Spring 2023 Wrap-up

The year is halfway over and the spring fundraising season is coming to a close. It is a good time to identify the fundraising auctions trends that have emerged, how they have impacted events, and how best to work with them to create successful event. First and foremost, we are seeing continuation of trends that started last year.

One of the most promising trends of 2023 is the younger generation stepping up and supporting charities at a high level

People are still waiting until much later in the planning process to purchase their tickets than they would have done pre-pandemic. This spring we saw a number of events come up against their deadline to confirm the catering order while attendees were still continuing to purchase tickets.

Check with your event venue and/or caterer to see how they’ve been addressing this issue. Unless your event is known for selling out quickly, be prepared to work to motivate ticket buyers as you come down the home stretch. And most importantly, know that this behavior is the norm these days.

Another part of the new normal is the volume of crowds remains louder than ever. Setting aside all attempts to analyze why this is true, the simple fact is once people are at an event together, they tend to be extremely loud. Crowds that are usually staid or reserved are loud, and crowds that are known for being loud are cacophonous.

Work with your A/V partner to ensure the sound system you have in place is designed to address this. Specifically, you need more coverage with more power – not just more power (think “auction surround sound”). Craft your timeline to ensure you are giving your crowd the time they need to blow off steam. Fine-tune your program so that everything that happens onstage is meaningful and engaging.

Auctions are getting shorter. When I first started doing fundraising auctions in 2004, the average auction length was 25 - 30 lots. That number has shrunk to about 12 lots, with many events strategically opting to do a fund-a-need only. Shorter auctions means fewer lots to generate the money, obviously, but it does not mean you have to restrict your auction to fewer bidders.

Buy-in-lots have surged post-pandemic and continue to be extremely popular, as I documented in an earlier blog post. As events opt to hold shorter and shorter auctions, buy-ins have become an integral way to engage more bidders *and* raise more money.

Another trend this year is the rise of the “sponsor a spot” auction lot. Similar to a buy-in, but instead of securing an opportunity for oneself, we ask bidders to sponsor beneficiaries of the event to participate in an experience (read a more detailed blog post here).

Crowds are also getting younger, and I’m not just saying that because I’m feeling older these days. We are definitely seeing a new demographic emerge at fundraising events, and the late 30’s to early 40’s set is starting to have an impact.This means you have to keep your program fresh and utilize forms of marketing that meet this market where it lives and plays. It also means that you need to develop a couple of fun and creative auction lots that appeal to this demographic – buy-ins usually fit the bill.

We are seeing events trend upwards again. Most events – not all, but most – are making more money than last year. