In April during the busiest part of my spring travel season, I received an email from Feedspot. "I would like to personally congratulate you," the email began, "Your blog at Red Apple Auctions has been selected by our panelists as one of the Top 25 Auction Blogs on the web." Woohoo! The Red Apple Auctions blog landed at #15 on the best auction bloggers list. It's nice to be recognized for something that takes some time to produce. When I looked at their list, I noticed that most ... Read On >
Other
I think “hotel silent auctions” are scammy — what do you think?
A friend from Kansas and her husband flew out to visit me last month. And this is where the story begins. My house is undergoing a renovation so they stayed in a nearby hotel. When I popped into the Hilton Garden Inn the first morning of their visit, I saw this in the lobby. A silent auction! I'd seen this type of set-up at a hotel in Ohio last year, but didn't have time to investigate. I walked over to see how it worked. First, I glanced at what they were ... Read On >
Busted! Be wary of images used in fundraising auction displays
In the summer of 2015, the nonprofit division of Venable law published "Busted: Nonprofits Will Have to Pay the Photography Piper." The article itself is short and worth reading, but here's the synopsis. For many years, nonprofits have pulled images from the internet and used them in their publications or websites. Until recently, software didn't exist to make it easy for photographers and their agents to track down these copyrighted images. Now the software exists, and nonprofits are ... Read On >
Two pieces of advice for planning a fundraising auction
It's January -- a time of new beginnings. Many volunteers will start working on their 2017 fundraising auctions in earnest. I offer two pieces of advice, based on my own experiences. ========================== Last October I worked with my team to launch V.4 of my website -- the fourth version in 11 years. The website launch went smoothly, in large part because I was working with a great technical team whom I've worked with for a few years. My joy was short-lived. Though the ... Read On >
Auction Flu: An epidemic among Gala Auction Chairs
I'm keeping it real in this post. My tradition has been to share gala auction tips in my articles, but there is an entire sub-section of posts I could write focusing on the cultural and sociological elements of fundraising auctions -- articles that would go beyond the mechanics of "how to run a gala auction." Articles about why Auction Chairs run an auction (E.G. Though many are compassionate people who want to help their chosen cause, some have an underlying desire to demonstrate how ... Read On >