How much can a Y raise with a silent auction?

Short answer: whether the case answered the fee objection, and whether the file was segmented by programme.

Working it out from a membership that already pays

The file is large and local, and the constraint is a perception rather than a number.

• Members, segmented by programme rather than counted as one list
• Programme families separately — camp, swim lessons, childcare, youth sport
• Corporate membership partners and their staff
• The cost of the assistance units you are funding: a family membership, a camp place, a lesson block

Then apply the perception test. Whatever the arithmetic says, members who have not been told that fees fund operations and donations fund access will read the ask as being for a gym they already pay for.

What moves it

Whether the case is stated

Members who understand that their fee and their gift do different things give. Members who do not, do not: membership scholarship funds.

Programme segmentation

Camp families, swim families, childcare families and gym members give to different things. The Y usually holds this data and mails everybody the same appeal.

Facility items in the catalogue

Pool parties, court time, camp weekends. They cost facility time you already have and they sell to the people already in the building.

In-building promotion

Front desk, screens, noticeboards, class schedules. The highest-traffic space the organization owns, and usually unused for this.

Setting the goal

Express it in assistance: family memberships funded, camp places, childcare weeks. Publish the cost of each, and report in the same unit — it is the only reporting that answers the fee objection at the same time.

Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.

General information, not legal advice for your association. Affiliate obligations, brand standards and — for a YWCA — the constraints attached to domestic violence services differ. Your CEO and your national organization decide how any of this applies.