June 10, 2016 Items Guaranteed to Rock Your Live Auction
Nonprofits often ask me what sells best in a live auction at fundraising events. The simple answer is this – if you can buy it at Wal-Mart, it doesn’t belong in the live auction. What does belong are trips, experiences and alcohol-related packages. One easy live auction package you can build is a wine package. We worked with a local nonprofit who built these type of packages.
Here’s how to do it:
- Designate a person on your auction committee who enjoys wine and knows folks. Set a goal for the volunteer to collect $600 in cash/check donations from various people (we suggest asking for $100 donations from 6 people but you may need to collect smaller amounts). Be sure to offer the donors a donation form for their contribution for their tax purposes.
- Identify a wine store in your area who will work with you to build these packages. Tell them what your budget is and what type wine package(s) you would like to build. In this case, the wine store discounted the price of the wine so they were able to get more bang for their buck. See if you can get the wine vendor to make that happen.
- Presentation of these wine packages is key to helping generate the most revenue possible in the live auction. A wooden wine box that holds 12 bottles of wine is a great way to display this item. Ask the wine store (or a friend who enjoys wine) for one. The box is included with the wine to the winning bidder.
- We’ve had clients use one of two options when selling these packages. One client prepared a list of the wines included on an 8 ½ x 11 horizontal live auction item display so guests could see what wines they would be bidding on. Another option is to bypass the listing and instead sell a “surprise” wine package that can be listed as “Big Bold Reds” or “Imported Wines” or whatever catchy name you invent.
When a wine package of this type was sold at the local nonprofit auction it far exceeded the value of the wines and raised a lot of money for their mission. Wine packages can be built in many ways – use your imagination and/or talk to others to get ideas.
Make every minute a revenue generating minute!
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