How to source Auction Items for a Winning Virtual Fundraiser

How to source Auction Items for a Winning Virtual Fundraiser Banner

Auctions are one of the best ways for nonprofit organizations to raise funds. Courting businesses and individuals willing to donate or sponsor auction items is a crucial part of that process. The quality of goods and services you’re able to acquire is integral to the success of your fundraising initiative. 

Let’s explore some methods you can use to procure great auction items for your next event!

Strategize for Success

Once you have a strategy, you can actively seek and solicit auction items. Build your game plan based on:

  • Strategies that worked well in previous years
  • New ideas that work with your target market's income level and budget

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

First things first, you need to assemble an item procurement team. Your team should be comprised of committee members who have the gift of the gab. Look for people with charm and diplomacy who can call on a vast social network to obtain coveted goods and services.

If your team is small, don’t worry. Be sure to plan early (preferably a six months to a year in advance). You’ll be surprised by how much even a one-man show can accomplish! Sound people skills can help you distinguish between donors who are short on time and those who want you to invest time in exchange for a high-impact donation.

Lay it All Out

Put together a PR kit with brochures and links depicting what your organization does. Include facts about previous auctions you’ve held such as the number of bidders that participated. Don’t forget, explain how your virtual event works. This includes what would be expected of donors when it comes to fulfilling their end of the transaction.

Your PR kit can provide auction items suggestions to give your business donors inspiration. Customize these ideas for your wishlist businesses in the body of an email or on a phone call. Just remember, it’s easy to ignore emails, so try and make a call first to establish a personal connection.

Warm-Calling

Colleagues, stakeholders, previous donors from a database, friends, and family are all good sources of auction items. They’re familiar with your cause and have likely witnessed the positive outcomes of your organization’s fundraising projects.

If you’ve thanked them appropriately in the past, there’s a solid chance they will be willing to proffer bid-worthy items again. Your loyal donors and supporters are your first port of call.

Cold-Calling

Cold-calling and cold-pitching can reap rewards so don’t shy away from approaching businesses out of the blue. Highlight the advantages of participating as an item donor. For example, advantages could be greater brand exposure or an enhanced reputation via visible corporate social responsibility or sponsorship.

Remember, the community you engage doesn’t necessarily have to be local. It can include companies from further afield who have an online presence that resonates with your core audience. As long as you’re not trying to ship items across the world, it should be a-okay.

Harness the Power of Social Media

If your campaign messaging is creative, you can tug on the heartstrings and purse strings of hundreds of potential donors via social media. Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are remarkable elements of the internet age. In the digital world, the generosity of clicktivists and regular folks alike acts as a counterbalance to vicious trolling. Craft a compelling narrative and it can find its way to people in the mood for a random act of kindness. 

Cast your net wide and you’ll find treasure. You can group smaller items in lovely gift baskets and hampers so no contribution is too small. Don’t forget, stipulate that you’re not looking for second-hand items. High-end thrift items and antique auctions are niches that don’t work for everyone.

Cash donations are welcome too. You can use these to curate vacation items, or organize discounted sports tickets, live performances or any other experiences you feel are missing from confirmed offerings. By doing so, you’ll be able to stretch donations even further and maximize the good you can ultimately do with those funds.

Record-Keeping for the Win

Be sure to use pledge and procurement forms to record important details. Log physical goods and intangible items such as gift cards, donor particulars, starting bids, and any other relevant logistical information. Collate and meticulously track received goods that your organization will need to warehouse and distribute. The best part, virtual gift vouchers and codes can be stored in a secure folder in the cloud!

Key Takeaway

Auction item acquisition is a challenging but satisfying aspect of planning your fundraising event. You can score fantastic items for an online, silent, or live auction. A little planning and determination will serve you well, as will an enthusiastic and polite procurement team. Good luck!

Try Auction Frogs for Your Next Online Auction

Our platform is feature-rich, simple to use, and yields great results. It can be customized to reflect your brand identity. Our platform allows for an unlimited number of item and image uploads. And, with a mobile-friendly user experience, bidders can participate on any smart device. You can streamline your auction item procurement with site-integrated donation forms. And there’s even a dedicated space for donor advertising!

So, whether you’re a school or a nonprofit organization, get in touch to see how we can help make your next virtual fundraiser a successful one.

How to Pivot From a Traditional Gala Auction to a Virtual Event

How to Pivot from a Traditional Gala Auction to a Virtual Event Banner

Virtual Events are popular. In fact, almost one-third of adults in the US have participated in one. While traditional gala auctions offer a great way to connect with your supporters and raise more funds, a Virtual Event can be a great alternative.

