Just a quick link to an awesome survey summary put out last week by Bidding for Good, the online charity auction giant: What Non-Profits and Online Bidders Say About Silent Auctions

1. It’s an 8-page PDF, so it’s easy for everyone to open, share and save.
2. It’s got tons of graphics, so it’s easy to scan and understand.
3. Lot’s of great takeaways; my highlights below:

• Bidding for Good has served 6700 charitable clients and has a bidder pool of 330,000. Clearly it’s a tested option with built-in buyers!
•  66% of events have a live auction – wise move for 2/3 of events; a higher ratio of dollars per minute raised than silent auctions
• ‎85-90% of attendees and orgs would like to have online registration – what service is your org using for online pre-registration?
•  67% of events report 100 or fewer silent auction items; yet even with that moderate size, 55-64% feel that’s too many. What do you find is the ideal number of silent auction items? Do you base it on guest count?
• Dining and unique experiences top the preferred auction items, confirming what we already knew.
• ‎50% of clients are “somewhat likely/very likely” to try text bidding this year. If that’s you, you can call Bidding for Good about their text bidding solution coming out, or check with other hand-held bidding providers IML or Qtego or BidPal.
  What do you think about the state of silent auctions? 
  Are the days of the traditional pen and paper over? Are you moving some or all of your silent auction items online? If so, what do you think of the results?
  Have you tried in-room hand-held bidding?
  Is anyone out there currently doing bar-code-sticker silent auctions?
  
  
  Tell us in the Comments. Oh, and share the results with your circle!