Silent auctions for arts organizations, set up in minutes

The artist gets almost nothing back, and should be told

This is the fact to build the whole artist relationship on, and most arts organizations have never explained it to the people they ask every year.

An artist donating their own work can generally deduct only the cost of materials — the canvas, the paint, the clay — rather than the market value of the piece. A collector donating the same painting is generally in a different position entirely.

• The artist gives up the sale, the materials and the studio time, and receives a deduction on the canvas
• They are frequently the least wealthy person in the transaction
• Nobody tells them, and many assume they are getting the market-value deduction a collector would
• An organization that explains this before asking is treating them properly, and will be remembered for it

So ask differently, ask less often, and give back what you actually can: asking artists for work.

A cheap sale sets a public comparable

The pricing constraint that has no equivalent in any other silo. A painting that sells for a fraction of its gallery price at a charity auction is a public data point, and it can affect what the artist's dealer and collectors think the work is worth.

That is a real cost to an artist who donated out of generosity, and it is why reserves, framing and format matter more here: pricing and reserves.

Your artists are paid labour

Auctioning a lesson, a commission, a private performance or a studio visit from a contracted artist is auctioning somebody's working hours — which is different from a volunteer offering a Saturday.

• Ask the artist, not their employer, and let them decline without consequence
• Check any contract, union or engagement terms before offering a performer's time
• Where the organization employs artists, a request from management is not a free request
• Consider paying them and framing it as the organization's contribution rather than theirs

That last option is worth considering more often than it is. An organization that pays its artists for auction time and says so has made a statement its artistic community notices.

You already hold the event

An opening, a first night, a gallery reception or a preview gathers patrons, subscribers and board members in a room with the work on the walls — which is the strongest auction environment an arts organization will ever assemble.

How to attach an auction without turning an opening into a sale: gallery night formats.

Working it out from subscribers and a board

A small warm list, a well-connected board, and artists with audiences of their own.

• Subscribers and members, segmented by how long they have renewed
• Single-ticket buyers, which is a much larger and colder list
• Board members, times the contacts each can personally open

The full method: how much can an organization raise?

When an auction is the wrong instrument

In production or hanging week, when every member of staff is committed. If the need is a building, an endowment or a deficit, that is a campaign with major gifts rather than a catalogue. And if the only way to fill the auction is to ask the same fifteen artists for a fifth consecutive year, ask fewer of them for more, or build the catalogue on access instead.

Reaching a subscriber base

Channel order: subscribers and members, segmented by how long they have renewed; the board and their networks, which in arts organizations are unusually well connected; single-ticket buyers, who are a much larger and colder list; the artists' own followings, which reach an audience the organization does not have; galleries, studios and arts businesses; education programme families; and arts press, which will cover an auction of donated work readily.

One move worth building in: the artists' own audiences. A painter posting their donated piece to their own following reaches collectors who have never heard of the organization — and it is a genuine benefit to offer the artist in return, because it puts their work in front of new buyers.

General mechanics: how to promote a silent auction and marketing templates.

Do not let the auction become the programme

A caution specific to arts organizations. The gala with an auction is the sector's default fundraiser, it consumes an enormous share of a small staff's year, and it is frequently the least artistically interesting thing the organization does.

An online auction attached to an event that already exists costs a fraction of a gala and reaches the people who do not attend galas — which in most arts organizations is the majority of the audience.

Where the collection rule still applies

An organization that holds a permanent collection is bound by the same rule as any museum: accessioned work is not the catalogue, deaccessioning has its own process, and neither is a fundraising decision. See silent auctions for museums.

A producing or presenting organization without a collection does not have that constraint — but does have the artist and pricing questions above, which are sharper.

General information, not legal or tax advice. The treatment of an artist's donation of their own work differs from a collector's donation of the same piece, and appraisal and substantiation rules are technical — artists and donors should take their own advice.

Twelve weeks, avoiding production and hanging

• Week 12 — access lots agreed with artistic and production staff; last year's record of which artists were asked reviewed
• Week 10 — board assignments; galleries, dealers and collectors approached
• Week 8 — artists, with the deduction explained, a reserve offered and lead time for anybody making something
• Week 6 — arts businesses, subscribers, other organizations for reciprocal access
• Week 4 — gap-filling; every work photographed properly rather than on a table under strip lighting
• Week 2 — catalogue closed; reserves set with each artist; every label carries artist, title, medium, dimensions and year
• Opening or first night — lots displayed properly, one short announcement, bidding closes after the speeches

Three jobs, and one is a duty of care

• Artist relations — explains the deduction before asking, sets reserves with rather than for, keeps the record of who was asked when, and makes declining free of consequence
• Presentation — photography, labels and display. A donated piece shot badly sells for less and reflects on the person who gave it
• Valuation discipline — retail price where one exists, description where it does not, and the organization never appraises

Where these auctions go wrong

• Letting an artist believe they get a market-value deduction, when it is generally materials cost
• No reserve, so a generous act sets a public comparable that damages the giver
• Asking the same fifteen artists a fifth year running
• Auctioning a contracted artist's time without asking them directly
• Anything connecting a donation to programming — a commission, a slot, casting, a show
• A gala that consumes the year and reaches only the people who attend galas
• Publishing line-by-line results the artists never agreed to

What it costs, and the asymmetry to fix

Access lots cost staff time that was happening anyway. The gala costs a disproportionate share of a small team's year, which is the argument for attaching an online auction to an event that already exists.

Worth putting to a board plainly: the artists are the most generous donors in the room and receive the least for it — the sale, the materials and the studio time given up, against a deduction on the canvas. An organization that explains that, sets reserves, passes on buyer contacts and asks less often is fixing an asymmetry the whole sector runs on without examining.

After it closes

• Pass buyer contacts to artists, with the buyers' permission — the single most valuable thing you can give back
• Return unsold work promptly and undamaged, with thanks
• Record who was asked and who gave, so next year rotates rather than repeats
• Tell every artist what their work funded
• Keep the valuation basis and the reserve policy for the next committee