Plus, pivoting from an in-person event to a virtual one doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right planning and tools, you can host a virtual fundraiser that gets great results. Let’s take a look so you can start planning your Vitual Event.

Step 1 | Set Goals for your Virtual Event

Your goals may need to change if you are pivoting from a traditional gala event to a Virtual Event. For starters, your reach may be different—meaning your potential participants could very well change. Consider reevaluating your attendance and participation goals.

A Virtual Event allows you to reach more people than you may otherwise since those who are not in the immediate geographic area can participate online. In addition, because there is not a traditional gala event, your audience can even participate if they have other plans.

You may also want to take a second look at how much funds you expect to raise through your Virtual Event. You may be able to increase your goals since virtual fundraising can allow more people the opportunity to give. 

Step 2 | Plan Your Virtual Program

Just because you aren’t hosting a traditional gala event doesn’t mean you can’t have a full program. A Virtual Event can still feature presenters, performances, speakers with testimonials, and many other options.

You can use a previous gala event program as your starting point. However, keep in mind that during a virtual program you will definitely want to keep your participants’ attention. Quick transitions between segments can help keep them engaged.

You should make sure to be very clear with your presenters how the program will flow and how a Virtual Event works. Having a host can help everything flow more smoothly.

When planning the schedule, remember that you should make a donation call to action early during the event. Then, be sure to ask often throughout the rest of the Virtual Event. Attendees may join or leave at various times, so you want to try to catch them at the appropriate times.

Step 3 | Determine Your Platform, Resources, & Materials

Once you know what your program will look like, you can start to gather the resources and materials that you need. One of the biggest decisions to make is what platform you will use to stream your Virtual Event. This will be determined by what you plan to do during the program.

For example, if you want to show slides, videos, or multiple presenters, you would need a screen-sharing service. You should think about whether you plan on having a live stream or using pre-recorded videos.

You will also need a platform that can host the actual auction. Services such as Zoom can’t handle this, so you should look into a dedicated virtual auction program, like us here at Auction Frogs!

Our Virtual Event platform can host your auction items and capture bids. Plus, additional features such as online pledge capture, ad space for supporters, and a goal thermometer makes hosting a Virtual Event with Auction Frogs even easier and more successful.

You may also need additional materials, such as microphones and webcams. These items are sometimes forgotten until the last minute but can make a big difference in helping your Virtual Event run smoothly.

Step 4 | Promote Your Virtual Event

Promoting your Virtual Event effectively is incredibly important. Your event can either have paid ticketing or be free to participate. Creating an RSVP form will allow you to get the information for those who are planning on attending.

When you are promoting auctions online, it’s important to take advantage of every marketing channel you have. Make sure to send emails and text messages to those on your mailing list. You can even use direct mail.

Social media is a great way of reaching more people, even those outside of your normal fundraising circle. Create eye-catching graphics and be sure to share them on all of your social media channels.

Step 5 | Have a Dress Rehearsal

A dress rehearsal is vital, especially if your organization has never hosted a Virtual Event before. Dress rehearsals will help ensure everything will run smoothly, which can also reduce nerves and stress among your team members.

If you are having guest presenters, have them test their equipment and make sure they are comfortable with their role. If you plan on showing a video or other media, have a test play to make sure it plays correctly.

You should also test the participant experience. Make a test donation to be sure all of your content and messaging is set up how you want it. Also, click through the event pages and all the links to ensure your attendees can access the event.

Step 6 | Host Your Virtual Event

Testing everything and having a step-by-step plan will ensure your Virtual Event runs smoothly. On the day of, make sure you have fun with your fundraiser. Interact with your audience and thank your supporters.

After your Virtual Event is over, you can rehash what went well with your team and how you can grow your fundraiser for the next year.

Pivot to a Successful Virtual Event

Virtual Events for nonprofits are a great way to reach a larger audience than you ever could with a traditional gala auction. While pivoting to a Virtual Event may be a little scary, plenty of planning and the right tools will make your event a fundraising success.

Take a tour of Auction Frogs to get started with your Virtual Event today!

Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County brings Fun to first Virtual Event

child with tie-dyed hands

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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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An Effective Fundraising Committee ensures Event Success

When planning and hosting a fundraising event, there are many decisions to be made and tasks to complete. While it is possible to plan an event single-handedly, it certainly is not ideal. Events are most successful when coordinated by a fundraising committee. An effective committee takes the stress off the individual at the helm and provides support for decision-making, organization, and task management.

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Idaho FFA surpasses Virtual Event Fundraising Goal

plants, notebook, and phone on desk

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.

St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital hosts first Virtual Event

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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 exceeds Fundraising Goal

leaf and notebook on desk

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.

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