Fundraising Auctions

A fundraising auction raises money by selling donated items to the highest bidder. The items sold in a fundraising auction can be almost anything, from art to clothing to vehicles. In addition to auction items, people can donate services to be sold in your auction.

Soliciting Auction Donations

The profit potential of your auction depends on the potential value of the items you convince people and businesses to donate to your cause. When you receive a donation, ask the donor to provide you with some written information about donation, including a short description and its estimated value. Offering to let donors display their business cards or other information about their businesses at your auction may convince some businesses to donate to your cause.

In order to solicit donations for your fundraising auction, you will need to contact possible donors and attendees, either in person or by writing a marketing letter.

Presenting Auction Items

Using the information you collected from your auction donors, make an auction guide for your guests to read while waiting for the live auction to begin. This will get people thinking about what items they will bid on. Auction items should be in order from least to most expensive.

When selecting an auctioneer, choose someone with charisma and a loud, clear voice. Even though your guests may read the descriptions of your auction items, it is up to the auctioneer to sell them. The auctioneer should highlight the positive attributes of the auction items continually while taking bids.

Some Types of Auctions

Silent Auction

In a silent auction, auction items are put on display and accompanied by paper bidding sheets. Bidders are free to walk around and continue bidding on multiple items discretely. In some cases, you may decide to include the majority of your auction items in the silent auction, but a few items (usually the most expensive ones) can be offered in a live auction at the end of the event. Not only does this draw attention to the most impressive auction donations, but it encourages bidders to stay for the duration of the event, and creates a natural cut-off for the silent auction.

Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction

In this type of fundraising auction, volunteer participants are “auctioned off” to the highest bidder for a date. The date should be prearranged and paid for by the charity. Bachelor/bachelorette auctions are typically reserved for large-scale fundraisers like capital campaigns because of the high overhead involved.