This blog lives!

Hi everyone,

I'm amazed and delighed to see that this blog is still getting some traffic, although I have been ignoring it for quite a while.

This year, I'm chairing a Rotary Club auction, and have told the crew at RGMS that I'm up for co-chairing one again this year.

I'll start posting again; I have more to say.

Roger

Reviving the blog

I don't (quite) have a new auction-chair gig this year - although there's a possibility.

In the meantime, I'm going to open this blog up to my friend Lisa Shippy - she's also an amazing auction expert, and may have a little more time to post.

The Day After

Whoof.  We had a lovely time, and raised more money than I expected.  Well, more than I expected earlier this week.  We were hoping for a late ticket-sales surge, and pulled out a bunch of stops to try and make it happen... but it didn't.  In the end, we had 94 guests (63 bid numbers) - and we were missing 4 of 5 of our most-involved families, who had other commitments.  Argh.

But, we had good stuff for sale, and excellent food, and a great auctioneer, and we made the best of it.

So, what's next, for this fundraiser, and for this blog?

For RGMS, I am going to take the items that came in late, and the ones I held back, and launch an online auction in a week or two.  We'll get those heavy hitters who missed the event yet.

For the blog; I'm going to use it generally to talk about some topics that may be of interest to auction chairs - how to set up will-call, say.  I have definite opinions on that.  And procurement.  Look for a post on that next.

What to do, what to do

I just got a really great donation from a frozen-yogurt shop that opened up last year in our neighborhood.  They are local-only: two shops in the world, one down the street - one about 5 miles away.  They sent a card good for Free Yogurt for a Year - one 12-oz. yogurt per week for 52 weeks.  Fair market value: $250.

The question is - can this sell in the Live Auction?  It's betwixt and between the Silent and Live in my mind.

Thoughts?

Venue Resolution

We're staying at the place we originally booked, after lengthy debate.  This is a little disappointing to me, not in that I dislike the building, which I believe is a lovely place to have an auction. No, it's because this effectively caps our attendance at a level lower than I was shooting for.

I had hopes we could raise the attendance and thus raise the number of silent auction items (I always aim for the number of items to be 80-85% of the number of bidder numbers, so as to promote competition). But my aspirations have been met with some resistance from the parents on my team who have been at the school longer.  They claim our school doesn't really have a lot of people who come and bid, not a lot of parents with money; its a middle school and not an elementary, etc.

It's the tyranny of low expectations - too often in a situation like this, you perform down to the expectations, rather than exceeding them.  I really think this is the wrong way to go with a fundraiser - especially one that is as local in nature as a school auction.  This is last type of philanthropy people give up when they cut back - the giving that directly affects their community (and their kids!).

But I'm one voice out of several.  I now turn my attention to making sure we exceed these expectations, within the limitations of the ticket count available to us.

Another quick donation

Here's another easy donation you can get for your school auction from the comfort of your home office.

http://community.tenmarks.com/

This is a link to a form you can fill out to get a donation of a one-year subscription to their online math-tutoring service.  Very cool.  Thanks, TenMarks!

Venue headaches

This school has traditionally held its auction at one of the local arts centers.  It's a lovely old building, and a great choice.  I reserved it for our event back in the fall.

I wanted to swing by today to talk to the event manager about set-up; I'd put this off for a couple of months because a) I had attended auctions there before, and b) well, life has been throwing other stuff in my way. Sue me, I'm a volunteer.

Anyway, it became clear today that our event is likely going to need more space than they have available for us. The room where we would normally put the silent auction is available, but not until 6:30 that night.  It has enough room to seat the number of people we had at the last auction (in 2009), but I'd like to increase the attendance and think I can.

So, I'm considering alternatives.  More news as it breaks...

The donations come rolling in

It's been an... eventful couple of months. I have not blogged as often as I should.  I will do better now, I promise.

My first mailing, of 75 or so letters, went out in late January.  Which is much later than I intended.  But I must be livin' clean or something, since the donations have been coming back fast and furious.  I've entered some of what I have received into our school auction website - go see what I've received so far (click the "Catalog" link at the top of that page.)

The mind-blowing discovery of the week came when I found this company: Versaic (here is their client list, and here is a shorter, even more partial version of the client list, but one with links to the company pages.

