If you're living in the Columbia, MD area and looking for a way to give back to the community in a fun, witty atmosphere, let me recommend the Rotary Club of Columbia Patuxent. I spoke to about 30 members there yesterday. You couldn't ask for a livelier bunch, even at 7:30 AM. Over the past six months I've been speaking to a number of Rotary Clubs about benefit auctions and -- dang it -- I've no idea why I haven't been blogging about it. It never occurred to me before, despite having met some ... Read On >
Benefit Auctions Blog
Social media-related contest: Use it to promote benefit auction
Social media is growing at exponential rates. My favorite video on the subject (the short version is below) is produced by Erik Qualman, an online marketer and author. The statistics he shares are compelling (e.g. 1 out of 8 American couples married last year met online... social media has surpassed porn as the #1 activity on the Internet), and the music ... well, the music is by Fat Boy Slim, one of my favorite musicians, and my preferred music to play while cleaning the ... Read On >
A Simple Trick to Improve Raffle Ticket Sales & the Guest Experience
Raffle ticket sales become a lot easier when you use this simple trick. Each guest who buys a raffle ticket should be given a visual identifier to alert others that he's purchased. This avoids the common annoyance to guests: multiple people approaching to sell raffle tickets. Assume you have three teams of volunteers roaming the crowd to sell raffle tickets for a diamond bracelet. Team #1 approaches Mr. Smith and sells him two tickets. Within minutes, Team #2 talks to him. "I just bought ... Read On >
Auction centerpieces: Should you sell them or give them away?
When I worked as an event planner, I loved auction centerpieces. If I needed to dress the room on the cheap, I knew the trick -- Forget wall decor and divert a tad more money into the table decor. Guests spend most of their time at the table, and with the right linens and a fun centerpiece - BAM - you've got yourself a festive atmosphere. The rest of the room be damned; if the table looked good, the theme worked. But now that I teach nonprofits how to improve their return-on-investment in ... Read On >
7 tips from someone who has graded your CMP application
Yesterday I prepped you about my work with the Convention Industry Council®. From morning until early evening today, I sat with ~40 reviewers (I'm pretty sure I was the only Virginia benefit auctioneer) at the Westin Arlington Gateway and scored ("reviewed") application after application. We were seated at round tables to facilitate group help. If one of us had a question or wanted a second opinion, she could easily pose it to another CMP® for feedback. We read applications, checked math, ... Read On >