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Top 3 Reasons why You should have a Live Auction at Your Fundraising Event

Bidders

Live auctions are an essential element to any successful fundraising event and by overlooking this element you may be leaving BIG bucks on the table!

Here are the top three reasons why you should have a live auction at your fundraiser:

1.  Live auctions are FUN!  A survey conducted by the National Auctioneers Association determined that the number one reason why people attend live auctions is because they are fun.  You can’t have a FUNdraiser without the fun!  People will keep coming back for years to come if they have fun at your event, and with the right people in the seats this directly equates to more revenue.

2. Live auctions bring the big dollars!  A live auction with the correct 7-10 items will many times eclipse a silent auction with 50 items in revenue generated.  If you want to tap into the larger donors in the crowd, a live auction with higher dollar items is a perfect way to accomplish this.

3.  Live auctions provide a spectacular marketing opportunity!  Leading up to your fundraising auction event you should be taking advantage of as many marketing opportunities as possible to advertise your event.  When you have great live auction items you should be advertising these as well as the event itself.  If you go on a local news station’s broadcast then talk about some of your top live auction items that will be sold at the event to create a buzz.  Remember, don’t just focus on the party… focus on the fundraising.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS of Elite Auctions and Fundraising Services

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Wine Auction for Your Fundraiser

Wine is one of the most popular items to sell at fundraising benefit auction events.  Remember to check your state laws regarding selling wine at fundraisers as some states have laws prohibiting it and others have none at all (another great reason to have a professional benefit auctioneer handle your auction).  

There are many ways to sell wine at your fundraising auction event.  Here are a few:


1.  Wall of Wine.  Visit this link by Debby Roth-Bush of Greater Giving for great Wall of Wine ideas: http://www.pinterest.com/debbyroth/wine-pull-wall-of-wine/ 

2.  Wine in your live auction.  There are several ways to auction off wine in your live auction.  You can sell premier wines by the bottle, you can sell wine tasting trips, or you can sell wine by the case.  All of these methods tend to do extremely well at fundraising auctions.
 
3.  Wine in your silent auction.  Similar to a live auction you can sell wine in just about any way imaginable.  We have seen a lot of success by selling fine wines by the bottle in the silent auction and then delivering them to the winning bidders’ tables at dinner (check the venue for corking fees).
 
4.  Wine as a raffle item.  Bottles of wine, wine tastings and cases of wine can be raffled off at your fundraising event as well (once again check with your state laws on wine sales and raffle rules).

All and all, wine is an excellent choice for fundraising events and tends to do extremely well at auctions benefiting your great cause.

Contact Elite Auctions and Fundraising Services today to find out how to incorporate wine into your benefit auction event.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS of Elite Auctions and Fundraising Services

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13 Tips for Your Live Auction Fundraiser

1.  Always have your professional auctioneer help you with putting the live auction items in the best order.

2.  Live auction should be no longer than 45 minutes, but preferably 30 minutes.  It takes approximately 2-3 minutes to sell each item.

3.  It is very important to schedule the live auction early in your program. You want the bidders awake and energetic

4.  We recommend having the live auction during dinner.

5.  At events where there is little to no seating for the bidders it is very difficult to get the best results from your live auction.
 
6.  Make sure you have recorders in place to write down the winning bidder numbers and amounts (We recommend having 3 recorders, pre-designing the recorder sheets, and allowing us to meet with the recorders prior to the beginning of the event).


 7.  Find out if any of the items can be sold twice and let us know.
 
8.  Inform us if any of the items have reserve/consignment amounts.
 
9.  We recommend utilizing professional bid spotters (ringmen) during your live auction (1 ringman per 100-150 guests is optimal).

10.  Allow your professional auctioneer to set starting bids and control the increments of the auction.

11.  Make sure that the house lights are brought up and spot lights down so that your auctioneer can see the bidders.

12.  Be careful with consignment items in your live auction.   

13.  Consult with us before choosing consignment items as they can many times take a lot of revenue out of your auction.  We can recommend good consignment companies that we trust.

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS of Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services

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How should volunteers be utilized at my Fundraising Auction Event?

