Nature photography auctions

Wildlife photographers are organized, local, numerous and interested in exactly the species a rehabilitator treats. They have work that costs them a print rather than a sale, and they have followings that reach well past your own list.

For a small organization it is the cheapest audience expansion available and it solves the catalogue problem at the same time.

Where they are

• Camera clubs and photographic societies, which meet monthly and take speakers
• Birding and naturalist groups, many of whose members photograph
• Local social media groups for wildlife sightings
• Nature centres and parks that run photography walks
• Optics and camera dealers, who know their customers

The route in is usually a talk. Offer to speak at a club meeting about the work — they need speakers, your subject is exactly theirs, and the ask follows naturally from a room that has just heard what you do.

What to agree with a photographer

Photographers donate to fundraisers often and are frequently handled badly. Five things settled in advance:

• What is being sold — a print, a licence, or a commission. They are not the same and photographers care about the difference
• Who pays for printing and framing, and to what standard
• Whether there is a reserve, so a good image does not go for less than the printing cost
• Credit and a link on the item page and in every post
• Edition and reuse — whether the image may be used again next year

The reserve matters more than it sounds. A photographer watching their work close at a low number in public will not donate again, and neither will the people who saw it.

Fulfilment, which is where these go wrong

A print item has a physical object at the end of it, which most of a rehabilitator's catalogue does not. Decide before listing: who prints, who frames, who ships or where collection happens, and what the winner receives if a print arrives damaged.

The simplest arrangement is usually the photographer fulfilling directly to the winner, with you passing on the address. It removes a step from an organization that has no staff, and photographers generally prefer controlling the print.

A photography competition alongside the auction

Worth considering once you have the community's attention: an entry fee, a public vote, and the winning images auctioned. It produces items, entries, a reason for photographers to promote it to their own followers, and a second revenue line — and it works because the community is competitive in a friendly way and already shares each other's work.

Keep the rules short, name the judge, and be clear about what rights entrants keep. The last one is where photography competitions get a bad reputation, and a small organization cannot afford that.

Use their images honestly

A photograph of a wild bird taken in the field is not a photograph of an animal in your care and should not be captioned as though it were. It is a small distinction and exactly the kind a naturalist audience notices.

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