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The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County is an organization that has been providing year-long support for youth across the Treasure Valley since 1997. Mid-2020, they began looking for an alternative fundraising platform in light of COVID-19 canceling their in-person event. Already a longtime client of Auction Frogs, The Club was eager to engage with supporters at home, maximize online participation, and keep the fun with their big event — all virtually.

The Challenge

Their largest annual fundraising event usually boasts over 1,100 attendees. However, with the pandemic reaching its peak, not only did they need to rethink their venue, but the event goals and the planning process needed adjusting as well. For The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County, transitioning to a completely online format was like planning a new event from scratch. They were anxious to see what the actual event would look like, how many people would engage, and if they could still bring an element of fun. Their fundraising events in the past had always been wildly successful and an army of volunteers always made their big day a success. So visualizing a virtual event without their large team of volunteers was overwhelming.

Typically, they would host a silent auction, a live auction, a paddle-up segment, and an online auction to reach all different types of bidders and supporters. These various components increased engagement during their past in-person events and substantially raised donations, helping them achieve their goals. The work and planning process for previous years involved listing items, communicating with sponsors, selling tickets, setting up, and more, and generally took a large team and ample prep time.

Jodi Davis-Gempler, Director of Development at The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County and a key member of the fundraising team, has over 20 years of fundraising experience. Already familiar with Auction Frogs and Online Auction, Jodi was excited to take advantage of new technology and share her organization’s stories with a Virtual Event. It was the perfect response to fundraising during the pandemic.

The Solution

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County followed a preset timeline and met with Auction Frogs weekly to create their Virtual Event and Online Auction. “Normally, at our events, we don’t take a lot of time to do a lot of storytelling — we’re trying to keep the auction moving really fast. This year we got to tell a little bit more about the mission of the clubs,” explained Jodi. Incorporating videos, pictures, stories, and more, the Virtual Event was the perfect format to focus on more than just the auction items. Sharing on social media in advance, they hoped to connect with people from home and get participation through the Virtual Event to the Online Auction.

Solid preparation, pre-event run-throughs, and support from Auction Frogs’ production team allowed Jodi to sit back the night of the event and join in the virtual viewing, completely worry-free. The Club’s 45-minute long and fun-filled event was hosted by two local emcees in cowboy hats, Larry Flynn and Mark Johnson, and was recorded to encourage further engagement from late viewers. Larry Flynn, a long-time Benefit Auctioneer for Boys & Clubs of Ada County, and Mark Johnson, a local TV station news anchor for KTVB, has been hosting this event for years and enjoyed the new virtual format. It was clear they had great synergy during the production while bringing the fun and entertaining viewers! The WWA continues to collect hundreds of views on YouTube increasing the awareness and important funding for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County.

“The technology is really smooth and easy to use. I think it provides a good user experience to the people participating. But I think it’s always been that way, I don’t think that’s a change,” said Jodi. Auction Frogs always focuses on user engagement and client experience with their custom event pages and story-focused content.

The Results

After receiving an outpouring of positive feedback from viewers and nearly meeting their goal of $500,000, The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County considers the Virtual Event and Online Auction a complete success. “We’ll always have an online component, and we do still hope to have our regular in-person event in the future. But going through this process we’ve learned that there is a way that we can meet people virtually and experience fundraising success. It was a useful format overall,” stated Jodi.

In times of last-minute changes, constant innovation, and a need for community, The Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County were able to plan and execute their fundraiser and Virtual Event with ease with Auction Frogs by their side.

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A Case Study

An organization providing resources for agricultural education to students, the Idaho FFA Association was faced with the cancellation of two fundraising events in light of COVID-19 and needed an alternate solution to utilize donations and auction items committed to the original events. They wanted a virtual event that would engage supporters, help meet their fundraising goal and raise enough money for their fund-a-need programs. With two events cancelled, each on opposite ends of the state, creating a unifying and equally as impactful event was vital.

The Challenge

Needing to connect beyond geographical boundaries and raise money for a common interest, Idaho FFA had to step away from their traditional fundraising approach. Typically, an auction with Idaho FFA is a bustling day with competitions, raffles and a dinner. Idaho FFA was concerned about having to cancel not one, but two events. Taking the events online, they were concerned about meeting their fundraising goal and having trouble with attendees engaging online. After already creating two events, it was important to share on social media news of a new event and the changes in setting.
Marcia Jedry, Executive Director of Idaho FFA, has more than 20 years of fundraising experience and had spent recent months commuting back and forth, across the state, meeting with planning committees. A lot of time and energy had gone into planning the events, but with Auction Frogs a web-based event and online fundraising platform company, an online auction and virtual event would address Idaho FFA’s challenges and offer an easy to use solution. No longer needing to commute, Marcia began working with Auction Frogs and their production team to create one new event, 40 Giving Back and Looking Forward.

