130,500 causes · $320M raised · 4.7 since 2009
How much can a veterans organization raise with a silent auction?
Real numbers from veterans organizations on the platform, and what moves them.
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Short answer: how far past the membership roll you reach shapes the result more than the retail value of the catalogue does. A post that reaches the auxiliary's network, the town and members' families elsewhere is working with a much larger bidder pool than one that emails the roll.
Revenue across veterans organizations
Working it out from the post and the town
A post has two audiences and most posts fundraise into only one of them.
- Members and auxiliary members, which is your known number
- The town's connection to the post — people who attend the breakfasts, use the hall, or remember it
- An average winning bid for a membership that skews older and fixed-income, which argues for many small lots
- Businesses that already sponsor the post's events
If the first number is doing all the work, the auction is a members' raffle. The second number is where a post's fundraising actually scales, and it costs a poster in the hall and a note to the town page.
What decides a post's result
1. Reach past the roll
Count the membership, then the auxiliary's list, then the town community page, then members' families living elsewhere. The last group is the one posts most often leave out and the one with no other route to you.
2. A named purpose
A roof, a van, a relief fund balance, a number of Honor Flight seats. Something with a cost you can publish. "Support the post" asks for something abstract.
3. Access and ceremony items in the catalogue
Items only the post can offer have no retail price a bidder can check, so the only reference is the other bidders. See item ideas that actually sell.
4. Whether veteran-owned businesses were approached
A donor group with a reason to say yes to a post specifically, and one that general fundraising outreach does not reach. See veteran-owned business outreach.
Setting the goal
Work from your own lists rather than a benchmark: people who will open the link, a share of them bidding, an average winning bid you would accept. Publish a goal a little above that floor so the progress bar fills, and confirm the entity running the auction is permitted to spend on what you are naming.
Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.
More guides for Veterans Organizations
Which entity runs it, and who gets the money Item ideas that actually sell
What a post's community bids on Getting items donated
The town, the trade, and the members Veteran-owned business outreach
A donor network nobody else can reach the same way Honor Flight campaigns
Funding seats, with a hard trip date Tax rules and receipts
501(c)(19) is not 501(c)(3) Gaming licences and emblems
Do not risk the licence for a raffle
Frequently asked questions
What goal should a post set?
Work from your own lists — members, the auxiliary's network, the town, members' families elsewhere — estimate who will open the link, a share of them bidding, and an average winning bid you would accept. Publish a goal a little above that floor.
Does a bigger post raise more?
Reach matters more than roll size. A small post that promotes through the auxiliary, the town page and members' families may put more people in front of the auction than a larger one that emails its membership.
Should we name what we are raising for?
Yes, with a cost you can publish — a roof, a van, a number of Honor Flight seats. "Support the post" asks for something abstract.
Set your number and open bidding
Name what you are funding and let the progress bar do the work. Free for up to 20 items, no credit card.
Free for up to 20 items · Unlimited bidders · No credit card required