The Value of Underbid Reporting

Underbid recording is one of the most valuable tools available to anyone planning a fundraising auction. The process of recording every bid in a fundraising auction, underbid recording gives you a wealth of valuable data and information.

The most immediate benefit of underbid recording is the most obvious: it tells you who came in second on every auction lot. There are many situations where this data point is extremely valuable, but the most useful is when your winning bidder decides not to honor their bid. If this happens in the moment, immediately after the auctioneer says sold, it is usually possible to go back to the second place bidder and secure their bid.

But if the winning bidder decides not to honor their bid later in the evening, or even days later, we usually have few positive options. Having a list of second (and third, and fourth) place bidders makes this situation much more navigable.

Tracking every bid in a fundraising auction provides you with extremely valuable data and insights.

Knowing who came in second is also very valuable when a donor tells us after the fact that they would be willing to donate and sell a second version of their auction lot. We’ve had many donors come up to us well after their lot sold and offer a second one – and without underbid recording we are forced to re-open the lot, or attempt to sell the lot another way.

We often base our opinion of an auction lot on how much it sold for, believing that the higher the sale price, the more popular the lot. At one auction, underbid recording revealed that the highest selling lot only had two extremely motivated bidders. Another lot, that sold for less, had the most active bidders of any lot of the auction. Which would you say was more popular?

Underbid recording also gives insight into your attendees’ behavior in a way that can help shape your event. One organization we work with was initially upset with a board member who sponsored a table for $10,000 but made no purchases in the live auction. They were considering moving the board member’s table from the front of the room to the very back. The underbid report revealed that while this board member did not purchase auction items, their participation in the auction had an extremely positive impact. The board member was an active bidder on multiple auction items, driving the price on each up and helping generate over $10,000 in revenue by participating in the auction. Their table stayed near the front following year.

Underbid reports also give you the ability to track bids by table, to see which table hosts bring the most active guests (or which sponsors need to recalibrate their invitation list), to find correlations between bidder behavior in the live auction and donor behavior in the fund-a-need, and more.

Capturing every bid in an auction is not an easy task. Whenever possible, get a professional to do it. An experienced pro like Beth Sandefur will be able to capture the majority of each lot’s initial bids, and all of the final bids. Expectations for a volunteer are more focused on making sure we have the last three or four bidders. However you opt to do it, underbid recording is an incredibly valuable tool that you should be utilizing as part of your fundraising strategy.

Jonathan Moscone Keeps it Real for PRC

Stellar Fundraising auctioneer Jonathan Moscone recently served as emcee and fundraiser for PRC’s Mighty Real fundraiser, helping to exceed the event goals while keeping the crowd engaged and entertained.

Held at The Pearl in San Francisco, more than 200 attendees helped raise over $200,000 to support PRC’s life-changing services! Watch below to see Jonathan motivate the crowd to bid in PRC’s live auction on trips to Portugal and Puerto Vallarta, a year of dining at some of San Francisco’s finest restaurants, and a framed and signed Golden State Warriors championship poster.

Jonathan is currently available to help your non-profit organization achieve its fundraising goals. Contact Stellar Fundraising auctions: 415-682-4224, Info@stellarsf.com

Decor: Dream or Nightmare?

Décor is an important part of most fundraising events and has the potential to have a major impact on how much money you raise. Décor can transform a venue into a different place, transport attendees to a new world, and help tell the tale of your mission. Décor can also be a hinderance, actively work against your fundraising, and run roughshod on your budget.

We have seen some incredible décor over the years. For example, every February, the Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma Valley transforms their gymnasium into a spectacular setting for a high-end gala, utilizing a combination of drape and lighting. Looking at photos of the event, you would never guess it was in a gym. But you never have to look too far to remember where you are, and why you are there.

The Sweetheart Gala always takes place in the Boys and Girls Club’s gym, but it doesn’t feel that way.

