130,500 causes · $320M raised · 4.7 since 2009
How much can a campus unit raise with a silent auction?
Real numbers from universities, colleges and student organizations.
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Short answer: whether advancement sent it to an alumni segment. That single decision separates a departmental auction reaching four hundred people from one reaching forty.
Revenue across campus units
Working it out from the segment you can get
A campus unit's reach is whatever advancement will send on its behalf, which is worth establishing before anything else.
- The alumni segment advancement will mail for you, named precisely
- Your own department list, current students and parents
- An average winning bid for an alumni audience, which advancement can tell you from the annual fund
- Whether homecoming or a reunion sits inside your window
The first input is a negotiation rather than a count, and it is the single decision that separates an auction reaching four hundred people from one reaching forty.
What moves it
Whether alumni were reached, and how
A segment sent by advancement is the difference between an audience and a room. Ask for it early, name the segment precisely, and accept their timing.
Institutional access in the catalogue
Parking, ceremony seating, a collection tour, a chef's table. No comparable price anywhere. See item ideas that actually sell.
Calendar position
Homecoming carries an auction. The fortnight around a giving day sinks one.
A named purpose
A scholarship for one student asks for something a donor can picture. The department fund does not, and it is also harder for advancement to approve because it competes with the annual fund's message.
Setting the goal
Work from the thing: what does one scholarship, one piece of equipment or one travel fund cost. Confirm the receiving account can hold and spend it for that purpose — restricted funds on a campus have rules — then report what it funded, naming the student or the equipment where consent allows.
Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.
More guides for Universities
Fundraising inside an institution that already fundraises Student organization auctions
Accounts, advisors and who signs Item ideas that actually sell
What a campus can offer and what it cannot Getting items donated
Inside the institution before outside it Homecoming and reunions
The weekend everyone is already back
Frequently asked questions
What is the single biggest difference between campus auctions?
Whether advancement sent it to an alumni segment. That decision separates an auction reaching four hundred people from one reaching forty.
Should the goal be a fund or a specific thing?
A specific thing — one scholarship, one piece of equipment, one travel fund. It asks for something a donor can picture, and it is easier for advancement to approve because it does not compete with the annual fund's message.
Anything to check about the receiving account?
That it can hold and spend the money for the purpose you named. Restricted funds on a campus have rules, and discovering them after the auction is slow to unwind.
Name what you're funding and open bidding
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Free for up to 20 items · Unlimited bidders · No credit card required