How to source Auction Items for a Winning Virtual Fundraiser

How to source Auction Items for a Winning Virtual Fundraiser Banner

Auctions are one of the best ways for nonprofit organizations to raise funds. Courting businesses and individuals willing to donate or sponsor auction items is a crucial part of that process. The quality of goods and services you’re able to acquire is integral to the success of your fundraising initiative. 

Let’s explore some methods you can use to procure great auction items for your next event!

Strategize for Success

Once you have a strategy, you can actively seek and solicit auction items. Build your game plan based on:

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

First things first, you need to assemble an item procurement team. Your team should be comprised of committee members who have the gift of the gab. Look for people with charm and diplomacy who can call on a vast social network to obtain coveted goods and services.

If your team is small, don’t worry. Be sure to plan early (preferably a six months to a year in advance). You’ll be surprised by how much even a one-man show can accomplish! Sound people skills can help you distinguish between donors who are short on time and those who want you to invest time in exchange for a high-impact donation.

Lay it All Out

Put together a PR kit with brochures and links depicting what your organization does. Include facts about previous auctions you’ve held such as the number of bidders that participated. Don’t forget, explain how your virtual event works. This includes what would be expected of donors when it comes to fulfilling their end of the transaction.

Your PR kit can provide auction items suggestions to give your business donors inspiration. Customize these ideas for your wishlist businesses in the body of an email or on a phone call. Just remember, it’s easy to ignore emails, so try and make a call first to establish a personal connection.

Warm-Calling

Colleagues, stakeholders, previous donors from a database, friends, and family are all good sources of auction items. They’re familiar with your cause and have likely witnessed the positive outcomes of your organization’s fundraising projects.

If you’ve thanked them appropriately in the past, there’s a solid chance they will be willing to proffer bid-worthy items again. Your loyal donors and supporters are your first port of call.

Cold-Calling

Cold-calling and cold-pitching can reap rewards so don’t shy away from approaching businesses out of the blue. Highlight the advantages of participating as an item donor. For example, advantages could be greater brand exposure or an enhanced reputation via visible corporate social responsibility or sponsorship.

Remember, the community you engage doesn’t necessarily have to be local. It can include companies from further afield who have an online presence that resonates with your core audience. As long as you’re not trying to ship items across the world, it should be a-okay.

Harness the Power of Social Media

If your campaign messaging is creative, you can tug on the heartstrings and purse strings of hundreds of potential donors via social media. Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are remarkable elements of the internet age. In the digital world, the generosity of clicktivists and regular folks alike acts as a counterbalance to vicious trolling. Craft a compelling narrative and it can find its way to people in the mood for a random act of kindness. 

Cast your net wide and you’ll find treasure. You can group smaller items in lovely gift baskets and hampers so no contribution is too small. Don’t forget, stipulate that you’re not looking for second-hand items. High-end thrift items and antique auctions are niches that don’t work for everyone.

Cash donations are welcome too. You can use these to curate vacation items, or organize discounted sports tickets, live performances or any other experiences you feel are missing from confirmed offerings. By doing so, you’ll be able to stretch donations even further and maximize the good you can ultimately do with those funds.

Record-Keeping for the Win

Be sure to use pledge and procurement forms to record important details. Log physical goods and intangible items such as gift cards, donor particulars, starting bids, and any other relevant logistical information. Collate and meticulously track received goods that your organization will need to warehouse and distribute. The best part, virtual gift vouchers and codes can be stored in a secure folder in the cloud!

Key Takeaway

Auction item acquisition is a challenging but satisfying aspect of planning your fundraising event. You can score fantastic items for an online, silent, or live auction. A little planning and determination will serve you well, as will an enthusiastic and polite procurement team. Good luck!

Try Auction Frogs for Your Next Online Auction

Our platform is feature-rich, simple to use, and yields great results. It can be customized to reflect your brand identity. Our platform allows for an unlimited number of item and image uploads. And, with a mobile-friendly user experience, bidders can participate on any smart device. You can streamline your auction item procurement with site-integrated donation forms. And there’s even a dedicated space for donor advertising!

So, whether you’re a school or a nonprofit organization, get in touch to see how we can help make your next virtual fundraiser a successful one.

5 Ideas for Live Auction Items

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What are good live auction items to be considered, and why does a benefit auctioneer work the best at events?

Our clients often ask us, “What items should I have at my live auction?!” With so many options, it can be hard to know where to start, and even more difficult to know what your audience is looking for. To make the planning process a bit easier, we’ve put together five ideas to get you started on the right path. We’ll also discuss the value of having a Benefit Auctioneer at your event, and how these individuals influence the bidding process.

  1. Identify Your Audience – For success at your live auction, you must know your audience. Begin brainstorming items to offer by creating a profile of your average supporter. Consider their lifestyle: Do they have families? What kind of jobs do they hold? Do you have more male or female supporters? What do they do in their downtime? What are their hobbies? A high-end auction will not be as successful if you are giving your guests low-end items. On the other hand, a public school auction may not do well if you are auctioning off trips to the wine country that might be out of your bidders’ budgets. Knowing your audience allows you to plan for success. Figure out what they want and find a way to deliver.
  2. Create Your Item Roadmap – Now that you’ve identified your audience, make a roadmap of items you predict will be most successful at your auction. This is where a wrap-up meeting after your events can come in handy. After every auction you hold, make a summary of the items that went fastest and those that took more “selling.” If there were items that didn’t get any attention, make sure you avoid those and similar items for future events. If this is your first event or your first year acting as an organizer and you are unsure of the outcome of previous auctions, it may be helpful to speak with past committees or a few of your supporters you have good relationships with. They can help point you in the right direction.
  3. Offer Unique and Cause-specific Items – One of the most successful items that we see for smaller auctions, such as schools or small nonprofits, are items specific to the cause. We have often witnessed “Once-in-a-lifetime” experiences going for the most money. For school fundraisers, you may auction passes for “Principal for a Day” or the prime parking spot right in front of the school. These are items that cost you nothing and are ONLY available at your fundraising event.
  4. Leverage Your Locale – The next most successful items are those connected to popular spots in your city. For example, Auction Frogs is based in Boise and many of the events we support are centered here, as well. That means that the guests at our local charity events are very interested in Boise items, such as Boise State University Football packages, staycation/date nights in downtown Boise, or nearby adventures in our beautiful outdoors.
  5. Give Them An Experience – For larger auctions with elite attendees, we often find that trips are hot ticket items. Vacation packages perform amazingly well because the bidder is often getting a great deal on a getaway while supporting their favorite cause. It’s a win-win situation! While trips are hard to solicit, we do have resources to help. (Ask us how you can utilize our consignment partners, Winspire.)

Keep in mind that these items only perform well if they are being auctioned off properly. This is where skilled and experienced Benefit Auctioneers can make all the difference in the success of your auction. These professionals know your crowd and how to work the room to get bids moving out of pure experience and enticement. Benefit Auctioneers are perhaps the single best investment to ensure the success of your fundraising event. Not only do they add an element of fun and entertainment to your live auction, but they are especially talented at reading your audience, encouraging bids, and increasing your revenue.

If you have any questions about items specific to your auction or need a good recommendation for a Benefit Auctioneer, please reach out. Our team is always willing to chat via phone at 208-321-5515 or email to [email protected].

 

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3 Ways Nonprofits are Raising more with Mobile Bidding

people at an auction on their phone

Charity events are complex and often exhausting with many moving parts and variables. You may choose an online auction or a live event, or perhaps a combination of the two (which we recommend). But regardless of your approach, it’s vital to have software in hand that can help you maintain and track all the moving pieces leading up to your event and in the days following.

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