Auctions help revenue flow in during your event.  They are a main revenue source so the best auctions help your organization meet their fundraising goals.  It is important to solicit donations that are experiences, goods and services.  The ultimate Silent and Live auctions are a blend of all three types of items.  

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Keep these tips in mind when creating your auctions: 

 

       

• There is no magic number of items however items tend to not garner the highest bids if there are too many.

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• A clearly defined and communicated end time should be posted throughout your  silent auction items.  An announcement when there is a half an hour prior to close and five minutes until close helps raise bids. 

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• Enlist host committee members, table captains, charity board and advisory board members to donate to your Silent or Live Auctions.

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• Solicit priceless experiences.  (A hockey lesson with a Stanley Cup NHL player, golf with a sports pro, dinner in a private home with a local or national celebrity, Cooking classes, Wine tastings, In Home chef party, Home improvement certificates.  These are great ideas to get some variety in your silent auction items.

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• For live auction items you want experiences and trips that are extraordinary.   CCC will provide you with a donated trip for your live auction:  you can select either The Montana Ranch at Belt Creek Package or The Zulu Nyala Photo Safari Package.  The donated trip provided by CCC must start with a minimum bid of $3000 per couple.  Additional trips can be purchased from CCC for back up bidders and or additional couples that want to join the winner.  The additional  trips will be provided at a cost of $2500 per couple paid to CCC by the charity.

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• Your will be given the opportunity to have your live auction items listed for sale on our global bidding auction platform.  This excludes the trip we provide.

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• You can work with the sponsorship chairperson to secure a sponsor for your Live auction trips.  The sponsorship of $5000 will allow you to purchase additional  trips from CCC if you wish to auction off more than one experience package at  your event.  There is no financial obligation if a trip does not sell.

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• Live auction items can be custom designed jewelry, High end group restaurant experiences, one of a kind items.  Autographed memorabilia, cars and art work are additional great revenue items!

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• Once items are secured.  Create descriptions for your Auction Catalog to be placed in your program and on event media.  It is a best practice to have large stand up floor retractable banners highlighting your live auction trips.  These stand up banners should be strategically placed near the silent auction tables and moved to the program stage prior to your guests entering the main event room. 

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• Coordinate with your print/marketing/ PR chairperson information as quickly as you have it on your items for your live auction so that they may provide it to CCC concierge for creation of your e-blasts.

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• Coordinate with your entertainment chairperson to confirm an Auctioneer.  Have you live auction item descriptions given to them to have the information placed in the run of show script for the auctioneer to read during the live auction.

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• If you are not using event management software for your silent auction you will need to prepare bidder sheets and have them placed on clipboards next to each item.  A silent auction bidder sheet is provided in our forms section for your use.  You will also need to create winning bidder boards to be placed at check-out so that your lucky winners can pay for their items.  Winning bidder boards should contain the item number, item description, winning bid amount and winning bidder name or bid number. 

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• At the set close of auction if doing a manual system have volunteers pull the bid sheets from the clip boards and fill in the information on the winning bidder boards.  If you are using an electronic bidding system the auction will automatically generate you a winning bidder information. 

 

• Best practice is to have large shopping totes that each silent auction item is placed in at the close of the auction.  The shopping bags should have large paper stapled to the outside that reads Silent Auction with the Item Number.  The items once bagged are placed in the event close-out room at the designated silent auction tables and placed in numerical order for retrieval by volunteers.

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