Luxe for Less: How to Offer Luxury Auction Items at Your Next Fundraiser
What Makes a Good Silent Auction Item
Knowing what items will be good for your nonprofit silent auction is important. The right silent auction items can make a huge difference at your next nonprofit fundraising event to keep your guests engaged and to increase the amount of money you raise.
Variety of Price Points
Not all of your silent auction items should be the same cost. It’s important to have a variety of price points for your silent auction items. You’ll want a few less expensive items for guests or volunteers who might be attending who are interested in supporting but may not be able to afford the big-ticket items. You’ll also want some items priced in the middle, which encourages people to bid on multiple items rather than just picking one large possibility. Finally, make sure you have several big-ticket items that allow your highest-level donors to make a significant contribution—these items will also help drive buzz and interest for the event.
Exclusive and Unique Silent Auction Items are Important
Just because an item is worth a lot of money doesn’t make it a good silent auction item. The best silent auction items are exclusive and unique. Try to find things that are limited edition releases, not offered on the public market, or specially created just for your event. These kinds of items drive people to bid as they have a sense of urgency—if your guest doesn’t get it at your event, they may never have another chance! Consider partnering with one of your corporate sponsors to create something exclusively for your event to capture this energy.
Experiences Will Thrill Your Fundraising Event Guests
Another way to find great exclusive silent auction items is to focus on experiences. Look for behind-the-scenes opportunities for your guests to do something no one else gets to—maybe that’s a meet-and-greet with a local celebrity at a show, a behind-the-scenes tour of a famous local building, a home-cooked meal for a group by a famous chef, or access to a company’s box for a sporting event. Special, unique experiences that your guests can’t get anywhere else are a great way to drive interest at your nonprofit silent auction and to thrill your attendees with exciting opportunities. They’ll be bragging about the chance to do these things to friends for months!
Reach out to your corporate partners and local institutions to see if there are opportunities with them. Many of your corporate executives and board members may be involved in other business ventures or organizations that could provide unique opportunities to you—they are a great resource to ask for ideas and to pitch concepts to.
How to Get the Best Luxury Silent Auction Items
Finding good silent auction items can be challenging, especially when you are looking for luxury silent auction items to thrill your guests. Thankfully, there are a few strategies you can use to find luxury auction items for less at your next nonprofit fundraising event.
Ask Around
One of the best resources for luxury silent auction items are your existing partners! Consider bringing it up in conversations with volunteers or corporate partners as well as asking your staff for ideas. You’d be surprised who knows someone or has a connection with a unique opportunity. You don’t know unless you ask!
Don’t Ignore Your Board of Directors and High-Level Donors
Your board of directors are a key resource in this area, too. Ask your board and some of your high-level donors for help finding some auction items. You can provide them with examples, like the below email template for soliciting luxury auction items.
Package Up Items Together
Sometimes the best way to offer luxury auction items at your silent auction is by obtaining items one at a time. Consider approaching multiple businesses or donors to build a meaningful package by pairing a few goods with an experience or rounding out an offering. They don’t need to all come from the same place!
Consider Reaching Out to a Local Celebrity
If you have a local celebrity that is fond of your cause, consider reaching out to them to see if they may be willing to donate items or experiences themselves or even make a connection to someone who might. These key contacts should only be tapped occasionally, but your silent auction event can be a great time to honor them and make use of their connections for an excellent event.
Silent Auction Item Mistakes to Avoid
While silent auctions are a great way to raise money, it’s important to avoid key mistakes as you’re putting together your silent auction item list.
Making It Difficult to Bid
Your silent auction should be a fun, carefree event. Make sure that bidding is easy and convenient with effective mobile bidding software so guests can monitor, bid, and check out items from their smartphones. Tools like iBid can streamline your guests’ experience and make it even easier for them to participate. Below are features that iBid includes to make bidding easy for guests.
Focusing on Quantity of Silent Auction Items over Quality
More is not always better when it comes to silent auction items. While you want to aim for around 1 to 1.5 items per bidder, too many items (especially lower-value items) will discourage people from bidding and dampen the excitement around your event. If most items had few bids last year, consider finding items that are of higher quality and putting less items in your silent auction to encourage more bidding.
Only Getting the Low-Hanging Fruit Auction Items
While some of the easier to obtain auction items can be helpful for filling out your list, beware of having only simple items like restaurant gift cards or small gift baskets. Spend some time thinking of creative auction items and talking to partners to try to find unique experiences—because the final outcome is unclear, it will be more work, but the quality and special nature of the items you can create with this extra level of creativity and effort will be more than worth it. Try to think of what you would be excited about as a guest if you were to attend an event. The experiences that feel like once-in-a-lifetime opportunities or something that you’d be talking about for months afterwards are the kinds of things that will stick out in the mind of your guests.
Only Getting Auction Items that Appeal to You or Your Team
One danger when planning a nonprofit silent auction event is when your team gets too close to the event in the planning. If you have a team that all knows each other very well and have similar interests, you may end up with a silent auction filled with items that only appeal to you—leaving out some of your guests. One way to avoid this is to have a volunteer committee that includes several volunteers or partners of your organization who can help brainstorm ideas for auction items or other parts of the event. You’ll be glad to see the variety of items and the broad appeal your event will have.
Auction Items that Contradict Your Mission
Another mistake to avoid is offering items that contradict your mission as an organization. This isn’t often an issue, but think through items before you offer them—for an organization focused on addiction recovery and support, you’ll want to avoid items that glorify excessive alcohol or other substance use. For an animal-focused organization, you’d want to make sure any beauty items or experiences are cruelty-free. The list goes on, but make sure you and your team consider this angle with any items you offer.
The Best Strategy for Luxury Silent Auction Items
Whenever you are building a lineup of silent auction items for your next nonprofit event, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to obtain items and that you ask around broadly to find the best possible options. Leverage your networks and do your research to find items and experiences that would be a good fit. You’ll see a serious impact on the energy at your nonprofit fundraising event and the money raised for your cause.
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