Auction Banquet
Your organization is planning a super cool fundraising event. Great!
Everything is planned and it is guaranteed to be fun and raise needed resources for your cause. Great!
All you need now are the donations to be auctioned to raise those funds! Great!
Wait, how do we do this?
Most groups call it “procurement” but that sounds like an unpleasant medical procedure to us. We like to call it “Trolling for Donations”!!! Sounds fun? Well, Troll Patrol can truly be fun and easier than you think, with the right mind-set. We thought it might help to ask a “professional” donor for insight – and guess what we discovered – donors are people, too.
We love our friend Scottie from Camp James, an ACA Accredited traditional style summer camp for kids age 4-15 in Irvine, California. A mom of 2 with a dog named Tramp, Scottie has donated many weeks of fabulous summer camp fun for kids to our fundraisers and to many other schools and organizations. We asked her to give us a “donor’s eye view” of donation procurement. Here are her helpful and honest thoughts.
We donors are often happy to help out very worthy causes. Economic times are tough and many businesses are looking for an exchange of value that could translate into more sales for the company. While a listing in the Silent Auction Catalog is nice, most attendees do not hang on to those booklets beyond the event and, truth be told, the donor is pretty much forgotten beyond the evening’s festivities.
A Mutual Admiration Society
Your chance of getting more out of a donor company would increase if an added benefit to donating is thrown in. Create ways that your organization can help the donor business, too.
Look at the relationship with your donor more as a marketing partnership vs. a one way gift.
Here are some ideas.
- Give donors the opportunity to create a coupon-ad that would be emailed to the organization’s community or attendees of the fundraising event. In a school setting, allow a coupon to go home with the kids.
- Offer a small ad-blurb in the school newsletter during any month of the donor’s choosing.
- Add donor links and acknowledgments to your organization’s website.
At Camp James it is more likely that we will offer a donation item of higher value for those schools that really go out of their way to give our business exposure. I know that Wild Rivers, a family amusement waterpark in Orange County, California, and other amusement parks are extremely generous. Can you imagine creating a dynamic relationship with your donor which results in kicking up the level of donations to your event? You can do this easily, with little or no cost, by offering Rock Star exposure – banners, catalog placement, logo on your website - remember… be creative. Killer donations mean killer revenue.
Think of donors as part of your dynamic community.
Some business have their own fundraising programs that your group can participate in. For example, Islands Restaurants open their doors to school and sports groups to dine in and receive a percentage of the revenue from that night. Both parties get the benefit of this fundraiser - it’s a win-win. The school benefits from the fundraiser and shows the restaurant that you have clout to bring out the numbers.
Who knows, a restaurant might even throw in some yummy snacks for your next PTA meeting to get people pumped to attend.
When you show a donor your support, they will be more likely to donate and increase their commitment to partner with you. Bottom line, you may receive a much larger donation or even a sponsorship for your next silent auction fundraiser. If businesses know that you truly are trying to help them they will be more apt and able to help your organization consistently and more heartily over time.
