Pairing a silent auction with a walk or run

A walk gives you three things an auction normally has to create: a date everybody already knows, a registration list, and a reason for people to check their phone on a specific morning. The planning question is how to use them without adding a fourth ask to the same households.

The timeline, working back from event day

• Event day — bidding closes during the event, announced from the stage
• Minus 7 days — bidding opens; first item posts to captains
• Minus 2 weeks — catalogue finalised, sheets printed
• Minus 6-8 weeks — procurement, finishing before the final team fundraising push starts
• Before any of it — agree with the event committee which event-linked items can be auctioned

A week of bidding is usually right here. Longer and it overlaps the final fundraising push; shorter and the registration list only sees it once.

Agree the event-linked items early

The lead position at the start, the ribbon cutting, a name on the banner, a mile marker, premium tent placement. These are the items with no comparable price, and they belong to the event rather than to the auction committee.

Some of them touch parts of the programme that should not be sold — a survivor lap, a memorial moment, a moment of silence. Have that conversation at the start, with the people who own the programme, and write down what was agreed.

On the day

• One table, near where people gather before or after — not on the route
• Display sheets with a large QR code and "Scan to bid" above it
• One volunteer whose whole job is helping people bid on a phone
• A visible total or progress display, if the event has a screen
• Nothing that requires queuing while people are trying to walk

Printable sheets come from the items you have already entered: bid sheets and templates and display sheets and catalogs.

Closing without stepping on the programme

Two announcements at most: one early, one about fifteen minutes before close. Keep both short and name a specific item rather than describing the auction.

Do not schedule the close against a survivor recognition, a memorial or a children's moment. If the programme is tight, close bidding an hour after the event ends instead — you lose very little, and the alternative is not recoverable.

After

Winners are identified and invoiced automatically when bidding closes. Report the auction total in the same place people are watching the event total, thank the donating businesses by name, and tell captains what their promotion produced.

See silent auction checkout and hybrid auctions.