Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

If you are like most people, you have a 9-to-5 job working for some company with a lot of stress and pressure to complete your projects. Perhaps you’ve found that even though you complete your work to everyone’s satisfaction, you still don’t get the raise or promotion you deserve. Maybe you’ve been getting more work dumped on you since others were let go due to the economy and find yourself drowning in work. Are you working overtime or have to continue working once you get home? Are you beginning to feel like your life is owned by, and revolves around your job? Are you afraid of losing your job? If so, you are not alone. This is why so many individuals are researching ideas for a home based business. Unfortunately, that is as far as most people get. Lets look at some reasons why.The advantages of having your own home based business seem compelling – you’re the boss and can’t be fired by anyone else. You can set the hours you want to work that better fit your lifestyle. More time with your family. You control the growth of the business. The list goes on and on. Why then, do most people give up on their ideas for a home based business before even trying? It is because of fear.Fear is a good thing. It kept us alive back in the days when the struggle to survive involved decisions that were truly life or death. But these days in our modern society our fears are mostly tought to us from the media and our upbringing. We tend to imagine the worst before taking the first step, and therefore not taking any steps at all. When it comes to starting a home based business, we fear it will fail for one reason or another, or someone close to us will criticize the idea, or that we will be scammed somehow. These are valid fears, but should these fearsome thoughts always stop us cold in our tracks?I’m not saying don’t have fears. Instead, allow the fear to be there, just don’t let it stop you from taking the next step. If you are reading this, you have already taken the first step of researching ideas for a home based business. That’s great! You are probably finding a lot of different ideas on the web. Many of the ideas include selling a product or offering a service out of your home such as tutoring or selling art. Other ideas utilize the internet where all the work is done online. As you look through the lists of ideas, ask yourself which ones feel like they would be something you would enjoy. You should note those down on some paper so you can compare and contrast the ideas as you continue your research. A word of caution, if you are looking for an idea that jumps out at you as the absolute, hands down, this is it business, you most likely will not find it. Why? Because every home based business has its pros and cons and our minds will typically race through the cons until fear is felt, thus tempering our excitement for the idea. Don’t fight the fear, let it be there, just write the idea down if it’s one you think you could enjoy.Another common reaction to be aware of when looking at ideas for a home based business is when you see an idea that you don’t understand or are not familiar with, and therefore deciding it isn’t for you. If you see home business ideas and you do not understand what they involve, write it down and research it. You may find something that is a perfect fit for you, now that you understand what it’s all about. As someone interested in art, I found I had no idea what ACEO meant when looking at the art on sites like etsy.com. I assumed it was some type of acrylic paint and thus ignored the category entirely. I was completely wrong. I’ll leave it to you to look up ACEO if you don’t know what it means.