Versaic provides online donation-request forms and sponsorship-request forms for various national companies. Which makes them very useful to auction chairs like me.

Holiday Leftovers?

Earlier this week, I saw a great Facebook post from one of my customers, inviting her friends and followers to contribute "duplicate" gifts from the holiday season to their fundraising auction.  What a great idea - I just stole it and emailed the RGMS parent list with this:

--------------------

Hello fellow RGMS parents,

You'll hear much more about this in the weeks to come, but this spring (April 8th to be exact) the RGMS Foundation and PTA will be hosting a fabulous, fun, fundraising auction, to raise money for  new computers and arts education at our school.

There are ample opportunities to help, but for the moment, I want to point out that any holiday gifts that you received that 

a) don't match your home decor, 

b) are duplicates of cool things your kids (or you!) already had one of, or 

c) are designed to encourage you to pursue pursuits you are no longer physically up for (as with me and those rollerblades a few years back) 

might make lovely items to include in our silent auction. (New stuff only, please - and no fruitcakes, please!)

So while you have your computer booted, and are thinking about this, click here:

https://rgms.schoolauction.net/2011/donate_items/new

...and let us know what you can contribute to the cause.  

Thanks!

----------------------------

More on how well this works as the season progresses...

Time to mail?

Wow.  It's been a while.  I've had my head down, teaching at Portland State University and dealing with the crush of the fall auction season at SchoolAuction.net.

But, I have the letterhead for my mailing, and my list, and it's time to get those letters in the mail.

Or is it?  On the one hand, getting them there before the end of the year allows businesses to send off donations in this tax year if they wish.  On the other, the Holiday Season has begun.

Your thoughts?  Experiences?  Should I wait until January?

Interesting procurement opportunity

Had a conversation today with a guy named Scott Merrin.  He's got a great story - for years he was The Guy at American Airlines who got all of the letters from auction chairs, asking for donated tickets.  He made the decision who got a donation, and who didn't.  And he saw a whole lot of mediocre letters, from chairs who had no real understanding of why he would choose one request over another. Plus a few really good ones, from savvy chairs who did.

He doesn't do that job anymore.  He's an entrepreneur now, running a company called Silent Partners.  He has a huge database of people in the kind of job he used to have.  And he knows what makes a great procurement letter.  And (for a fee) he will send letters on our letterhead, over my name, to his database.

Interesting...

Next up: Credit-Card Processing Account

What am I working on now?

Credit-card processing.  It's vital; people just spend more if they know they can put it on a card.  Bidding goes higher in the live; people signup for more easel-parties, etc. PLUS, it lets us sell tickets online (when coupled with our SchoolAuction.net website) and we can use it throughout the year for things like selling Chinook Books, etc.

And something I know to be true: we can use pretty much any bank we want.  There are specialized services designed to just provide credit-card processing services to fundraising auctions; the biggest such player (Greater Giving/Auctionpay) has their offices just a few miles down the highway from us. There's another one in Minnesota. But like any middleman/specialty reseller of services, these companies mark up the fees, by any where from 1 to 2% (the underlying bank fees range from 1.74%-2.5%, based on a whole bunch of qualifications.)  In return, they give you an "express pay" service - you can have guests swipe their card when they check in at the beginning of the night, and then if they don't want to wait in a line at check out, they can just leave, and you can charge them later.

But you know what? There really isn't a need anymore for these specialized resellers.  There are many, many "regular" merchant-processing banks that are willing to compete for non-profit accounts - even PTAs. Couple that with an Internet Payment Gateway, and I can integrate it into our auction software to provide for swiping at check-in (the "express pay" option), and thus, a quick and easy check-out on auction night. And if I skip the specialized reseller, then I can get away with paying about half the processing charges. Woo hoo!

So, I have an application sitting in my inbox, from a local company, and I'm going to get that filled out (with the PTA Treasurer's help) in the next day or two.  The rates are reasonable (interchange plus 0.35%) and the service is great, and it's going to work well.

A Date, A Venue, An Announcement

Much of the planning for our auction has been suspended for the past two weeks, while the PTA and Foundation wrapped up the Fall Fundraiser (a Fun Run) and I negotiated a date with our preferred venue.