Save the Redwoods League consistently does an amazing job of utilizing décor to communicate their mission at their galas. Whether it is in a tent on Union Square or a boxy warehouse space in the Presidio, they always manage to create a mood that feels connected to the forest, through lights, visuals, and use of live plants and trees.

Décor doesn’t have to be over-the-top to serve a valuable purpose. We’ve seen many events utilize retractable banner stands to communicate their mission and message and empower attendees to get in the frame of mind of supporting the cause.

The one place we’ve seen décor go most awry is at the tables, specifically, in the center of them. Centerpieces have the potential to become a massive hindrance for us as auctioneers. Tall centerpieces can make it hard to see bidders, and actively hinder our ability to do our jobs. It can not be overstated: Tall centerpieces make it harder for us to see the crowd and for the crowd to see us onstage. It creates a sense of separation in the room – in a bad way.

These centerpieces were so tall, Greg opted to do the auction from the floor instead of the stage.

We won’t play at being arbiters of taste, but we will say that when planning your décor, do it with intention. If the goal is to create an atmosphere of giving, how can the décor help serve that purpose? If the theme is important to your crowd, how can you meet their expectations while staying true to the fundraising?

Lighting is a cost-effective method of transforming a space, and lighting can also be used to change mood during an event. Remote-controlled, battery-powered LED lights can change color with the click of a button and be synchronized to do so throughout the room at the same time. Changing the color of the lights washing the stage between speakers can make for dramatic entrances and exits, and help to focus the crowd’s attention.

Be creative. Utilize modern technology. Make your event memorable and profitable. The one thing you should not do is create centerpieces that block sightlines. Seriously.

Back to School

Summer is ending, the fall season is kicking into high gear, and whether or not you have kids it always feels like it’s time to get back to school. September, October, and November events are in the final days of their planning, and spring events only have a few months to ramp up before the holidays are upon us.

As we shake the sand out of our beach towels and put down the trashy page-turners, here are some keys for getting back in the classroom.

Know Your Crowd

Whatever your crowd’s tendencies, you need to acknowledge them and work with them, not against them. School events tend to have some of the hardest-partying crowds in the world of fundraising auctions. Parents of young children don’t get to spend a lot of time hanging out without their kids, so they treat their gala like a once-a-year chance to really cut loose. But they aren’t the only crowds that like to party hard, and we’ve seen plenty of other examples across organization types.

If your crowd leans in to having a good time, keep your program short, entertaining, and impactful. Create auction lots that celebrate and leverage your crowd’s tendencies. And be extremely strategic in the run of show and timing of your event as a whole. A heavy drinking crowd does not do well with a late-running auction.

Offer Something for Everybody

Auctions, by definition, are not egalitarian, but we can make them feel that way by offering auction lots, games, or even night-of experiences for everyone in the room. On our podcast, Michelle Holman of Greater Giving discussed a buy-in party for kids that had a price of $40 / kid and has underwriters to ensure that every kid in the grade got to attend. Other options include inexpensive or even free games, auction bingo, and the like.

Where Appropriate, Utilize Buy-In Lots

Buy-in parties, also known as sign-ups or count-me-ins, are an integral part of the fundraising auction world. They succeed at most every type of fundraising auction we do, but especially schools where there is built-in community. Buy-ins can be sold in the live or silent auctions, and run the gamut from fun and silly to incredibly sophisticated and gourmet. [Click here for some ideas on creative buy-in lots.]

You can have multiple buy-in parties in a single auction, as long as they offer a variety of experiences and target a variety of your crowd. In a school event, for example, it is advisable to have some buy-ins for the parents, and some for the students; to have some that are hard-partying, and others that are more mellow or even educational.

Create a Sense of Tradition

Audiences like having something familiar to look forward to every year. Whether it is a particular auction lot, experience, or even auctioneer! Foster traditions at your event and encourage your crowd to embrace them.

