There is an fundraising auction event dating back to the mid-1800's in the northeast United States. At the time it was called a penny auction. Today it is often called a "ticket or chinese" auction. Whatever you call it it is a great way to incorporate a very fun event into a fundraiser with a minimum amount of work. It works well with baked goods and can be put together quickly and easily. It's great as an addition to another event, especially with a dinner, lunch or social.
The auction is actually a "raffle". You sell a sheet of tickets that are perforated for easy tearing. Each sheet of tickets has one number that is unique to that sheet. There are 25 tickets per sheet, plus one extra ticket for the door prize plus a numbered stub for a total of 27 perforated tickets. Originally the "sheet" sold for 25 cents, hence the name "penny auction". The tickets can be any color. The numbering is critical because the auction is run by those numbers.
A small bin, box or bowl is located next to each donated item. The crowd tears their sheet into individual tickets and places the tickets into the container next to the item he or she likes the most. The more tickets one places into a single item the more likely he will be to win it. At the end of the auction the auctioneer draws out the winning tickets and announces the winner of each item. The winners can be all drawn at once or they can be staggered over the life of the event.
The obvious gain for the organization is you can generate far more funds than the worth of the items with this method. Say you ask 20 people to each bring a cake for a cake auction. Some will be very fancy, some highly decorated, some unique. Each has its own value, but if you did a live auction most would sell for between $5.00 and perhaps $25.00 generating somewhere between $100 and say $400 at the top end if you averaged $20. each. But with a "ticket auction" you can sell a sheet of tickets for $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00 and sell an unlimited amount. If you sell 100 sheets you will generate $500. at $5.00 each. Sell 200 sheets at an average of $4.00 each and you will net $800. You can see how a 'ticket auction' can make money for you.
Baked goods work especially well for a ticket auction. Anytime a crowd is going to gather it's an easy fundraiser and many people love creating fancy baked goods for this. It's easy to add other types of items with baked goods. You can have a table or two or three of baked goods and a few other tables of other items and stagger the closing of the tables over the life of the event. Say you start at 4:00 and have people coming and going. The first table can "close" at 4:30, the next one at 5:00 and so on, so you can sell tickets to people during the course of the event. This type of auction works great for times when the crowd comes and goes.
Our Kiefer Auction Supply house sells the perforated auction tickets at a low cost. We can custom imprint and you can actually sell them in advance or use them as an entry ticket for those who don't want to sell them at the event. We can imprint all the time/date information and the "ticket to get in" becomes the auction ticket. You may want to check with your state if a raffle is an issue, as technically a "chinese auction" is not an auction but truly is a raffle. It usually is not an issue with small fundraising events but selling the tickets as entry tickets with various door prizes using the tickets would seem to overcome that issue.
The ticket auctions are a fast, easy fundraiser when you need to raise a relatively small amount of money or looking for a fun event to tie into another event such as a dinner.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
SILENT AUCTIONS
I get asked frequently about how to do a fundraiser. Today, more than ever, organizations and just plain people have a need for a good fundraiser to advance a cause. Funding is cut short and the need is frequently great.
I have own Kiefer Auction Supply Co. for 30 years and been a commercial auctioneer that long also. I developed a line of supplies to help people run silent auctions, charity auctions and fundraising events. These supplies can make a difference because a good event running smoothly and chaos. The key to any fundraising event is organization and of course, people.
Silent auctions can be added to almost any event and are good for raising a few thousand dollars. It's hard to raise big money with a silent auction. It's easy to raise $2,000 to $5,000 with a silent auction, especially if the cause if good. You need to have the financial goal in mind before you decide on which type of event you will be having. Also, it's always best if you can tie some type of food event with it, even if it is not professionally catered. Maybe a spagetti, steak fry or something because that's what brings the people out and you can charge at the door.
Let's say for this event we have a fundraising goal of $5,000. Think about finding an "event sponsor" that will donate the first $100 dollars or $250. Lots of times there is a business or person close to the group or person benefitting that will do this and underwrite a good bit of the hard costs of running the event.
Then you need a place to hold the event. Lots of church basements are good for this. Maybe the organization you are holding it for will be the host. Community centers, private schools, anyplace with a room big enough to hold it. Schools and churches also have the chairs and tables you will need and frequently have a kitchen and prep area. A back yard is good for small functions. Remember to consider ease in directions and parking. If you are going to do a back yard function in a neighborhood, remember to talk to the neighbors in advance. They often are a great source of help and many time can bring over tables, chairs, etc. and you can make it a neighborhood event.