I'm delighted to report that the negotiations (and the Fun Run, for that matter) are finished. Our auction is going to be on April 8th, at the Multnomah Arts Center. Yay! Now I just have to call the auctioneer back to see if he is available on that day (pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease!)

And the PTA sent out an announcement yesterday that it is on. So that's good.

Checking In

Anyone who has ever chaired an auction will understand, when I apologize for not blogging for almost a week and explain why.

We're in a little bit of flux, regarding dates (the calendar was already almost full before I ever volunteered to do this), and the venue (there is a preferred venue whose calendar for next spring has very few available dates).  I think I have an auctioneer, but I've only confirmed him for one of the possible dates (which works on the school calendar, but not at the preferred venue).

Problems like these can make a person crazy, but there are many more crazy-making opportunities ahead of me. So I choose to see it as just the current challenge.  Auction chairs, like any managers, must take these in stride.

Another way to handle procurement

Today, out in North Carolina, the Garris Chapel Church is holding their all-day fundraiser and silent auction. They are using SchoolAuction.net to manage it, and as such I've had occasion to talk to the chair a few times about the event.

What they do, that I have never seen another group do, is they ask all of the attendees to bring items for the silent auction with them when they show up at the event. They enter the items in the database at the same time they check in the guests, print bid sheets for the items on the spot, and put the items out on the table then for bidding.  They don't really know how many items they will have in the silent auction until it is almost over (due to late arrivals), but they also don't send out procurement letters or knock on doors.

I thought that was a pretty interesting idea. I'm not going to use it this year myself, but can see using it with a future event.

Thursdays, Saturdays and an Auctioneer

We may have a date.

The PTA Board voted for March 12th - a Saturday.  I had recommended March 10th, but primarily on the grounds that, this late in the game, I knew we would have problems booking an auctioneer, caterer and a venue on a Saturday night in the middle of the spring auction season.

And sure enough, one auctioneer just laughed at me when I asked her about her availability on the 12th.  But another auctioneer here in town, who I like a lot, does have an opening.  I'm talking to him later today.  And to the preferred venue - lets keep our fingers crossed.

I still like the idea of Thursdays - the conventional wisdom is that a Thursday event is less of a party than a Saturday event would be.  But I've seen a few Thursday school auctions and they have all been great successes, so it isn't Destiny that a Thursday event will be a dud.  And the costs are lower (several venues around here will donate a Thursday night to a school for an auction). But hey, these things are group decisions, and as long as we can make it work, I don't need to be a rebel.

On Signup Parties (aka Socials, Easel Parties, Pay-to-Plays, etc.)

As mentioned in an earlier post, there will be signup parties at this auction.

What's a signup party? Here's an example. Mike and Rebecca (parents of a sophomore at Hypothetical High School) decide that, as their contribution to the HHS auction, they are willing to host 12 people at their house on the day of the Kentucky Derby, and serve these people mint juleps and fabulous tasty food. It's well-known in the HHS community that Mike and Rebecca's house features a patio with a spectacular view of the valley and a gorgeous garden, and Rebecca has an awfully sharp wit and so we KNOW that people are going to want to go to the party.

The Procurement Chair and Rebecca sit down to discuss the idea over a julep or two, and decide to charge $35 per person for the 12 slots.  The Procurement Chair takes a few pictures of the patio and the view and a mint julep, and enters the Kentucky Derby Bash as a Signup item into the auction software, with a quantity of 12, and a price of $35.

On the night of the auction, the Procurement Chair puts a signup sheet on a table, surrounds it with pictures of the patio, of  the mint julep, and of last year's winning horse.  Guests who want to attend write their names down, and at check-out, pay $35 for the slot.  After the event, the Auction Chair prints out a report with the names of the people who signed up, and Rebecca emails them to tell them how much fun the party is going to be, and when to show up.

The auction books $420 in contributions from that item alone ($35 x 12 guests), and everyone is happy.

Here's a link to another blog post on Socials, by a woman I met through the PTA Great Idea Bank website.

