5 Ideas for Live Auction Items

One of the questions we hear frequently from fundraising organizations is: “What are the best items to include in a live auction?”

With so many possibilities, choosing the right live auction items can feel overwhelming. Should you offer travel? Local experiences? Donated products? Something completely unique?

The truth is, the best live auction items are the ones that appeal to your specific audience. A great auction isn’t necessarily about having the most expensive items. It’s about offering the right combination of experiences, exclusivity, and value to get your guests excited about bidding.

If you’re planning a nonprofit fundraiser, school auction, gala, or charity event, here are five strategies to help you choose live auction items that can generate excitement—and more revenue for your cause.

1. Know Your Auction Audience

Before you start looking for auction items, start with your bidders.

Think about the people who typically attend and support your fundraising event. What do they enjoy? What kinds of experiences would excite them? And perhaps most importantly, what are they comfortable spending?

Consider questions such as:

• Are many of your supporters families with children?
• What is the general spending capacity of your guests?
• Are they interested in travel, sports, dining, entertainment, or outdoor recreation?
• Are there particular hobbies or interests common among your supporters?
• What experiences would be especially meaningful to this group?

A high-end gala may be a great environment for luxury travel packages or exclusive experiences. A school fundraiser, on the other hand, may generate much more excitement around family activities, school-related privileges, sporting events, or local experiences.

Knowing your audience helps you avoid filling your auction with items that sound impressive but don’t actually inspire your guests to bid.

The goal isn’t simply to find good auction items. It’s to find good auction items for your bidders.

2. Use Past Auction Results to Create an Item Roadmap

Your previous fundraising events can be one of your best resources when planning your next auction.

After each event, take a few minutes to document what happened with your auction items. Which items generated immediate interest? Which created bidding competition? Which required more effort to sell? Were there items that received little or no attention?

Consider tracking information such as:

• Fair market value
• Starting bid
• Winning bid
• Number of bidders
• Overall bidder interest
• Whether you would offer the item again

Over time, you’ll begin to see patterns that can help guide your procurement strategy.

If this is your organization’s first auction—or you’re a new event organizer—talk with previous committee members, board members, longtime donors, or supporters. Their knowledge of your audience can help you identify the types of auction items most likely to perform well.

3. Offer Unique Experiences Money Can’t Normally Buy

Some of the best live auction items aren’t traditional products at all.

Unique experiences can generate strong bidding because guests can’t simply go online and purchase them somewhere else.

For school fundraisers, this might include:

• Principal for a Day
• A premium parking spot for the school year
• Front-row seats at graduation or a school performance
• Lunch with a favorite teacher or administrator
• Special access to a school activity
• A unique classroom or student experience

Nonprofits can use the same strategy.

Think about the people, places, relationships, and opportunities your organization has access to. Could you offer a behind-the-scenes tour? A VIP experience? Dinner with someone interesting? Special access to an event? An experience directly connected to your mission?

These can be especially valuable fundraising auction items because they may cost your organization very little while having significant value to your supporters.

And because they’re unique to your organization, bidders know they may not get another opportunity to purchase them.

4. Think Local When Choosing Live Auction Items

You don’t always need an exotic vacation or luxury product to generate bidding excitement.

Some of the best fundraising auction ideas may be right in your own community.

Auction Frogs is based in Boise, Idaho, and we’ve seen how much excitement local experiences can generate at fundraising events. Depending on your audience, that might include:

• Local University sporting events
• Downtown dining experiences
• Staycation packages
• Golf outings
• Concert or entertainment tickets
• Outdoor adventures
• Weekend getaways
• Local food and dining experiences

The same principle applies no matter where your organization is located.

Think about what people love to do in your area and look for ways to turn those activities into experiences.

You can also combine several smaller donations into one larger auction package.

Instead of auctioning a $100 restaurant gift card by itself, for example, pair it with a hotel stay, entertainment tickets, and another experience to create a complete date-night or staycation package.

Creative packaging can make donated items feel much more exciting.

5. Give Your Bidders Something to Experience

Experiences can make excellent live auction items because they give bidders something to look forward to.

Popular categories may include:

• Vacation packages
• Weekend getaways
• Sporting events
• Concerts
• Golf packages
• Dining experiences
• Outdoor adventures
• Family experiences
• VIP access
• Unique classes or activities

Travel packages can be particularly appealing at larger fundraising events. They allow supporters to purchase an experience they may already want while supporting an organization they care about at the same time.

Of course, trips and larger experiences can also be difficult to solicit.

That’s where consignment auction packages can sometimes help. Consignment providers allow organizations to include travel or experience packages in an auction without having to secure the entire package through donations.

If you’re considering a consignment package, make sure you understand the terms before adding it to your auction. Pay particular attention to availability, blackout dates, expiration dates, fulfillment requirements, restrictions, and the amount your organization must recover before the item begins generating proceeds for your cause.

What Makes a Good Live Auction Item?

While every fundraising audience is different, successful live auction items tend to have a few things in common.

A strong live auction item should be:

Desirable. Your guests actually want it.

Appropriately valued. The item’s value fits the spending capacity of your audience.

Easy to understand. Bidders immediately know what they’re getting.

Experiential. Whenever possible, the item creates a memory rather than simply providing another possession.

Exclusive. The item is difficult—or impossible—to purchase somewhere else.

Competitive. Ideally, several people in the room will want it enough to bid against one another.

That last point is especially important.

A live auction works best when multiple people want the same thing. An item may be incredibly valuable, but if only one person in the room wants it, you aren’t likely to see much competitive bidding.

How Many Items Should You Have in a Live Auction?

More isn’t always better.

Your live auction should feature your strongest, most exciting items rather than every donation your organization receives.

Too many live auction items can cause guests to lose interest and make the auction portion of your event feel too long. Items that don’t have broad enough appeal may be better suited for your silent or online auction.

Think of your live auction as the highlight reel of your auction catalog.

Feature the items that have the greatest potential to create excitement, competition, and engagement in the room.

Presentation Matters, Too

Even a fantastic auction item can underperform if guests don’t understand why it’s special.

Give each live auction item a compelling title and description. Clearly explain what’s included, highlight the most exciting features, and make restrictions easy to understand.

This is also one area where an experienced benefit auctioneer can add value. A professional benefit auctioneer knows how to present an item, engage the audience, identify interested bidders, and keep bidding moving without allowing the live auction to lose momentum.

Your event team, auctioneer, emcee, and fundraising technology should all work together to make bidding easy and enjoyable for your guests.

Build Your Auction Around Your Bidders

There isn’t one perfect list of live auction items that works for every fundraiser.

A successful auction starts with understanding your audience.

Look at what has worked in the past. Find experiences your guests can’t easily purchase somewhere else. Take advantage of the unique opportunities available through your organization and community. Package donations creatively. And reserve your live auction for the items most likely to generate genuine competition.

Most importantly, remember why you’re doing it.

Every auction item is ultimately another opportunity to connect supporters with your mission and raise money for the work your organization is doing.

Auction Frogs provides online auction and event technology for nonprofits, schools, foundations, and other fundraising organizations. From online and mobile bidding to event management tools, our goal is to make fundraising auctions easier for organizations and their supporters.

If you’re planning an upcoming auction and have questions about auction items or how to structure your fundraising event, we’d be happy to help.

Contact the Auction Frogs team at 208-321-5515 or [email protected].