Top Tips for Your School Fundraising Auction

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BiddingForGood is ramping up for our busiest season which includes lots of school fundraising auctions. We asked experienced auction consultant, Alex Durant of Durant Consulting, to give us her words of wisdom about fundraising auctions to better help your school raise more money!

Alex has worked with clients such as The Food Network South Beach Food & Wine Festival, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami and the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida – so her helpful auction tips are certainly tried and true.

• Solicitation - Instead of a blanket ask to donors, be specific! Ask for exactly what you want from each donor. Shoot for the stars! They can only say no, and just might say yes.

• Creative packaging – How much money can you raise with a $50 dining gift certificate? Probably about $30. But, if you can package 12 gift certificates worth $50 each- you have “Dine Out For A Year” for total value of $600. This will probably sell for $500 (over $40 per certificate). Throw in movie passes, tickets to a show, etc and you have “Date Night for a Year."

• Building your online catalog – Merchandising is key! Utilize images to make your catalog a true shopping experience. Instead of ‘clip art’ icons for categories, I recommend gathering images of the donations from the donors such as hotel property photos and restaurant logos to make the items stand-out.

• Timing is everything - Keep your catalog fresh by frequently adding new items. When sending your email blasts, feature these new items. Try to mix up the range of pricing and types of items that are new to the catalog to make every bidder happy.

~Alex Durant, Auction Consultant

www.durantconsulting.com