I received this email from Jessica. She wrote: "I follow your blog and I recently had an idea I wanted your thoughts on. We always do a Silent Auction at our Benefit Event and sometimes get bids of $100 on a $20 gift card. So my thought was to create bid sheets for items that our non-profit needs. For example, we could have one that says Pizza Night for Youth – $50, or sponsor a Foster Child's Birthday – $25. Have you seen anything like this before? Do you have any suggestions?" The short ... Read On >
Benefit Auctions Blog
ChatGPT for auction planning
Today I participated in an educational panel focused on event planning for associations. One of the participant questions was about ChatGPT. She wanted to know if and how anyone was using it. "What is ChatGPT?" was one of the first comments back. ChatGPT is not really an "auction tool" or an "event tool," though it certainly can be used for both. I find it creepy, so I've been avoiding publishing anything about it. But with her posed question, I suspect others might also be wondering ... Read On >
Getting that extra bid — or 2, 3, 4 — for an auctioned trip. (Hint: Make it approachable.)
Trips and vacations are often strong sellers in a fundraising auction. To push higher sales and get even more guests to bid, I try to make a vacation sound approachable to anyone sitting in the room. Two ways I do this are: 1) sharing how to get to the destination, and 2) providing other tidbits about the area, hoping to intrigue a guest to bid. Committees can also share this type of information, plus they can add maps to slideshows and online auction sites to help guests place a ... Read On >
Nonprofit auction consignment trends tied to travel
I am noticing 5-6 trends in the travel auction consignment sector. I cover three in today's video. 1. Adding activities to trips Adding wine tastings, tours, dinners and other activities to consigned trips is popular. Tip: For many of my clients, I'd advise against this as I tends to make the package more expensive overall. 2. Winner's Choice This stems from the auction world where it's often called "High Bidder's Choice." For instance, I use it as a way to drive prices higher on ... Read On >
Charity Auction Consignment Basics: A 101 course
Charity auction consignment dealers provide / sell merchandise (EG: trips, jewelry, memorabilia, art, etc) to nonprofits for their fundraising auctions. It's a big industry with lots of players. And since the COVID-19 pandemic, it's had some shifts. In the video I explain this subsection of the nonprofit auction space. If you are new to charity auction planning, consider this video a 10-minute "101" crash course in the subject. I cover: What is consignment? Types of ... Read On >