Dogs Out Loud / CASA Webinar Silent Auction December 10, 2014
Agenda About DOL Me Tails Under the Stars Anatomy of the Silent Auction Promotion Event Attendees / Bidders Donors Thank You Materials Silent Auction Tips What Sold Well Brainstorming Ideas To Get Started Appendix Examples of Materials
About DOL
About Me Volunteer History: Development Coordinator with Dogs Out Loud since February 2014 One big event under my belt Tails Under the Stars, October 2014 Volunteer with Dogs Out Loud since September 2013 Volunteer with Rescue in Austin since June 2008 Day Job: Sales & Business Operations Manager for Legal Sales Organization 122 Team Members, 707 Firms, $206.1M Revenue Business
About Tails Under the Stars 2 nd Annual Raise awareness about the big, beautiful canine lives this organization was founded to save. We are seeking a home of our own so we can help more of these special dogs go on to find their homes. We raised over $17K this year
Anatomy of the Silent Auction Promotion DOL Website DOL FaceBook Tails Under the Stars Website Sponsor Board at Event Austin 360 Thank Yous Event Volunteers Setting Up Opening Auction Closing Out Follow-Up Attendees / Bidders VIP Table The more the merrier Range of Spenders Of 200 attendees, we had 59 Bidders Of 59 Bidders and 58 Items, we had 34 Winners Donors Draft a List of Who to Ask - Local Businesses (78%) - Out of Town Businesses (19%) - Friends/Family (3% / but 50% of above) Contact Potential Donors - Email (68%) - Visit Business (20%) - Phone Calls (12%) Of 108 Contacts, We had 59 Donations Thank You Email Card Other Materials Email Template Donation Form Bid Sheets Bid Numbers Donor, Donation Thank You, Item, & Bid Tracking Auction Invoice Display / Descriptions Thank You Email Template Thank You Cards Tables Pens Calculator Laptop
Silent Auction Tips What Sold Well Know your audience we had a variety of guest and so we had a variety of items ($16 -$3,000 Retail Value) Unique Items: Both sold for over value and raised a lot of hype Largest $ Sale: $2,750 Vacation Home Smallest $ Sale: $10 Jewelry and Bird House Sold for Over Value: 2 Unique Items, 1 Jewelry, 2 Pet Gift Baskets, 3 Restaurant Gift Cards and 1 Entertainment Gift Card Sold for Under Value > $100: Both Vacation Homes, 2 Professional Services and 2 Pet Services Sold at Value > $5: 3 Pet Services, 2 Jewelry and 2 Restaurant Gift Cards Consider slashing minimum bid at the end of the evening for items that haven t received any interest Vacation Homes (46% of donations / 47% of sold) Pet Related Items (24% of items donations / 25% of sold) Food & Wine (10% of donations / 10% of sold) Entertainment (7% of donations / 8% of sold) Fitness (7% of donations / 4% of sold) Professional Services (7% of donations / 3% of sold) Jewelry (2% of donations / 2% of sold) Other (1% of donations / 1 % of sold) Brainstorming It may take you a few years to make your Silent Auction a success. I believe we doubled our silent auction earnings between year 1 and 2. Get volunteers, family and friends to brainstorm either in person or over email Divide up who will contact who for donations. You can even make it a friendly competition to see who can bring in the biggest donor Ask nation-wide and local business, friends/family that have side business, vacation homes, or unique talents they can offer up Don t be afraid to ask for exactly what you want Keep in mind the amount of space you ll have to display items and consider lumping small donations together to create a higher valued gift basket Ideas To Get Started Restaurants: Gift cards, kitchen tour, or a chef hosted dinner. Entertainment Venue: Tickets to an event, behind the scenes tour, lunch with a director, or a private performance Sports: season tickets or autographed memorabilia Wine: Winery tours or vintage bottles of wine Hobbies: Cooking class, photography, art, kayaking Who Do You Know: Dinner with a newscaster, shadowing your vet, or a nature walk with a ranger
Appendix
Email Template I recommend moving your ask to the top or near the top of your email to be consistent with Pyramid Style Communication.
Include in Email Request Donation Form
Bid Sheets & Bid Numbers I suggest printing on Receipt Paper so there s a copy for your winning bidder and using a nice background paper to display your bid sheets on (like your organizations logo colors). Minimum Bid: 40% of Value Bid Increments: 10% of Value Buy It Now: 150% of Value We wrote on blank business cards for bid numbers. I suggest printing them out beforehand so they are ready to hand out.
Donor, Donation Thank You, Item & Bid Tracking I used Excel Spreadsheets and had a laptop in hand the night of the event. You can use pen and paper, but it creates more work after the event. The more detail you capture, the better, especially if you end up having to follow-up with winners after the event.
I suggest filling in Item #, Description & Value before the event. You can also print these on receipt paper so both you and winning bidder have a copy. Auction Invoice
Display Descriptions Some donors will provide their own displays, while some donations will be the display (i.e.. gift baskets), but for the rest, I created my own by going to the donors Website
Thank Yous I suggest sending out Thank Yous as soon as possible. You can also use them as a way to invite donors to the event. We have DOL Thank You Cards, but any handwritten Thank You will do.