Back to our $5,000 event. If you charge $5.00 for a ticket to enter (or the meal) you'd need 1,000 people coming thru, which won't work. Let's say we are going to raise $1,000 thru the door (100 at $10.00 = $1,000) . That leaves $4,000 for the silent auction. Plan on finding 4 or 5 bigger items that can bring $200 each. Then plan on 10 medium items for $100 each. Then perhaps 20 items in the $50 price range and another 25 in the $25.00 price range. This is a total of 65 items you will need to find to get donated. In another blog I'll give you some tips on how to find items. The spirit of the day should carry the prices up and you'll be in the $4,000 to $5,000 price range. You need to be thinking about how the final price on each item fits into the grand scheme of the event. If you get cut short on the number of items or only want to have a smaller auction, you need to think bigger priced items. 10 items that will bring $500 each is a much faster way to get your $5,000 but much harder to find 10 donations that are that big.
We discovered the Chinese (or penny) Auction which is a totally different type of auction but a terrific fundraiser and really a lot of fun. Perfect for baked goods and smaller dollar items. I have a seperate blog on Chinese Auctions you might want to check out, but you can use it as a stand alone event or in conjunction with a silent or live auction. It involves selling pages of tickets with unique number. Each ticket is dropped into a bin near an item and at the end of the "auction" a winning ticket is drawn to determine the winner of the item. The advantage is you can get many times the value of the items because you sell the page of tickets.
Once you have a goal you need to get some help soliciting donations for the Silent Auction. Your contacts only will get you so far and if you have 3 or 4 others their circle of contacts will get you things also. Don't be afraid of asking for bigger donations. Always ask for a business card to put on the item as advertising for the firm donating the item. If you have a total of five people looking for items, give each of them a goal of one major $250. item, three items $100 each and so on. This is a critical part.
Use the web and create a simple website for the details of the event and you can update the silent auction items as they come in. Put the website on the event tickets and also put the ticket purchase information on the website. Don't forget to tell about the need for the fundraiser and how the event all came about. People like details and this will bring in more people. Put an "email this page" button the bottom of the page so people can share it.
Another key to a successful Silent Auction is to spread your items out over a number of tables. I like to use very different table cloths colors on each table. Blue, red, white, yellow, green, black. etc. Plan on about 10 items on each table, so you'll need 6 or 7 tables that are 30" x 72". Cover each table with the table cloths from a dollar or party store (if outdoors, tape them so they don't blow). Remember to leave room for a Silent Auction Bidder Slip that you'll need for each item.
Write an ending time on a card on the front of each table. I scatter the closing time over the life of the event about every 20 minutes or so. The first table should close about 30 minutes into the auction. You'll need a lively person to announce the table closing and give auction updates. The "better' items should be placed on later tables so there is some momentum building during the event. Don't leave all the good items for the end, but stagger them towards the end. The announcer can then call the ending of bids in 3 minutes for "the blue table" and everyone will know which items are on that table and to check their bids.
I live to give everyone a "bidder card" with their bidder number on it. Sometimes people just simply will not bid against another person. Say the minister of the church you are holding the event in. If he bids on a major item it can kill the bidding on that item, so it's often better to just use a bidding number. Plus, if bidders are writing a lot of bids their handwriting gets worse on every bid they place. Using a number makes it easier for cashiering also. I'll write another blog on how to cashier this size and larger.
Try to have a seperate committee to handle the clean up and returning of borrowed tables and chairs, etc. This can be a lifesaver as your Silent Auction committee has plenty of other things to deal with.
Don't forget the thank you notes to the people donating. This is a rather critical item and if you ever need to do another fundraising in the future or if this is an annual event it is a "must". You might find a person willing to just do this as their part in the event.
Good Luck. Let me know how your auction does. I'll do another blog on best selling Silent Auction items.
I have own Kiefer Auction Supply Co. for 30 years and been a commercial auctioneer that long also. I developed a line of supplies to help people run silent auctions, charity auctions and fundraising events. These supplies can make a difference because a good event running smoothly and chaos. The key to any fundraising event is organization and of course, people.
Silent auctions can be added to almost any event and are good for raising a few thousand dollars. It's hard to raise big money with a silent auction. It's easy to raise $2,000 to $5,000 with a silent auction, especially if the cause if good. You need to have the financial goal in mind before you decide on which type of event you will be having. Also, it's always best if you can tie some type of food event with it, even if it is not professionally catered. Maybe a spagetti, steak fry or something because that's what brings the people out and you can charge at the door.
