Running a wish list and an auction together

Most societies publish a wish list — towels, litter, kitten formula, a specific piece of equipment — and run it continuously. It is easy to give to, it produces goods the shelter genuinely needs, and it is the lowest-friction ask in the sector.

An auction is a different transaction to a different part of the same supporter base. Run without thought, the two land in the same week and each takes from the other. Run deliberately, they reach different people and connect to each other.

What each one is for

The wish list converts a supporter who wants to help but has little money, or who prefers giving a thing to giving cash. It produces goods, not unrestricted funds, and it runs year-round with no staffing cost.

The auction converts a supporter who will spend meaningfully on something they want. It produces unrestricted money, it needs a window and effort, and it reaches people the wish list does not touch.

Both are worth running. The mistake is treating them as versions of the same ask.

Sequencing

• Keep the wish list running continuously — do not pause it for the auction
• Do not send a wish list push in the auction's bidding window
• Put a wish list moment where the auction cannot reach: intake surges, a cold snap, a specific animal's arrival
• Give the auction a clear window with a close date, so it reads as an event rather than a permanent state

Connecting them

Three ways that work and cost nothing.

Auction the big wish list item. If the list includes something substantial — a washer, a transport crate set, a dental machine — make it the auction's named goal instead of leaving it sitting on a list nobody funds. Wish lists are good at small items and poor at large ones.

Bundle wish list goods into auction baskets. A supporter who donated toys and towels can see them presented as a new-adopter kit rather than disappearing into a store room, provided you tell them that is where they went.

Offer wish list donors the auction. They have given once, they are warm, and many of them have never been asked for anything else. That is the single most direct link between the two.

Do not auction donated wish list goods without saying so

Goods given for the shelter should go to the shelter. If a wish list donation is genuinely surplus and would serve the animals better as an auction item, say so openly in the listing and be able to explain the reasoning. Discovering that a donated item was sold is a bad way for a supporter to learn how you operate.

What belongs in the catalogue: item ideas that actually sell.