2 questions I want you to ask yourself:

1. Is this item exclusive?

Meaning could your guests get this item anywhere else?  

This is honestly one of the biggest issues I see with selling vacations on the Live Auction. Most vacation packages offered are nothing special. With the internet, most people can easily curate their own dream vacations for way less money than the "estimated value" of the trips on the auction. 

Make sure the items on your live auction have a sense of exlusivity because that will encourage quick and competative bidding. They need to know that they have to raise their hand to bid or they will actually miss out on this item.  This is why meal experiences tend to be some of the highest selling items.

If you are worrying about having the right connections to obtain "exlusive" live auction items, refer to my post on mission-centered Live Auction items to find some inspiration. I passionately believe that most "exlusive" items are the ones that will cost you nothing to obtain. I'll get into my beef with consignment live auction items another day, but just know that I'm not a huge supporter.

2. Does this item have a broad appeal? 

Does this item interest many people in your audience?  

Technically, you only need 2 people in your audience interested in your items to make it an auction, but the more you have the faster and higher those bids go up.  

This is important for a couple reasons

It creates competitive bidding

The more people that the item appeals to, the more people will bid. It's as easy as that. Supply and demand.  

It keeps more people engaged

If you have been following me for a while, you know how I love to use the live auction to build momentum up to the Fund-A-Need, and if you can curate a live auction lineup that appeals to as many people as possible in your audience, the more effective you will be at engaging your guests and building that momentum.

When the answer is "yes" 

If you create a live auction lineup that is both exclusive and has a broad appeal, you will see record breaking numbers in your live auction. This is a simple but effective tool that will increase revenue at your fundraising event.

Mission Centered Auction Items

Today, I am going to cover one of my favorite things to talk about: Mission-centered Live Auction Items.

What is a mission-centered live auction item?

A mission-centered live auction items is an item that you curate through your organization that represents the work you do. 

Why are these items important? 

Integrating Mission-Centered items into your live auction, creates momentum around the work you do. The live auction can get a little off track from your mission. As an auctioneer, I have phrases and tools to remind people about the purpose of the night, but I have yet to find a tool as powerful as adding in one or two (or 5) mission-centered items into the live auction.

Also, if you've build meaningful connections with many of the guests in your room, they are interested in the work that you do and these items have a broad appeal, meaning that there are a lot of people in your audience who will likely be willing to bid on them. This bids the price up, raising you a lot of money.

This is a great opportunity for you to show off some lesser known areas of your organization. I know that you have so many different programs going on within your organization, but your guests may not know that. This is an opportunity to talk them up and support them in a festive way.

BONUS: Usually these items cost you absolutely nothing to pull together, but they tend to cultivate competitive bidding and raise a ton of money.

Here are some examples of Mission-Centered items I've sold:

VIP High School Theater Experience

I loved this one! This was for a local high school. We were doing an auction for their performing arts programs and only had 4 live auction items, so they needed to ensure they picked items that would sell competitively. For this item they sold:

• 2 Front row tickets to their annual HIGH SCHOOL musical

• They provided valet parking

• They recruited a well loved local restaurant to not only donate a dinner, but also provide them with a reservation so they could make the show on time. This may not seem like a big deal, but to this community it was a HUGE gesture because this restaurant is a neighborhood favorite and NEVER takes reservations.

This was such a fun one to sell. It cost the school $14 total (the opportunity cost of 2 tickets), but raised a whopping $2,100! Every single person in the crowd was there to support the high school's performing arts program, so it started off with a lot of competitive bidding due to it's broad appeal. Then it was able to sell high for it's exclusive experiences, including valet parking (important at a school where there is primarily limited street parking available) and the dinner reservation.

Sponsor a refugee business idea

I work with an international refugee relief organization who ran with the idea to have an entirely mission-centered live auction (which paid off so well), but I am just going to share one of their items. 

They work with a refugee camp and one of their ideas to improve the lives of the refugees was to ask the youth/young adults to share an idea that would serve the people around them. They received 800 ideas from young adults in this camp alone, flooding them with ideas for businesses and ways to bring joy to the people in their communities. For their auction, they selected 3 ideas and gave their guests the opportunity to sponsor them.

• One person wanted to start a poultry farm so they could provide a larger variety of food and train others to make a living off raising live stock

• Another person wanted to open a salon where they could train other young adults to make a living as a stylist and then go forward and provide a service to the people in the camp that will make them feel beautiful

• The last idea was a language center so young adults could come together and teach each other their languages so that they could have the best opportunities for success

Each of these ideas were going to cost between $500-$800 to fund and make happen, so the organization was hoping to see them sell for $1,000 a piece. I sold this "auction chicken" style where I had everyone stand up and bid $0, then raised it to $25, $50, $100, $200 up to $1,000 where there were still about 30 people standing in the room. We kept going until there were only 3 people standing. Each opportunity selling for $5,000. We raised $15,000 in 5 minutes without a physical item. It was all about helping these young adults make their community a more joyful and beautiful place.