The Solution

Not their first year using an online auction with Auction Frogs but certainly their first virtual event, Idaho FFA worked with Auction Frogs and their production team to build an online auction and create a virtual event in a short amount of time. “In the past it was difficult to make changes and get approval. It doesn’t seem like that now, we can change our mindsets and participate remotely. Sometimes it can be fun,” said Marcia.
Idaho FFA shared social media posts for the virtual event and live auction. Creating the virtual event they shared photos, videos and stories with Auction Frogs to create a live experience that would boost engagement and donations made. “More time went into producing the live event but on the flip side you’re spending less time during the actual event. Our in person event would typically be time spent setting up, several hours of the actual event and then time afterwards taking it all down. We didn’t have to do that, which was nice,” said Marcia.
Handmade items from students were showcased and bid on the day of the virtual event, an emcee shared stories and encouragement with viewers on Facebook, and familiar faces were able to give testimony via videos and photos.

The Results

“It was a wild card, but we reached our goal,” said Marcia. Over the weekend, before the online auction was close to closing, Idaho FFA had already reached their goal of $50,000 and in the end reached close to $52,000. “We were still able to share our story. We could see the metrics, people engaging and the flow of the auction,” said Marcia, “Auction Frogs and the team were fantastic. We had so much guidance and they really made us look good.”
After 40 years, the Idaho FFA managed to catch the same sense of community and support from years of in person events and auctions, this time online.

A Case Study

The only children’s hospital in the state of Idaho, committed to high quality, cost-effective clinical care, advocacy for children and families, education, and research; St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital needed to find an alternate platform for their annual auction event since COVID-19 derailed their original plans. Alongside an online auction they wanted a virtual event that would be cost effective, engaging and allow them to meet their fundraising goal.
A large event for a large organization, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital swapped a space odyssey for a safe odyssey, eager to bring attendees together virtually.

The Challenge

Normally a night for adults to be kids, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital brings the fun with inflatables, mechanical bulls, performers and more. Towards the end of the event attendees enjoy a traditional dinner, program and silent auction. With only three months until their original event date, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital decided to cancel their in-person event and began creating a virtual event and online auction. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital was uncertain of how many people would participate online and if the online auction would fulfill their fundraising goal. To switch from a very active in-person event to a virtual event that had never been held by their organization before, there were unknowns in sight for St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.
The Kid for A Night event typically costs six figures to carry-out and scaling down seemed like a daunting task that could potentially lose the excitement and high energy needed from attendees to meet their fundraising goal. For a much more cost effective option, Auction Frogs and their production team worked closely with St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital to meet their goals and consult by their side through the entire process, creating a virtual event and online auction.
Maegan Krahn, Manager of special events for the St. Luke’s Foundation, had never worked with Auction Frogs before. Maegan spoke with other organizations and top sponsors, looking for a way to hold their event. Once they chose Auction Frogs and began brainstorming, it was decided that a virtual event and live auction was the best solution for them.

The Solution

One of the first to hold a virtual event, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital and Auction Frogs bounced ideas off each other as soon as planning started. “It was nice that all of us were in the same boat,” said Maegan, “We all came willing to share ideas and figure out what the best course of action was for us and our event. The team was very responsive.” In order to engage attendees, Maegan and her team shared videos, photos with Auction Frogs and their production team. “They put it all together and normally that’s something we do ourselves so not having that control was tough but we communicated a lot, so it became easier and we knew it was getting taken care of and it still looked like us and our banding,” said Maegan.
After 30 years, plenty of time for planning, traditions and reliability; Maegan was pleased with the support, visuals and the customization used for the virtual event and online auction. A feature that specifically stood out to her was the ability to easily add auction items to the online auction site. Instead of reprinting papers, moving physical items around and rushing, the online component eased the auction experience. And because they could have an unlimited amount of auction items online, they utilized fund-a-need options as well, ultimately increasing bids and donations made to the organization.

The Results

“Everything was positive and we successfully changed a 900 person event over to a 40 minute digital program,” said Maegan, “People said that it wasn’t just easy to use but that the bidding was fun, just from their couch!”
At first, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital set a fundraising goal of $50,000 but after their success from the first week they upped their goal to $500,000. Not only did they reach their goal, raising over $519,000, but their virtual event held on Facebook reached over 10,000 people.
“It was incredibly cost effective,” said Maegan. Despite raising $587,000 last year, subtracting event expenses St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital was able to save and raise more from the virtual event and online auction this year.

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest usually plans on hosting a gala event in the summer and an online auction in the fall. Taking precautionary measures due to COVID-19, they switched the events and began planning to use an online auction sooner than planned. Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest was concerned about the success of an online auction and meeting their fundraising goal based on the potential number of attendees, listing too many items, lack of engagement and the possible difficulties attendees may encounter when needing to use technology to participate.