Collecting high-impact items for your auction

The first step for a successful auction is gathering a collection of high-impact items that will engage your donor base and raise a lot of money. Remember that both quality and quantity matter! While the types of items that resonate with your donors will vary based on your community, there are some general best practices to consider when gathering items for your auction.

Range of price points

It is important to have a range of items at various price levels for people to bid on that match their budgets. You want to have at least a few marquee items with a value over $500 (ideally 20%+ of your items would be in this category). Then the core of your auction items (ideally 40%-50%) would be mid-range: $200-$500. Finally, you want to have a healthy anchor of accessibly priced items ($30-40%) that are in the <$200 range. Every auction is different, but if you are starting from scratch collecting items, this is a good general guideline.

Engage Local Businesses

Local businesses are a great place to engage for requesting donated items as they often want to support their community and can benefit from the marketing of their items in your auction! From local restaurants, to golf courses, retailers, spas and hotels, thoughtfully engaging your local community is the ideal place to start building your successful auction.

Featured Experiences

Experiences are the top performing category across all of our auctions. Whether it is a destination trip or vacation home, golf foursome at a premier golf course, group wine tasting a vineyard, staycation at a local hotel or chefs table at a top restaurant, buzz-worthy experiences can help take your auction to the next level.

Services

While experiences are the top performing auction items, practical services are easy to justify for donors on a budget. Tax return services, massage therapy, yard-work, photography, landscaping, tennis lessons and even babysitting can be great categories to explore when building your auction list. The items that everyone needs will get a lot of activity.

Creatively Combine and Upsell

A gift-card to a local restaurant and certificate for a few hours of babysitting are each great on their own, but combined as “a night out on the town for parents” their value increases dramatically! Or say a local store offers a gift-card – with a little extra work that item can become a “private after-hours shopping experience with a complimentary bottle of champagne!”

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