Red Alert! What to do in an Event Emergency

When something goes wrong at your fundraising event (and something always goes wrong) it is best to have a plan in place and be prepared to respond decisively. Most mishaps at galas are minor, and require a small response. But if a true emergency does occur, it is best to be prepared. In a life-or-death situation, every second counts.

Designate a Single Point Person

Make sure one person on your event team is the go-to person in the event of an emergency. Tell volunteers and other staff to let this person know if there is an emergency. Have this person in a visible, accessible place throughout the event so they can be found if need be.

Have a Plan in Place

Equip your Emergency Response Person with a plan, and make sure they have the tools to carry it out. Make sure they have the direct line for local emergency response professionals readily at hand, and that they have adequate cell phone coverage to make the call. It doesn’t have to be a complicated plan, and can be as simple as: “If someone is choking on their food, call 911 immediately.”

If you are doing your event in a hotel ballroom or professional event space, find out who their emergency response team is and how to reach them. For example, the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco has a medical response team on duty 24/7, and respond immediately to emergencies in their ballroom – but only if someone lets them know.

Do Not Panic

Stay calm, keep your crowd calm, freaking out will only make the situation worse.

Act Quickly

Do not hope the situation will resolve itself and do not worry about the optics of what this will look like for your event or organization. If it is a life-or-death situation, every second counts. It is better to over-respond decisively than to fatally under-respond.

Give People Suffering an Emergency Some Space

If someone is experiencing an emergency at your event, do your best to give them space and privacy. Call as little attention as necessary to the emergency. Direct the audience’s attention elsewhere, and encourage the crowd to focus away from the emergency.

Be Prepared to Adapt

Depending on the severity of the emergency, you may have to radically change the course of your event. Engage your crowd honestly, and with respect, and they will help you achieve the most positive outcome possible.  

Making a Quantum Leap

One of the greatest joys in our world is seeing a fundraising auction make the leap to a new level of success. As charity auctioneers and fundraising event consultants, we have been part of many success stories, seeing auctions double or even triple their revenue in a single year.

How do these auctions achieve such success?

Have a vision for where you want to take your crowd

They start with a vision of where they want to take their event. From there, they develop very specific goals and formulate strategies for achieving them.

“Raise more money in the fund-a-need” is a goal that most events would love to achieve, but alone it lacks direction. Starting with a vision of “engage our crowd on a deeper emotional level so they feel more connected to our mission” leads towards the goal of raising more in the fund-a-need.

Be willing to take risks. We’re not advocating risk for the sake of risk, but you are never going to make a quantum leap by embracing the status quo. It can be a large risk, like changing venues, or a smaller risk, like changing the flow of your program or embracing a new theme for your event. Any risk you take should be in service Identify a way to achieve your goal.

Embrace change and get your audience to buy-in to it by communicating with your crowd in advance to manage their expectations. Engage directly with key supporters to get them to commit to your vision, then reach out to your larger audience with their support. Fundraising is a conversation that takes place year-round, and your closest supporters should always feel like they have a stake in your event.

Train the crowd to embrace this new status quo and establish The Way for subsequent events. Momentum in a fundraising auction is a fascinating thing, and crowds have a way of remembering how an event was the year before. Highlight your successes in post-event communication, and carry that momentum forward to next year.

Finally, believe that you can grow. Your faith and optimism will inspire your committee, your board and ultimately your crowd to help you make your own quantum leap.

How to Deal with Competing Events

Planning and implementing a successful fundraising auction is challenging enough on its own terms, let alone when your event has to compete with other events for your audience’s attention. A sporting event that was announced long after you set your date, or another charity’s longstanding event can both have radically different impacts on your event.  

Here are some tips for avoiding unnecessary competition and dealing with unplanned competition:

Check the Social Calendar
If your event is moving to a new date, it is always wise to check the social calendar before you settle on a new date. Every city has a list of non-profit events (here in San Francisco the Nob Hill Gazette is a great resource). And if nine- to twelve-months in advance is too far out for a full listing of events, you can always look at the previous year’s calendar for your date to see what events exist around then.

