Creatively Maximize Your Live Auction Proceeds

We have in our fundraising arsenal an extra-revenue-generating game called “Best of Live.”  During the silent auction, chances are sold to guests for $100 each. A winner is drawn prior to the live auction and that person is allowed to choose any item from the live auction line-up before the live auction begins.  This is a hugely successful activity that many times brings in much more revenue than the item chosen would have sold for during the live auction.

I had a client question whether they should exclude one particularly desirable live auction item from “Best of Live. “ We discussed that this high-end item may be the reason their guests choose to participate in this activity to begin with. If that item is excluded they may not have the participation that they had hoped for. I shared with the client that the winners of “Best of Live” choose items they have a particular interest in and many times that item is not necessarily the most expensive one in the live auction line-up.  The majority of the time, your organization will make more money on the sale of the “Best of Live” chances than you would on the sale of the item were it not chosen for “Best of Live.”

Is there a time to exclude an item from the “Best of Live” line up?  Yes, there is. In a situation where a client had one item with a value of $10,000 I recommended they exclude it from “Best of Live. “ This group would have most likely been unable to sell enough chances to top what this item would bring during the live auction.  We made sure all the guests who chose to participate were informed about this exclusion by the volunteer salespersons when the guests purchased their chances. I also included mention of the exclusion when making my auctioneer announcements during the silent auction. We made every effort to make sure the participants knew prior to their purchase of a “Best of Live” chance that this item was not part of the game. That's key to keeping everybody happy in this situation. 

Extra-revenue generating activities are a fun way to get every guest involved at your fundraising auction (and raise more money!) and I recommend the use of them at each event.

*Be sure to check your state’s gaming laws to make sure you are in compliance.

Make every minute a revenue generating minute!