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You are here: Home / Sponsorship / Unique fundraising auction venue: car dealership
Mar 14

Unique fundraising auction venue: car dealership

Sherry Truhlar 1 Comment

Earlier this month I headed to Florida to again work with a Boys & Girls Club whose fundraising auction venue is a local car dealership.

Clearly this dealership is a good partner of the nonprofit, greatly inconveniencing itself to transform its space — sales floor, customer waiting area, service bay and lanes — into a festive venue to host a sit-down dinner for just under 200 guests.

Attendees begin the evening with a reception and silent auction in the service bay and customer waiting areas, then move to the sales floor for the seated dinner auction, and then return back outside to the service bay for dancing.

Imagine the scenario at the dealership earlier that day:  While customers sat on the sales floor negotiating their new vehicle, desks, chairs, computers and other office furniture was loaded up around them and pushed aside to make way for incoming gala tables and chairs.

“We’ll have to send a special thank you to the 20 customers who bought a car today,” the dealership owner told attendees at the gala.

I’ve written before about how  a non-traditional venue is an easy way to freshen up your auction.  And event producer Endless Events called the non-traditional venue a 2017 trend.

Yet sometimes it’s hard to imagine how your auction will work in anything other than a hotel.

To broaden your imagination, one idea is to attend events held in non-traditional venues.  Go as a guest or as a volunteer.  At this event, a prospective client of mine drove an hour to witness the auction first-hand.  “I think we might look at doing something like this for 2018,” the Director of Development told me before leaving.

Another idea is to watch recap videos, such as the two below.

See anything you like?  Post your thoughts below.

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2017 Rock N Roll Bash, Presented by Bozard Ford Lincoln to benefit the Boys & Girls Club – St. Augustine

The theme for 2017 was Island Vibes. 

Guests “flamingled” among pink flamingos, hammocks, and tropical flowers.

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2016 Rock N Roll Bash, Presented by Bozard Ford Lincoln to benefit the Boys & Girls Club – St. Augustine

The theme for 2016 was a nod towards the musical GREASE.

Guests dressed in 1950s theme while roller derby girls served food and a rockabilly band entertained.

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Curious about the 2018 theme?

They are currently accepting theme suggestions on the event’s Facebook page.

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Copyright © 2017 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved

About Sherry Truhlar

Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.

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Comments

  1. Steve Smith says

    April 13, 2017 at 4:48 AM

    What a unique way for fundraising! Beautiful post Sherry. My friend has started a noble cause called HopeAna to help people get a better life and live happily and peacefully. I will share your post with her. May be you can be some help to her. Thanks for sharing this post.

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Sherry, oh, Sherry! You were an invaluable asset to this year’s gala. With your assistance we were able to add so many new elements that truly made a difference in taking our event to another level. This year was the most successful yet! Everyone loved you and the amazing energy that you brought to the event. We look forward to having you again in 2018!

Krystal Fenwick
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Thank you so much for the outstanding job you did for us on April 1! I have received so much positive feedback from so many who attended. You even earned Sister Suzan’s (our Vice-Principal) seal of approval! Safe travels to all your many events and thank you for making our biggest fundraiser of the year our best ever!

Diane Albano, Director of Development
St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School (St. Augustine, FL)
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Sherry is flexible and easy to work with. She gives honest feedback and advice throughout the planning and implementation process. Without a doubt, Sherry and Red Apple Auctions has helped take our annual fundraising event to the next level.

Beckie Middendorf, Development Director and Janet Gulla, Development Coordinator
St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)
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Sherry is “on board” from day one of auction planning, works closely with our steering committee and is only just a phone call away. The night of the auction, we toss her the keys and let her drive the event! We are never disappointed!

Charly Ryan, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)
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I was very fortunate to have Red Apple on board for my first auction. Working with Sherry was invaluable. She provided guidance at every phase of planning, from procurement on forward – and she challenged us to make our event more ambitious and more successful at every stage. Thank you, Sherry!

Pete Goldlust, Director of Development
Oak Hill School (Eugene, OR)
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If your auction needs to upgrade, call any auctioneer you find on Google. But if you want your auction to be impressive, meaningful, and profitable, you need to call Sherry.

Erin Banda
2016 NYUMBANI Board member
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The auction was entertaining .. proactive … the crowd was involved and felt a part of it,” he said, emphasizing, “The entertainment value was huge.

Darrell, a long-time attendee
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We plan on booking Red Apple Auctions much earlier for our next event so we can take advantage of more of the pre-event offerings.

Nicole Carr, Director of Grants and Special Events
The Ivymount School (Rockville, MD)
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Sherry, personally, I can’t even begin to tell you the immense amount of positive feedback that I received having YOU (and Darby) there with is this year! Some of the tidbits: You added EXCITEMENT and ENTERTAINMENT… You added EXPERTISE and FUN… You helped the evening FLOW, in a wonderful and positive direction… You were FUN,… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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Aren’t KK and Michael a cute couple? They liked that I “moved the crowd along … kept the crowd engaged but wasn’t obtrusive or invasive. We were able to talk but still keep track of what was going on.”

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You have NO idea of how many people came up to me (I know Julie as well) and said, ‘That auctioneer was incredible … she engaged the crowd, … she got the bidders to bid without being rude/pushing, … I loved observing her, I just watched her, … she did a great job.’ It was… Read The Rest “Staci Meruvia”

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Geri said: “Great job of getting potential donors in the room to step up to the plate and not feel guilty or bad about it. They actually wanted to give more … and that’s not something I’ve seen in many other auctioneers.” The following year, she herself ‘stepped up’ and became one of the gala… Read The Rest “Geri”

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Irene attended one of my New Hampshire auctions and assumed I must be a radio personality — until I started to chant that fast talk. “I’ve been to this event before with a couple of other auctioneers,” she said, “Your ability to get personal with people in a way that isn’t intimidating — men, women,… Read The Rest “Irene”

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Most product & consulting remarks are found on their respective webpages, but I’ve listed two below so you’re assured my products are as spot-on as my auctioneering.   Not only was our 2013 auction a blast, but our Washington, D.C. public school raised $67,000 — that’s $25,000 more than last year! The evening went off… Read The Rest “Carolyn Kahn-Hall and Andrea Del Vecchio”

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As a former Fox News Anchorwoman, I am often called on to perform at auctions. So, I know first-hand that auctioneering can be a difficult job. Sherry Truhlar is one of the best in the business. She is skillful at managing an audience and keeping them focused on the task at hand – which is… Read The Rest “Cynthia Steele Vance”

Cynthia Steele Vance
Guest at The Potomac School 2014 auction (McLean, VA)
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