Benefit Auction Specialist (BAS)
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Since yesterday I mentioned the upcoming Benefit Auction Summit as a continuing education opportunity for professional fundraising auctioneers, I’ll share some of my takeaways from the two previous Summits.
2011-Baltimore
BOOTCAMP Alum Darron Meares shared (more…)
Today I shared a link with the elite auctioneer alumni from my BOOTCAMP for Benefit Auctioneers course. I keep in close contact with this group of professionals via a private Facebook group just for them. We share what’s working across the country at fundraisers and share our favorite techniques.
This morning I reminded them about the upcoming continuing education opportunity known as the 3rd Annual Benefit Auction Summit.
I was a presenter at the first Summit in 2010 in San Antonio, so I did interactive activities to put those auctioneers into your shoes as the non-profit liaison.
I asked them to imagine that – in addition to your regular full-time job – you’ve been put in charge of a black-tie event for 400 people, and if the event doesn’t net $100,000 you could lose your job.
Then I asked them…
Face-to-face meetings are a crucial part of my relationship with my clients when planning silent and live auctions. So important, in fact, that even my smallest consultation package includes 5 critical collaborations you should expect from your auctioneer:
Get a public “stamp of approval” from national charity registry Guidestar.org
Outside validation helps your non-profit gain and maintain credibility.
Is your non-profit organization getting all the free exposure you can on national charity registry Guidestar.org? I just learned about (more…)
A Development Director said via e-mail this week:
Due to a very tight budget, the committee is searching for an auctioneer that will donate their time for this event.
As a full-time fundraiser for the past 10 years, I understand completely about tight budgets and wanting to limit expenses. In fact, I daresay I understand this better than most auctioneers in the country, for two reasons:
1. First, the GALA GAL motto is “We teach charities how to raise more money and keep 100%.” In fact, nearly 75% of my clients don’t pay anything out of pocket for my services, thus making me “free”. We accomplish this (more…)
Ha, I got to chuckle today with one of my clients when she read my opinion on 50/50 raffles and e-mailed back:
No – wait – tell me how you really feel. =)
Clearly, it IS an issue I feel strongly about, as I had typed to her:
Why give half the money back??? (more…)
Short and sweet…!
When I need to unlock a PDF document so that I can edit it or pull a logo out, I pop over to www.PDFtoWord.com, upload the PDF and within a minute it’s back in my Inbox, ready to edit.
Handy Tech Tip of the Day 🙂
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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
In your job, whatever it is, every day you’re either offering your expertise or listening to someone else share his/her expertise. And every day, you’re wasting wisdom that could be leveraged to save you time, which saves you money, which means more for your bottom line. Take a few seconds to do this one thing, and you’ll build your arsenal of resources and get smarter, all for FREE!
Think about it – if you work with a charitable cause, in the course of your day, you may (more…)
I want to love technology, really I do. But as I’m sure some of you agree, when it comes to technology and things that are supposed to make my benefit auction management easier, the timespan from “intrigued about it” to “overwhelmed by it” falls in the single-digit minutes.
So I’ll try to help you (more…)