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 >
Revenue Generators
Buying a prize for a raffle? Consider Woot!
When your conducting a raffle, the best prize is often one which is donated. But if no appropriate donations are forthcoming, another option is to buy an inexpensive prize with the understanding that your modest investment will be handsomely rewarded in ticket sales. Consider shopping (or at least monitoring) the Website Woot for an appropriate prize for a raffle. Woot sells one product per day, and prices are worth watching. Here's how Woot works. Woot sells one product per day until it's ... Read On >
Seven tips to raise more money in a fund a need
Many auction ideas can help you raise cash, but no other singular activity during your benefit auction will have more financial impact than the cash appeal. It can be such a cash cow that some of my clients have no live auction; they only conduct an appeal. The appeal goes by various names: fund a need, gift from the heart, or any of these other cash appeal names. Whatever you call it, there is a strict protocol to follow if you want to be successful. Here are seven pointers to executing a ... Read On >
Good auction centerpiece ideas start with shrinking them
When I was a corporate event planner, deciding on centerpieces for special events was one of the creative aspects of my work. Part of the process was making them functional and fun. In my new career as an auctioneer, I have definite auction centerpiece ideas! What makes a centerpiece "good" now is a bit different than in my old days. At my former events, making money wasn't the goal. Now it is. To keep this post short, I'm only going to talk about fresh floral centerpieces. Non-floral ... Read On >
Charity Auction Bells & Whistles – 20+ auction games
We work some auctions every year which are "silent auction only" events. My team and I are responsible for the charity auction revenue generating activities. We sell raffle tickets, get bids on silent auction items, and oversee games, like this wine ring toss game. This is direct sales at its core. We have techniques to upsell patrons -- and rely on our irresistible personalities to engage guests. ;) The end result is that guests buy more because they are having fun, like this guy who ... Read On >