Let's say for this event we have a fundraising goal of $5,000. Think about finding an "event sponsor" that will donate the first $100 dollars or $250. Lots of times there is a business or person close to the group or person benefitting that will do this and underwrite a good bit of the hard costs of running the event.
Then you need a place to hold the event. Lots of church basements are good for this. Maybe the organization you are holding it for will be the host. Community centers, private schools, anyplace with a room big enough to hold it. Schools and churches also have the chairs and tables you will need and frequently have a kitchen and prep area. A back yard is good for small functions. Remember to consider ease in directions and parking. If you are going to do a back yard function in a neighborhood, remember to talk to the neighbors in advance. They often are a great source of help and many time can bring over tables, chairs, etc. and you can make it a neighborhood event.
Back to our $5,000 event. If you charge $5.00 for a ticket to enter (or the meal) you'd need 1,000 people coming thru, which won't work. Let's say we are going to raise $1,000 thru the door (100 at $10.00 = $1,000) . That leaves $4,000 for the silent auction. Plan on finding 4 or 5 bigger items that can bring $200 each. Then plan on 10 medium items for $100 each. Then perhaps 20 items in the $50 price range and another 25 in the $25.00 price range. This is a total of 65 items you will need to find to get donated. In another blog I'll give you some tips on how to find items. The spirit of the day should carry the prices up and you'll be in the $4,000 to $5,000 price range. You need to be thinking about how the final price on each item fits into the grand scheme of the event. If you get cut short on the number of items or only want to have a smaller auction, you need to think bigger priced items. 10 items that will bring $500 each is a much faster way to get your $5,000 but much harder to find 10 donations that are that big.
We discovered the Chinese (or penny) Auction which is a totally different type of auction but a terrific fundraiser and really a lot of fun. Perfect for baked goods and smaller dollar items. I have a seperate blog on Chinese Auctions you might want to check out, but you can use it as a stand alone event or in conjunction with a silent or live auction. It involves selling pages of tickets with unique number. Each ticket is dropped into a bin near an item and at the end of the "auction" a winning ticket is drawn to determine the winner of the item. The advantage is you can get many times the value of the items because you sell the page of tickets.
Once you have a goal you need to get some help soliciting donations for the Silent Auction. Your contacts only will get you so far and if you have 3 or 4 others their circle of contacts will get you things also. Don't be afraid of asking for bigger donations. Always ask for a business card to put on the item as advertising for the firm donating the item. If you have a total of five people looking for items, give each of them a goal of one major $250. item, three items $100 each and so on. This is a critical part.
Use the web and create a simple website for the details of the event and you can update the silent auction items as they come in. Put the website on the event tickets and also put the ticket purchase information on the website. Don't forget to tell about the need for the fundraiser and how the event all came about. People like details and this will bring in more people. Put an "email this page" button the bottom of the page so people can share it.
Another key to a successful Silent Auction is to spread your items out over a number of tables. I like to use very different table cloths colors on each table. Blue, red, white, yellow, green, black. etc. Plan on about 10 items on each table, so you'll need 6 or 7 tables that are 30" x 72". Cover each table with the table cloths from a dollar or party store (if outdoors, tape them so they don't blow). Remember to leave room for a Silent Auction Bidder Slip that you'll need for each item.
Write an ending time on a card on the front of each table. I scatter the closing time over the life of the event about every 20 minutes or so. The first table should close about 30 minutes into the auction. You'll need a lively person to announce the table closing and give auction updates. The "better' items should be placed on later tables so there is some momentum building during the event. Don't leave all the good items for the end, but stagger them towards the end. The announcer can then call the ending of bids in 3 minutes for "the blue table" and everyone will know which items are on that table and to check their bids.
I live to give everyone a "bidder card" with their bidder number on it. Sometimes people just simply will not bid against another person. Say the minister of the church you are holding the event in. If he bids on a major item it can kill the bidding on that item, so it's often better to just use a bidding number. Plus, if bidders are writing a lot of bids their handwriting gets worse on every bid they place. Using a number makes it easier for cashiering also. I'll write another blog on how to cashier this size and larger.
Try to have a seperate committee to handle the clean up and returning of borrowed tables and chairs, etc. This can be a lifesaver as your Silent Auction committee has plenty of other things to deal with.
Don't forget the thank you notes to the people donating. This is a rather critical item and if you ever need to do another fundraising in the future or if this is an annual event it is a "must". You might find a person willing to just do this as their part in the event.
Good Luck. Let me know how your auction does. I'll do another blog on best selling Silent Auction items.
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