Thinking about The Team

I know I'm going to get a few questions after Tuesday on how much work this event is going to be for everyone else - it's nice that I'm volunteering my time, but who else is going to have to work on this, and how much? So I'm thinking about what other people I'll need. Here's a first crack:

1. Theme & Decorations Chair - I'll be frank; I'm not good at this.  I need someone visual, someone good at party planning.  I think I have this covered; the foundation chair said either she'd do this or get someone who can.  
2. Food and Drinks Chair - the foundation chair, again.  She has a catering background, and said this is easy for her to do.
3. Procurement helpers  - I'll take the lead on procurement - send the letters, take the phone calls, do the follow up, store the stuff. But two or three people who I could ask to make pick-ups would help. 
4. Ticket sales chair - I can do this if need be, but as a new parent at the school, I don't have too much of a base here.  If I can find someone to spearhead a sales effort at meetings and picnics and the like, that would help. We'll have online ticket-sales capability through the SchoolAuction.net software, so that helps.
5. Event-night workers - I'm going to pursue a volunteer-swap with one of the other area school auctions - their volunteers can work our event; ours will work theirs.  My general break-down for that swap-crew is 8 people total, for 6 hours each: 4 people for the front desk; 4 to be runners and will-call staff.  We'll need 5-6 more people to help with set-up on event day; that's probably a 4-hour committment. We'll all pitch in to clean up.
6. The rest: someone with a truck or van will be helpful to find, for event-day hauling. It might be nice to print a small program; I bet I can get my wife to help lay that out. I can handle sponsorship sales.

What do you think?  What am I leaving out?

Status Report on the RGMS Auction

Next Tuesday, the PTA has its first meeting. That will likely be the first time that many of the people in this school hear about my offer to chair an auction for this year.

It will be a little bit of a surprise; in the planning for this school year that went on last spring and over the summer, the PTA Board did not plan for an auction. They planned other activities and fundraisers, and one of the inevitable results of me showing up and offering to help out in this way is that I've made some work for those Board members - they will have to figure out how this will fit into the year.

So for now, the date is still unsettled; as is the question as to whether the money raised will go through the school's foundation or PTA. I don't have a theme yet, either. In the absence of that, I can't finish the procurement letter.

But it doesn't explain why I haven't STARTED the procurement letter. That would be simply due to procrastination.

Here's three links pertaining to writing a procurement letter:

• PTO Today's Fundraising Letter File Exchange
• A YouTube video from Red Apple Auctions on writing procurement letters
• Designing the Donation Letter

On Auctioneers

I talk to a lot of auction teams when they are just starting to make decisions regarding their events. Usually, I'm talking to them because they are wondering whether using SchoolAuction.net makes any sense for their team, and whether spending money on that will pay off.

My position on that is probably predictable. But perhaps not completely. Because I will tell auction teams that the first, best place to spend some money on your auction is not with software - it's hiring a professional benefit auctioneer. I will tell my prospects that if it comes down to either hiring an auctioneer, or subscribing to SchoolAuction.net, that they should go with a benfit auction specialist this year, and then next year, come back and add the software.

Here's why: benefit auctioneers make your organization money. A lot of money. It may look like their job is to smile, talk kinda fast and call out bid numbers. But folks, that is just the frosting on the cake.

The professional benefit auctioneers I see working for our customers are, in the end, a lot like psychologists, with a specialty in crowds. The best of them spend time during the months before your event getting to know your organization - understanding why people would support it. Then on the night of the event, they spend the couple of hours between the time the doors open and the time they take the stage to sell the Live Auction items working the crowd who has shown up - listening, watching, and talking with your guests to get a sense for, and help shape, their mood.

Then, when they take the stage, they assume control. By that point, they know pretty well how each item needs to be presented, where they can look for bids, and how far they can push the bidding. And they sell.

Which is really an important thing to understand. The purpose of a live auction is to sell the items, and raise the most money possible for the school or organization. It is important for them to do so within certain parameters - respect the mission, have fun - but in the end? It's sales in real time, on a high-wire.

And this is why going with an amateur is a mistake. It's easy enough to find someone who is willing to stand on stage in a tux. It's possible to find someone who can mimic "the chant" of an auctioneer. It's really hard to find an amateur who is willing to take the fiscal success of your live auction in their hands and know which live-sales techniques are appropriate given the behavior of the crowd in front of them.

So, I am an advocate for Benefit Auction Specialists. They deliver the very biggest bang for the buck in your auction budget.

But software is a close second. More on that sometime later.