So you are planning a fundraising auction event for a nonprofit or school and you need an auctioneer, but you are limited on budget and one of your board members knows a guy that knows a guy that will come do your auction for free. You agree to this and the big night comes, with all the planning completed, all the money spent on venue, food, décor, DJ, sound services and equipment, etc. and you have high hopes for a record breaking year. The free auctioneer gets on stage and barely knows what your nonprofit stands for, was just handed a list of auction items an hour prior, and has had a few cocktails because you told him if he came for free that you’d give him and a guest a couple spots at a table. He is more in a guest mentality than a worker mentality. Many times he doesn’t have any benefit auction training or experience and you are entrusting this guy to raise you thousands of dollars?
More than likely your fundraising efforts will be a flop, you might have a great party, but your fundraising will fall short nine times out of ten.
Professional benefit auctioneers are not only a part of your event that night but far in advance of your event as well. This planning and consulting is what brings your event to the next level. If you hire a professional benefit auctioneer he or she will show you creative and effective ways to bring in more funds than you would have ever imagined! The extra funds will far out way the cost of doing business with that auctioneer and make your guests leave the event wanting to attend the next one. A professional fundraising auctioneer, in essence, will pay you to hire him/her so you are not only saving money, you are making money!
I leave you with one question: “If I could show you one technique that would make you more money than my fee, would you hire me?”
Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS of Elite Auctions and Fundraising Services