Volunteers are an extremely important part of your
fundraising event!!  Here are a list of “jobs” that your volunteers need to be placed in for optimal success from Mike Grigg at Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services:

  • Live auction and fund a need recorders.  We recommend that you utilize three volunteers in this position to eliminate errors when recording winning bid amounts and donation amounts.  Make sure your professional auctioneer has a “pow-wow” with the recorders prior to the live auction and fund a need.
  • Selling raffle tickets or entries to games.  Always put your volunteers in teams of two to maximize their efficiency.  If you have raffles or games going on at your event then send out 2-3 teams of two to sell those tickets or buy in opportunities.  You want aggressive volunteers that are going to sell not just stand in a corner and chat with friends.
  • Check-in and check out.  You will need several volunteers to assist with checking in and out your guests.  This number varies dependent upon how many guests you have coming to your event.
  • Silent Auction Assistants.  You will need about two volunteers per silent auction table to answer questions, assist with set up, and shutting down silent auction.  These volunteers will need to be able to get bid sheets off the table as soon as auctioneer closes the silent auction, and then move items (if needed) to the proper check out area.
  • We recommend that you use professional ringmen rather than have volunteers as your bid spotters.  Professional ringmen are trained to get the best result from your bidders and leaving this up to volunteers simply causes more chaos than assistance.
  • Obviously, you will need volunteers to help with setting up and taking down your entire event as well.

Volunteers that are not used or managed in the proper way can cause more problems than they help with, therefore make sure you have a manager in charge of training your volunteers.  Also, don’t give each volunteer too much to do; If you overwhelm your volunteers they become less effective.  Good luck with your fundraising events and always make sure to hire a professional auctioneer/consultant to maximize your fundraising results!

Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS with Elite Auctions & Fundraising Services

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How many items should we have in our live fundraising auction?


How many live auction items should we have?  This is one of the most popular questions asked when planning a fundraising auction event.

In a standard “Gala style” event with silent auction, welcome speech, live auction and fund a need there is what’s called a “Golden Hour”.  I would suggest that an hour for a live auction at a fundraiser is a bit too much, but it is a good rule of thumb to keep your live auction no more than one hour long.  I really like to be more in the range of 30-45 minutes if possible.  

Now, that brings up the question: “How many items does that mean we can sell?”  A good professional fundraising auctioneer will take around 3 minutes per item (including the item description).  If you do the math that means that 15 items are the most you should be selling, but ideally you want to stay between 8-10.  Be careful of filling the auction with lower quality items just to say you have ten items!  I would rather have quality, not quantity in the live auction; even if that means having an auction with 4-5 items.  You only have a short attention span with your guests, so make it count!
Written by Mike Grigg, AARE, BAS
EliteFundraisingAuctions.com
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Live Auctions vs. Silent Auctions

mike grigg auctioneer silentMost of your auction attendees have more fun with the live auction versus the silent auction at a charity event.  However, in order to sell a lot of low to mid-range valued items for a charity event in a short period of time and keep your audience captivated, a silent auction should be utilized.

Charity auctions should have no more than 8-12 items or about 45 minutes max in the live auction portion.  These should only consist of your highest ticket items.  People are not attending a charity/benefit event to hear an auctioneer all night, however in order to capture their full attention for the big ticket items, a professional auctioneer is essential.  In some cases more items can be worked into the schedule, just ask your auctioneer what he or she recommends.  

Silent auctions are ideal for charity events that have a strict time-frame and a lot of items to sell.  Attendees can enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while they place silent bids on some of the lower to mid-range priced items, which can get them in the mood for the higher dollar items to be held later in the live auction.

Silent auctions have their purpose during the cocktail hour, but in order to maximize the key items’ values you must do a live auction as well.  Ask your fundraising consultant about some of the great techniques to maximize bidding during your silent auction because the average item brings about 60% of value.  Elite Auctions has a revenue enhancer to bring that number up to 80%!
If you are not holding a charity event and have more of a ballroom setting with many items to sell, then the most effective way is by live auction.  All-day events like prop auctions, memorabilia auctions, or any type of multi-item auction work best with a live auction event, because the silent auction format simply takes too long and does not keep the bidders’ attention.