The document provides tips for obtaining quality items for fundraising auctions, including recruiting effective donation procurement committee members, targeting donations from businesses connected to the organization and its members, focusing on unique live auction experiences rather than generic items, and avoiding donations that are unlikely to appeal to bidders or sell for much.

1. Obtaining Quality Items For
Your Fundraising Auction
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4. Today’s Take-Aways
• Learn how to recruit effective members to your auction donation
procurement committee
• Understand the items to target for your live and silent auction
• Understand the different ways to procure high quality auction items
• Find out which items should be avoided in your auction item donation
campaign

5. Recruit effective members to your auction donation
procurement committee
• Don’t be afraid to recruit a busy person. Busy people are busy because
they are accomplishing things. These are the people you want involved.
• Target successful salespeople for your committee. Successful sales people
are skilled at convincing people to understand their viewpoint and are
usually well connected.
• Successful business people should be recruited to your committee. They
know how to get things done, know other business owners and will be
valuable in accomplishing the committee’s efforts.
• Try to recruit people who have been involved with successful fundraising
events. They are energized from participating in successful event(s) and
will bring experience and fresh ideas to the table.
• Avoid people who are negative or argumentative at all costs. These people
will disrupt your committee from accomplishing its goals.

6. Auction donation sub-committee chairs, set the
expectations, plan the work and work the plan!
• Set a clear and understandable agenda and take detailed notes at every
meeting.
• Involve the entire committee in developing a plan to solicit donations.
• Set clear goals for what items will be targeted for procurement.
• Receive commitments from individual members, for which activities each
committee member will be responsible for during the campaign.
• At the beginning of each meeting, review the meeting notes from the prior
meeting and discuss the goals of the current meeting. Discuss areas of
progress and do not avoid areas that need additional attention.

7. Auction donation sub-committee chairs, set the
expectations, plan the work and work the plan!
• Stay on a pre-determined meeting schedule and remain committed to it.
• Recognize the endeavors of every person who’s involved. Understand that
every committee member has a different skill set. As volunteers, the
amount of time they can commit and their accomplishments will vary.
• In a polite and professional way, keep your meetings on target. This will
ensure people’s time is utilized effectively and shows that you value and
respect your committee members’ time.

8. Sources of Auction Donations
• Members of your board of directors, their professional contacts and friends
• Businesses that support your organization, their professional contacts and
employees
• Your auction committee members, their friends, professional contacts and
vendors that they personally utilize
• Employees of your non-profit organization
• Vendors who do business with your non-profit organization are a great
source of auction donations i.e. insurance agent, oil company, bank/
financial institution, attorney, electrician, plumber, painter, etc.

9. Sources of Auction Donations
• Professional sports teams • Locally owned appliance stores
• Major airlines • Big box stores
• Fine hotels & restaurants • Flight schools
• Movie studios • Limo companies
• Celebrities • Theatre production companies
• Distilleries, wineries, breweries • Television stations
• Exclusive golf courses • Orchestras
• Politicians • More…

10. Methods of Obtaining Auction Donations
• Business people recognize opportunity. They benefit from their donation
and the recognition of a captive audience that’s engaged in a cause they
support.
• Auction donation solicitation committees must develop a standardized
information package that describes the mission of the organization, the gala
auction event, anticipated demographics of and estimated number of
attendees. The information must tactfully explain “what’s in it” for the
donors.
• For additional credibility, and ease of access, donor information packages
should be listed on the non-profit organization’s web site.
• Six degrees of separation… don’t just focus on who you know, explore who
in your support team knows who. You’ll quickly discover that your
organization has an incredible number of contacts who are capable of
making great donations.

11. Methods of Obtaining Auction Donations
• The ask. Tried and true method of face to face contact. The best time to
ask a business for a donation is when you are doing business with them
i.e.: when you are out to eat at a fine restaurant or staying at a quality hotel.
• A well written solicitation letter is an effective way to solicit donations. In
concise terms explain the mission of your organization and the goals of your
gala auction event. Letters should be sent 90 days before your event. Try
to personalize each letter as much as possible and be sure to specify
exactly what you are asking for. Be sure to ask for quality donations. Aim
high and you will always get better results. Be sure to include a copy of
include your non-profit finding letter from the IRS, most donors will require it.
• Many donors will accept donation requests only on the Internet. Time spent
on the search engines looking for “charitable giving” or “charitable requests”
from major companies is time well spent. A computer savvy volunteer can
often find and submit requests to dozens of potential donors in a single day.

12. Auction Donations You Should Avoid
• Donations of personal services i.e. dental cleanings, will services from
attorneys, and CPA services generally do not do well. Most people have
already chosen the professional(s) they prefer and will not go outside of
their comfort zone. Net effect = low bids.
• Most jewelry donations do not do well. Everyone has their own distinct
taste. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Generally speaking the only
jewelry items that sell well are generic quality items such as diamond stud
earrings, tennis bracelets and high quality pearl necklaces.
• Artwork is a difficult sell in a general audience. Unless your audience is
comprised of art enthusiasts for a specific type of artwork that is donated,
artwork is almost always a bust at benefit auctions.

13. Silent Auction Donations
• Silent auction items typically consist of lower value items such as museum
passes and restaurant gift certificates.
• A range of items should be targeted that are interesting to and affordable for
a family of average means.
• Donations can be combined into desirable auction “packages”
e.g. multiple restaurant gift certificates, arts & crafts, movie theme and etc.
• Consider purchasing and combining items into baskets to create a nice
presentation. We’ve seen this method used successfully in several auctions.
Good presentation = increased value perception.
• The total number of silent auction “packages” should be limited to 40-60 in
total

14. Live Auction Donations
• Live Auction items are high value items that generally consist of unique trips
and experiences. It should be difficult to estimate the value because of the
uniqueness of the item. We like to refer to them as “blue sky” items.
• Regular items can be “supercharged” into experiences capable of
commanding thousands of dollars. For example, a round of golf for 4 at an
exclusive club is great, but a round of golf for 4 at exclusive club with the
mayor, a sports anchor or influential business leader takes a golf outing to a
whole new level.
• Donations can be combined to make valuable live auction packages. For
example, dinner at a nice restaurant, a high quality hotel stay, limo ride and
great seats at a professional baseball game with parking passes makes a
great weekend away for an affluent couple!

15. Live Auction Donations
• Dinner for 10, prepared at the winning bidder’s home by a professional chef,
always does well in a live auction
• Private wine tastings with a sommelier and high quality wine is a great live
auction item that can be arranged with relative ease.
• Unique, high end sports memorabilia and experiences are a great option for
a highly successful city of sports enthusiasts such as Boston. We’ve seen
donations such as Zamboni rides, on field pre-game batting practice
passes, sideline passes and courtside seats donated by major sports teams
and affluent business people with great connections.

16. Consignment Items
• Consignment items can be appropriate if your organization is capable of
drawing “high rollers”, but has not received the high quality donation
necessary to satisfy them.
• Consignment items should be carefully considered and be appealing to the
general audience of your event.
• A few sports consignment items can be a good addition to “spice up” your
silent auction, so long as your event draws deep enough pockets to buy the
items at a net profit to your organization.

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