Network with Similar Charities in Your Region
Establish relationships with the organizations who are in your same space, or who have crossover in your donor base. There are many great resources networking with other charitable organizations – Facebook groups, email lists, etc. Find out where your regional charitable peers participate and join them. We work with many organizations that actively seek to coordinate their events so as not to compete with each other.

Gala or Warriors watch party? How about both…

Message and Engage Your Donors
If you do find your event is in direct competition with another fundraiser that will impact your donor base, be proactive. Reach out to your big donors directly, encourage them to come to your event. If they are not coming, see if you can secure a donation from them to be used at your gala in their absence. We love proxy bids on auction items and gifts of all shapes and sizes for the fund-a-need.

Keep an Eye on the Sports Calendar
If you have any rabid sports fans in your donor base, you need to keep an eye on the relevant sports calendars. Here in the Bay Area we have been lucky enough to often have one or more professional sports teams in the hunt for a championship going back at least 20 years.

Playoff schedules get announced a few weeks before the games, so sometimes it is impossible to avoid competing with a major sporting event. When that happens, make a plan that works for you and the culture of your event. We can’t always recommend setting up screens and watching a playoff game as part of your gala, but we’ve done it.

Reach out directly to your donors who are sports fans and find out if sports are going to impact their participation in your extremely important fundraising. Offer them solutions such as, “we won’t announce any scores during the event so you can DVR it.” Always, always, always offer the opportunity to make donations or bids in absentia.

How to Prevent an Auction Takeover

It is a big challenge for any fundraiser when one person decides to take over an event and make it all about them. It shifts the focus of a gala, has the potential to derail the fundraising and could end up costing the event significantly.

There are no easy solutions for what to do once someone is already onstage, rambling on about their product, personal pet peeves, or other random tidbits. But there are a number of steps you can take in advance of your event to try and prevent any sort of auction takeover.

Set Clear Expectations

Tell each speaker how long they have for their speech before they start writing it. As a general rule, very few speeches need to be longer than three to five minutes.

Review All Scripts

It is reasonable to ask speakers to prepare for their time onstage by writing up their remarks in advance. It is also reasonable to ask to see that script in advance.  If someone’s script is too long, or off-message, seeing it beforehand gives you the opportunity to discuss that with them while there is still time to make edits and adjustments. There is little time to course-correct the night-of your event.

Designate a Stage Manager

Someone needs to be able to play the “bad cop” if need be, but it is also useful to have someone who is in charge of getting speakers on (and possibly off) the stage. From a show-flow standpoint, it is a waste of the audience’s time if the emcee introduces the next speaker, and that speaker is still seated at their table. Then the whole crowd has to wait while the speaker gets up to make their way through the tables to the stage.

Don’t let one of your speakers hijack your auction, have a plan in place to prevent podium piracy

Far better is to have a stage manager who ensures every speaker is at the stage, ready to go on when they are introduced, and encourage them to leave the stage if they speak for too long.

Have a Plan in Place

What do you do if a speaker goes on too long? Or launches in to an inappropriate tirade? How do you handle the worst-case scenario? At what point do you turn off a speaker’s microphone? (We’ve seen it happen!)

Create a plan and empower your stage manager to implement it. Hopefully none of those worst-case scenarios come to pass. But if you don’t have a plan in place, you’ll be scrambling to figure out what to do, instead of reacting immediately and decisively.

Ryder Solos His First Auction Lot

At the 2024 Claire Lillienthal School Auction, Ryder took to the stage and sold his first auction lot from beginning to end. It was “Principal for a Day” and he sold it for $4,600- TWICE! The video cuts off before he doubles is, but he raised $9,200 his first time taking the mic. We are all insanely proud.

Celebrating Ten Stellar Years

Join us in celebrating ten years of Stellar Fundraising Auctions with this look back over just a few of the highlights from our first decade!