Private Facility Tour

I've mentioned before my work with The Wildcat Sanctuary. I like to reference them because put on a very mission-centered gala that has so much energy and support for the work they do. Their facility is not open to the public because that is what they believe is best for the animals they rescue, so at their auction they had several different items revolving around a private tour of the facility and their opportunity to see the cats up close

One of the opportunities was to tour their sanctuary in the winter when it is covered in a gorgeous blanket of snow and enjoy a beautiful dinner with a couple friends. Then you would get to watch one of their White Tigers paint a picture with their beautiful paws which the winner would get to keep.

I believe this item sold for $1,600, but then they offered two more opportunities, which trippled their revenue on this item to $4,800. Nearly $5,000 for an item that cost them close to nothing to offer! 

This is why I am so passionate about these items!

You do such amazing work and when I work with my clients, I just want to scream their efforts from the mountain tops, or in my case, the stage. These items give me this opportunity! You would be surprised how generous your guests can be. They want to know their donation is making a difference and this is the perfect way to provide them that opportunity.

How to come up with mission-centered items?

Visit this post and as you go through each question, ask yourself "how can I find an experience within my organization that fits in this category?" This will help you brainstorm so many items. 

The 5 Items You Need on Your Live Auction

It's important that your Live Auction has variety

If your live auction is all trips, they will not sell well. If you have 6 trips, it is unlikely there are 7-12 people in that audience who want them enough to bid them up. It's basic supply and demand. Not to mention it gets super boring for everyone involved

Here are the 5 items you should include in your live auction (in order of importance) 

1. Unique Experience

This is something they can't get anywhere else. This is super important for any crowd, but especially if you are hosting an auction for millennials because research shows (and in my experience), they are more likely to bid on an experience than on a physical item. The great part of this is that most of the experiences you can offer, require creativity and not money to produce. A couple examples that I have sold are: 

Sleepover/Lock-in at the Children's Museum. Opportunity to conduct the professional Orchestra. Unlimited access to 30+ collector cars for an entire summer. A tour of Jay Leno's private garage. Tour of a Private Wildcat Sanctuary. The opportunity to fund a refugee business. Beekeeper for a day.

2. Dining Experience

These sell so so well! People love great dining experiences. Usually the actual retail value of these are under a thousand, but they usually sell for several thousand dollars. 

You can approach this several ways. 

A Chef dinner in-restaurant experience. This is really amazing if you have a new and hot restaurant that has been getting rave reviews and reservations are hard to come by. A Chef dinner for 8-12 with wine pairings. This should a special menu created for this experience, interactions with the chef and be a very special experience. I have sold several where the guests would be in the kitchen or the wine cellar for the meal. This is a several thousand dollar item

Dinner in a prominent person's home. This experience would be if your founder or a public figure wanted to host a dinner party in their home. They could cook themselves or bring in a chef of some sort to their home. Guests love getting quality time with people who are usually quite hard to get an audience with.  

Dinner Party in the winner's home with a personal chef. This is where a chef (professional or a passionate amateur) would come to the winners home with all the food and prepare a meal for 8-12, including adult beverages, and then they would clean up. I have seen this go for thousands of dollars at small events where a teacher or board member is the chef for the night. It doesn't need to be a professional. It just needs to be a likable personality who can cook a good meal.

3. Trip

This could be a local trip or a fabulous dream destination. Either way, people love a get-a-way. Truth be told, local trips have been selling much better over the past couple of years. I'm based in Minneapolis and it is not uncommon for a cabin on the North Shore for a weekend to sell for more than a week long trip at a luxury villa in Mexico. 

Donated airfare is hard to come by these days, so don't let that hold you back from putting up a great trip. In my experience, the airfare doesn't bring much more revenue to an item, so go ahead and sell the trip without airfare.

My only rules for selling trips:

Must have open availability or at least flexible availability. Meaning, it is available for more than just one week out of the year. 

No Time Shares.  This falls in the same spirit as the first rule, but also they are just a pain in the neck to coordinate. No one wants to buy your timeshare. It's not a good donation. Just don't do it.

4. Sports Experience

This could be a wide variety of things. Great seats to a highly anticipated game. Meet and greet with players. If you received a ton of random sports tickets, you could package them all together in a "Year of Minnesota Sports" package. If you have signed items, make sure they are from athletes people care about. Michael Phelps signed photo = Great! A B-String Athlete who no one has ever heard of = Bad.

5. Alcohol Experience

This usually hits a broad appeal. This can also tie in with the meal experience. Brewing or winemaking experiences are fun. I've also sold many "Walls of Wine" where the board members and liquor stores all come together and donate a bottle of wine and you can sell it as a collection to the winning bidder. It offers a broad appeal which makes this a good item to start or end the Live Auction with.

DISCLAIMER: If your organization has any affiliation with addiction or you are a religious organization that does not condone alcohol consumption, this item is NOT for your group. There are so many more amazing items you can add to your live auction to ensure it is varied and engaging without including an alcohol-related item.

What do you think?

How does your current Live Auction line up compare? 

I hope this gets your juices flowing so that you can be ready for brainstorming some great ideas for your event!