130,500 causes · $320M raised · 4.7 since 2009
Adding an auction to your signature annual event
The date, the audience and the promotion already exist. Use them.
Free for up to 20 items Unlimited bidders No credit card required
Most clubs have one event that carries a large share of the year: a golf day, a gala, a duck race, a lobster boil, a wine evening. It has a date people expect, a ticket list, sponsors and a committee that has run it before.
An auction attached to that event inherits all of it. An auction on a separate date asks the same households and the same businesses a second time, and both events usually feel it.
Timing
- Event day — bidding closes during the event
- Minus 7 days — bidding opens online; members start forwarding items
- Minus 2-3 weeks — catalogue closed, display sheets printed
- Minus 6-8 weeks — procurement, including the one-introduction ask
- Before any of it — agree which entity is raising, and what the proceeds fund
A week of online bidding before the event is the important part. It lets members forward items to people who are not coming, and it means items arrive at the event with bids on them.
What changes at each kind of event
Golf day. The field is captive between the round and the meal, and that gap is your bidding window. Display sheets at the turn and at the bar; close during the meal, before the speeches.
Gala or dinner. Browse during the reception, close early in the meal, before any live auction or appeal. Two bidding mechanics competing in the same room split the room.
Outdoor or festival event. Online is doing most of the work. On site, one staffed table and QR signage; do not try to run a paper auction in a field.
Printable sheets come from the items you have already entered: bid sheets and templates and display sheets.
Do not add a fourth ask
If the event already sells tickets, sponsorships and raffle tickets, the auction is the fourth thing you are asking the same room for in one evening. Drop one. In most clubs the raffle is the easiest to drop, because it is the one with the lowest return per person asked and the most regulatory friction.
And check your state before running a raffle alongside an auction at all — raffles are regulated as charitable gaming in most states, and silent auctions generally are not.
After
Winners are invoiced automatically when bidding closes. Report the auction total in the same place as the event total, thank donating businesses by name, and tell members what their forwarding produced.
See silent auction checkout and hybrid auctions.
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More reach, and more to agree in advance
Frequently asked questions
Should a club run the auction on its own date?
Usually not. A separate date asks the same households and businesses a second time. Attaching it to the signature event inherits the date, the ticket list, the sponsors and the promotion.
When should bidding close at a golf day?
During the meal, before the speeches. The gap between the round and the meal is the captive bidding window; put display sheets at the turn and at the bar.
Can we run a raffle and an auction at the same event?
Check your state first — raffles are regulated as charitable gaming in most states and silent auctions generally are not. And consider whether you need both: four asks in one evening is usually one too many, and the raffle tends to be the lowest return per person asked.
How far before the event should bidding open?
About a week. It lets members forward items to people who are not attending, and items arrive at the event with bids already on them.
Ready to start your auction?
Name it now and set it up later. Free for up to 20 items, unlimited bidders, no credit card.
Free for up to 20 items · Unlimited bidders · No credit card required