Here's a super hot idea for your charity auction items list. Fashionistas know that Fashion Week happens twice a year -- once in the spring (usually March) to showcase fall fashions, and again in the fall (usually September), to showcase spring fashions. It's held in several cities around the world (New York, Paris, Milan, London, etc.). I've only sold tickets to New York. The tickets sell for a few thousand dollars without hotel or transportation. Why are these tickets so desirable? And how ... Read On >
Procurement
When to send your auction thank you letter
Today I received an email from one of my clients. She wrote, "What's the "correct" way to thank donors? Do I send an auction thank you letter when I receive the item ... AND after the gala? Or is it OK to just send one letter? I don't want to be redundant, but I also don't want to be rude." I thought her question was insightful. She's a young, hip Development Director, and she's got manners. Good manners can build your auction's reputation for the long haul. Second, this question brings ... Read On >
A School Auction Excels at Marketing a Potato Cannon
The right unique school auction items will sell for high dollar in your gala. And a potato cannon, made by the school's beloved maintenance department, in an all-boys Catholic school ... is a perfect example of that. The cannon sold for $1000 at the school auction... twice. (Once the Auction Chair saw how well it was selling, she confirmed the maintenance team would be willing to build another one. The school doubled its revenue on that item.) Not only is this a fun idea, but what ... Read On >
Charity auction item idea: Newspaper printer’s plate
Last night I worked a charity auction for a smaller school in Maryland. While walking the silent auction area with the Chair, she pointed out an item I hadn't seen sold in prior auctions. It was a metal printer's plate from The Wall Street Journal. The plate showed the image from the newspaper's front page. (The photo attached isn't the plate I saw. I've traveled into the future and pulled this photo from a later, related post.) The Auction Chair had contacted a friend of hers who ... Read On >
Live auction item idea: Time on boats and yachts
One of the enjoyable aspects of my work is the people I meet in wildly different professions. Like, for instance, the patron at a Miami auction who invited me to join his crew as they moved yachts from Miami to Fort Lauderdale after the Miami Boat Show. We left before sunrise, navigated up the intercoastal waterway, and arrived in Fort Lauderdale a few hours later to enjoy lunch. What a nice way to spend the morning! Boating activities are a good silent or live auction item, though I ... Read On >