NEWS FEATURES
Online Strategies

Making the Most of Year-end Giving Online

Event Strategies

Hidden Fundraising Strategies for Benefit Auctions

Partner News

New Auctionpay Partner cMarket

Client Services Messages

New This Fall
Webpay Support

For Your Donors

"Gifts of cash [cash, credit card or check] are fully deductible - up to a maximum of 50% of your adjusted gross income. For example, if your adjusted gross income for 2004 is $50,000, up to $25,000 of charitable gifts may be deducted in 2004. Any excess can generally be carried forward and deducted over as many as five subsequent years."

--Calder Sinclair
Sinclair, Townes & Company Fundraising Counsel

Schedule Early

There is still time to reserve terminals and build online pages for event registration and year-end donations.

Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum Honors Auctionpay

Auctionpay was recently honored as one of the three top entrepreneurial companies in Oregon. This prestigious award is granted by the Oregon business community to the company that has shown the best performance.

Thank you to all of the nonprofit organizations who have worked with us over the past three years. We have been honored to play a part in helping you meet or exceed your fundraising goals.

We share this award with you since our success is directly related to your success.

All the best,

Jeff Jetton, CEO and President

Online Strategies

Making the Most of Year-end Giving Online

It's Not Too Late to Add or Promote Online Capability

What percentage of your revenue comes from year-end giving? Do you have a strategy in place moving into the 4th quarter? If so, you are probably starting to implement your year-end giving campaign. It is not too late to boost your success by including an online giving option this year. Your donor is likely to consider organizational cause, their tax situation, and convenience itself when deciding where to allocate their year-end giving. If you are not tying your year-end giving strategy to online convenience, you are missing an opportunity to capture donations.

To stay front and center in your donor's mind through December, try these tips:

Add online donation capability to your Web site if you have not already.
Promote the ability to accept donations online in all your year-end appeal literature and on your Web site.
Pair this with an email communication strategy and you will have an even greater opportunity for success. As the year draws to a close, send reminders and campaign updates to your donor community.
Remind your donors that by giving online, they won't need to worry about getting the check in the mail by the end of the year - they will receive an instant email receipt for tax purposes.
BONUS: You also receive an instant notification of each donation and view information instantly in a secure report format.

TIP FOR YOU: To get the most out of your year-end giving strategy, run online reports twice daily to measure your success and plan your follow-up calls to those who have not yet responded. This is more effective than waiting for checks to arrive in the mail.

Engaging with your donors on a regular basis and providing them with a simple, hassle free way to donate will help you meet your year-end giving goals with ease.

More complete information online at http://www.auctionpay.com/.

Event Strategies

Hidden Fundraising Strategies for Benefit Auctions

By Kathy Kingston, Kingston Auction Company

Benefit auctions are philanthropic and fun and can promote a positive organizational culture while raising significant money for important causes. By focusing on these often-overlooked revenue-producing strategies, nonprofits can boost their auction revenue to a new level.

#1. Bid Now - Dance Later!

Timing is everything. Plan a minute-by-minute schedule or "show flow" of your entire event and stick to it. Remember, the majority of your revenue is in the live auction; so place it prominently in your event. A fast-paced and exciting auction keeps guests in their seats bidding longer!

#2. Your Cause is the Star!

Connect the audience to your cause, and they will bid generously. Precede your live auction with a short, heartfelt pitch about the benefits of their financial support. Write up a few bullet points about your organization, why you need the funds, including facts and figures, for your auctioneer to inspire your guests throughout the auction.

#3. Audience Development

Although procurement of great auction items remains a priority, filling your venue with the right bidders is critical to your success. Conduct a targeted campaign to identify, invite and cultivate major donors, prospects and influence leaders. Know what your audience wants and solicit those types of auction items to generate excitement and more profit. "Power bidders" at your event can boost your auction to the next level, now!

Please visit www.kingstonauction.com for more information.

Save the date: Email marketing@auctionpay.com to request an invitation to auction seminars in Boston and Rhode Island Dec. 1 and 2, presented by Kathy Kingston and Auctionpay.

Partner News

Take Your Fundraising Auction Online with cMarket

And deliver more bidders, better items, and greater value to sponsors

We'd like to introduce you to our newest partner, cMarket - the leading provider of Internet-based auction fundraising services. By using cMarket, leading nonprofit organizations have realized the power of using the Internet to reach out to their entire constituency and create new revenue from online events.

To date, cMarket has helped over 150 organizations (from education to health & human services to the arts and more) increase their auction revenue, provide greater value to donors and sponsors, and engage their entire constituency in their fundraising events.

cMarket's easy-to-use, template-driven auction solution, it is as easy as "point, click, and type." You can:

Create a compelling "homepage" for your online auction, branding your organization and event
Quickly create and send emails that promote your event, cause and auction to your entire constituency with easy-to-use templates
Procure better or additional donated items by leveraging your entire constituency or using cMarket PlaceT consignment catalog
Provide better value to donors and sponsors with clickable logos and web links
Easily manage your whole auction with detailed activity reports and simple close out tools

And, with the addition of absentee bidding for online bidders, cMarket has created the perfect complement to a live auction event!

Learn More About cMarket

"We opened our live auction Gala with nearly half our revenue goal already achieved! cMarket allowed us to bring our auction catalog to our entire database via rich HTML email communications, extending the auction and bidding beyond the Gala attendees. At the event, we were able to improve our guest experience with Auctionpay by streamlining our event night processes. Our guests spent less time in line and more time bidding. Reconciliation and settlement were quick and easy after the event."

- Kelly Nevins
Executive Director
Volunteer Center of Rhode Island
Tribute to Volunteerism Gala Auction

The Client Service Team strives to serve Auctionpay clients by providing convenient and concise information to support the Event process.

Auctionpay Event

NEW This Fall!

Each box of Auctionpay terminals will be shipped with a binder containing a helpful visual set-up guide and many other useful resources. This is a great companion to your volunteer training video.

Did you know you can.

Access step-by-step training guides for event night volunteers? Click View Training Guides.
/client_services/client-training.aspx

Download key documents in case you misplace your copy?

Download Director's Quick Reference Guide and other documents.
/client_services/downloads.htm

Schedule your next event to reserve your terminals in advance.
/client_services/schedule-new-event.aspx

Webpay

Webpay Support Team

We are available to assist you with questions regarding your Webpay service. We can walk you through the set up of your web pages, help answer a question regarding your online statement or provide suggestions on optimizing the effectiveness of your web pages

New Webpay support number:

1-86 MY WEBPAY (1-866-993-2729).

Hours:

Mon-Fri, 8 - 5 pm PST.

Schedule Early

There is still time to reserve terminals and build online pages for event registration and year-end donations.