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| Event Strategies |
Five Steps to Procurement Success
There is no doubt about it; an auction takes a lot of work and commitment on many levels. Soliciting items for both the live and silent portion of the auction, also called
procurement, is key to a profitable event. Putting together a powerful procurement team can help ensure success in securing donations and meeting event revenue goals. Whether this team is professional staff or a volunteer committee the same ideas apply. Auctionpay walks you through five key steps that will help you succeed with your procurement process and ultimately your event fundraising.
Read the complete article online. |
Hosting a "Wish List" Party
Tips for Procurement
Procurement does not have to be intimidating. A great way to start is by hosting a "Wish List" party. Gather together the procurement team, board members and staff to brainstorm about items to procure for your event.
Things to remember when making a "Wish List":
- Brainstorm hot items
- Identify items the group would buy
- Take ideas from other events
- Don’t rule out the unusual
- Reach for the sky
- Committee’s network: 6 degrees of separation
When the list is complete, then begin matching the items with people charged with soliciting them. For best results, arm your procurement team with procurement forms, procurement letters (or emails), and remind them as they are out and about to look over the "Wish List".
Read the complete article online. |
| Auctionpay Product Update |
 Auctionpay Announces Auction Booster
Exciting, no risk travel packages available for your live and silent auction events. Auctionpay procures items, so you don't have to . . . Auctionpay offers Auction Booster travel packages that will generate interest and bidding excitement among guests at your next benefit auction. Best of all, Auction Booster is provided at no risk to your organization.
- Simply reserve any of the 25 available travel packages with no payment obligation
- Offer them as packages at your event
- After the auction, order only the packages that are sold -- Your organization keeps the proceeds -- the difference between the winning bid and the package cost.
Reduce time and effort on procurement by reserving Auction Booster travel packages at your next event. Check out Auction Booster for yourself. 
"We offered several Auction Booster packages at our annual event, and we were thrilled at how seamless the process was – it was truly a no-brainer. Not only did we not have to go and procure these wonderful travel packages ahead of time, we didn’t have to pay if they didn’t sell. Fortunately the packages were very popular and we were very pleased to have made a nice portion of our auction profits on these items. What a great idea, since we already work with Auctionpay as our payment processing system. It really made our lives easier."
Dana Gapusan, Auction Chair of PANDA-The Phoenix Women's Board of the Steele Children's Research Center
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| Auctionpay News |
Auctionpay Releases Auction Booster as a Service to Aid in Nonprofit Fundraising
Auctionpay now has an additional way to help its nonprofit clients’ fundraising with a new product called Auction Booster. Nonprofit organizations, including schools, can access exciting, no risk travel packages to sell at benefit auctions and events. Read the complete release online.
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Auctionpay is Named One of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in Oregon
Auctionpay recently announced that we were selected by The Business Journal of Portland as one of Oregon's 2006 Fastest Growing Private Companies. In this same announcement, Auctionpay released that we have processed over $400 million on behalf of schools and nonprofit organizations nationwide.
Read the complete release online.
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| Featured Client |
 Newport Elementary School Foundation
The Newport Elementary School Foundation of Newport Beach, CA, held their "Hula for Moola" event in April and offered Auction Booster for the first time. Auction Chairs Tori Rimlinger and Pine Smith were thrilled with how the high quality travel packages enhanced their auction offerings.
"We were very pleased with the overall results of our auction this year. We increased revenue by almost 25% over last year - and we really think that much of it was attributed to the buzz that was generated by Auction Booster. The travel packages really drew people to our event. We know of a few guests that came specifically because of the great trips we were offering. The service really exceeded our expectations." |
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| Auctionpay Client Services Corner |
Using Auctionpay Event Software to Jump Start Procurement
Auctionpay Event Software can be used in many ways to support your organization’s procurement process. Not only does the software track items, but also all donor and staff information. This data is valuable and can be used in a variety of ways.
- Create solicitation letters to send to previous donors. Include information on their donation from the past year. Suggesting the same donation, or ask for an ‘upgrade’ donation or another item.
- Send letters to past volunteers and staff asking them for five places they go on a weekly basis to shop or eat. Target these locations for soliciting donations -- share with them that you have many supporters who are loyal customers.
- Create a letter for a list of the highest bidders from the past year. Ask them what items they would love to see at the event this year. You might word it such as, "Thank you for being one of the valued supporters of our annual auction. We are currently starting the process of building this year’s auction catalog, we would like your feedback on what you would like to see at our auction." Just think, asking your bidders is like pre-selling the item and guaranteeing their attendance.
Tip submitted by Susie Rice, Event Services Account Manager, Auctionpay, Inc.
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