Today is Mardi Gras, so it's the perfect time to tell this story. In one fell swoop, some long-time Gala Co-chairs "recruited" a new auction committee *and* announced they'd no longer be overseeing the school auction. ============================= If you've chaired an auction, you know it's demanding work. Though rewarding, interesting, and even fun, it is also time-consuming. Furthermore, some find that if they are good at the job, it's hard to get out of the role. No one ... Read On >
Volunteers
Is your school auction doing fundraising by 1000 cuts?
At a recent nonprofit fundraising event, the nonprofit decided they didn't want to push the raffle. If a guest approached a volunteer to buy a $50 raffle ticket — fine. But they didn’t want volunteers to walk up to groups of people and ask guests to buy a raffle ticket. "In a few minutes, we're going to be asking these people to donate anywhere from $100 to $5000. It makes no sense to nickel and dime them for a $50 raffle ticket," was their rationale. This cocktail-styled event had no ... Read On >
Raffle Cheat Sheet: A tool that helps volunteers sell more raffle tickets
Last night I worked an event that had about 1,000 guests in attendance. It was a tasting-style event ... the kind that have 50 or 60 restaurant chefs in attendance, each handing out samples of their food and cocktails. As they always do, the nonprofit did an excellent job of recruiting, organizing, and training its volunteers. For instance: All the volunteers were taken on a tour of the hotel so they knew where to direct guests. They could point out the registration and checkout ... Read On >
An auction organizational chart for your fundraiser
If you run a web search on "why volunteers quit," you'll find a string of articles, research, and posts listing common reasons volunteers leave. One of the top complaints is a lack of organization from the person in charge of the volunteers. (For a fundraising auction, we'd typically call this person the Auction Chair or Gala Chair.) Years ago I recall a committee member complaining to me about the Auction Chair. "She doesn't have her sh*t together," the woman confided. Because 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 >