Silent auctions are a popular way to raise money to help a nonprofit, pay for new sports equipment for the team or support people in your church. Here are 50 silent auction tips and theme ideas to help you get the most bang for your buck.
Getting Started
- Form a Committee - Make sure the people in this group are organized and outspoken. They'll need to ask for donations from friends, coworkers, people who are passionate about your cause and in some cases, random business owners.
- Getting the Goods - Make a list of places to solicit for donations. (Consider restaurants, museums, boutiques, hotels, amusement parks, golf courses, jewelers, salons and spas and sports teams.) Feel free to offer suggestions to the businesses you solicit about what items or packages may work best for your crowd.
- What's It All About? - Create a document that has information about your cause (or organization) and your event that volunteers can give to potential donors.
- Get (and Stay) Organized - Assign one person (or small group) to be responsible for rounding up the actual gift certificates or items for auction and keep an ongoing list of all the items you're expecting. This spreadsheet should include the item, who solicited it, donor name and organization contact info, when it's ready for pickup (and when it's been picked up), item value and suggested starting bid.
- Bidding - Consider using a platform that lets attendees bid online before and during the event or one that uses cell phones. Make it as easy as possible for your guests. Genius Tip: Create an online sign up where people can directly bid on items.
- Volunteers - Have a group of volunteers ready to go for the night of the event. They can help arrange items and keep an eye on bid sheets. (You may choose to organize auction items by category or value.)
- Checking Out - Set up a table for checkout at the end of the event and have runners available to grab the items for people once they are paid for.
- Spread the Word - If you don't plan to have all items for sale online ahead of time, use social media to promote them to get more people to your event and get people thinking ahead of time about what they may want to buy.
