Online Auctions: Fundraising 24/7
Imagine an auction with doors that are open 24 hours a day, multiple times throughout the year. Every guest you invite attends your auction, because scheduling conflicts are never a problem. People flood through the doors, each bringing new, eager friends who have been waiting for this chance to take home the very items you are offering.
Because you’ve reached out to each guest personally, awareness of your cause swells and their affinity for your organization increases. The bids pile up, donors appear from out of the woodwork, and sponsors are bowled over by the visibility for their products and services. Each guest leaves with something exciting and makes a commitment to return to bid at the next auction. And it’s been so easy every step of the way, from set up to wrap up.
This isn’t your imagination; it’s the reality of online auctions. Bid by online bid, auction-based fundraising as you know it is being transformed.
An Exciting, Personalized Experience
With online auctions, it’s easy to give your bidders, donors and sponsors the personal attention they deserve, and they’ll love the chance to participate. The online format brings together items they covet, a cause they admire, and a process that’s hassle-free, along with a time clock and location of their own choosing. Wherever they are, as long as they’re online, visiting your auction website, your constituents can participate.
Organizations can use online auctions to lead into a live event or add online auctions as additional fundraising events throughout the year. Because online auctions are easy to create and the Internet relieves time and space constraints, you can create year-round events with no limitations. And an online auction service can help you customize a homepage, complete with sponsor links and information, as well as item previews and descriptions.
When Catholic Charities CYO of San Francisco, CA, opened their first online auction to celebrate their 20th anniversary, a once-wary audience became immediately enthusiastic. As Antoinette LeCouteur, Special Events Manager, explained, "The online auction allowed us to try something new with our traditionally older member base. Our members were fearful at first of having the auction online, but were pleasantly surprised at how easy and enjoyable the online bidding experience was. They also felt like they could contribute more to Catholic Charities through bidding."
Giving Everyone a Chance to Participate
Reaching out to your constituents online makes them feel as if you’ve connected with them personally. In an instant, your organization is no longer miles away; it’s on the computer screen an arm’s length away. Donna Sage, Development Director at The Summit School in Edgewater, Maryland, saw her school benefit from the phenomenon. The online auction format helped her school increase revenue by 20% in the second year of use. Sage maintains that the far-reaching power of the Internet is responsible for bringing in bids and expanding their constituency, which is comprised alumni and other supporters spread across the region.
As organizations make their auctions, and thus their organization, accessible by way of the Internet, bidders, donors and sponsors will not only be more likely to participate in your online and live events, but they’ll also get to know your organization. Their awareness of your cause will fuel an affinity for your organization, and that affinity will be expressed through participation, bids, donations, and, in the end, dollars. Kathleen Durepo of The National Kidney Foundation of New England, which raised over $45,000 with its first online auction, sums up, "This auction was a great way to raise money and promote ourselves to the community at large."
Life Made Easier for Volunteers and Staff
Online auctions are convenient, integrated and flexible. They make it easier, from start to finish, for the people running the event.
"The introduction of an online auction to our annual fundraiser, BRAVO!, was hailed by staff, board and participants alike as the best event ever," said Stephen Maddox, Development Director of Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, CA. "The implementation of an online silent auction made the day-of fundraiser run much more smoothly, allowing for more one-on-one interaction with our patrons and donors. We were able to go to the floor with live auction items with significant opening bids as the result of weeks of online promotion."
Online auction tools, like an effective homepage, powerful email communications and refer-a-friend features, can streamline tasks and reduce effort. Consider this alternative to attracting new participants, for instance. An online auction attendee sees the an item offered for bid that would be perfect for someone they know. At a live event, they wouldn’t be able to run out and grab that someone to bid on that perfect item. But online, spreading the word is easy via email. Bidders need simply to pass along your auction link via email to others, anywhere, who can access your auction at will. With no added responsibility for the auction team itself, new participants, potential donors, and future sponsors can take part in your virtual auction.
As guests enter your auction site, you can enter them in your online address book. You can leverage that address book immediately and on an ongoing basis, tailoring and adding as you go, like Sage did for The Summit School. "The second year of the auctions was even easier," she recalls, "because all the information and emails were still in the system and I could simply add more."
Sponsors Get a Return on Their Investment
Like your online auction guests, sponsors come away with an exciting reward: more bang for their marketing buck. Just show a sponsor a lengthy email address list of qualified donors along with your schedule of planned communications, and you’re bound to increase sponsorship because you’re helping your sponsors increase their reach in a very positive way.
Sponsors receive great marketing exposure from the auction homepage, email communications, and item descriptions (every online description of donated catalog items include the company’s name, logo, and web address), which have a much greater reach and impact than traditional communications. In fact, twenty percent of the organizations surveyed regarding inline auctions said they secured more sponsors as a result of adding sponsor messages to their online auctions.
With the ability to offer sponsors significant visibility, it’s much easier to enlist their help. Junior Achievement of Akron knows from experience. Emily B. Kilgore, Special Events Manager, said, "Adding my title sponsor to the banner on the home page and every email truly increased their perceived value of our event. As a result they have increased their donation for next year!"
Online auctions provide more opportunities to fundraise to more donors and potential donors. They also deliver more opportunities to recruit and retain sponsors. To find out more, click here.