Most benefit auction galas take place across several rooms. Registration and checkout might be in one area, the silent auction elsewhere and the ballroom in a third space. Some groups have a VIP reception elsewhere. A benefit auction last fall had guests enter a rejuvenated dairy barn. The space was beautiful, but there were no restrooms inside. Guests were directed to portable toilets outside. To help your attendees move through your space, you'll be relying on directional signage. Directional ... Read On >
Administration
How to organize a charity auction: Part 2 (Auction Chair tools)
[This is the second part of a two-part blog. Read "How to organize a charity auction, part 1" here.] As mentioned in Part 1, I thought about writing on this topic a few months ago and decided, "Nope. I need to save this topic until January." The reason being is that January is the month that many stores -- Home Depot, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Staples, The Container Store (the annual Elfa® sale) -- advertise one particular theme. Getting organized! This is THE month that many stores ... Read On >
How to organize a charity auction: Part 1 (the supplies)
[This is the first part of a two-part blog. Read "How to organize a charity auction, part 2" here.] I thought about writing on this topic a few months ago and decided, "Nope. I need to save this topic until January." Want to know why? Because January is the month that many stores -- Home Depot, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Staples, The Container Store (the annual Elfa® sale) -- advertise one particular theme. Getting organized! This is THE month that stores promote organization. I suppose a ... Read On >
Whiners on your benefit auction committee?
This past Saturday night while I was working with the very lovely guests supporting the New Hampshire SPCA, a hacker broke into my website. Some of you alerted me via email and Facebook. I never saw the posts because I was working. Until one of my team members called me on Sunday morning, I was blissfully unaware. When I went to the site, I certainly wasn’t happy. But I also didn’t melt into a pile of tears. I recalled a story about a magician who was headed to Las Vegas for a national ... Read On >
Better Benefit Auction Ideas hit Chicago & Cincinnati next week!
Today’s question is: What do you do that makes your auction different from every other benefit auction in your city? Is that chirping crickets I hear? If you're stumped by the question, I'm not surprised. We planners get into ruts, doing the same thing all the time. Unless you’re traveling the world attending auction galas, it’s almost impossible to get exposed to fresh concepts. (Let alone the time it takes to learn about properly implementing something, once seen.) This leads me to why ... Read On >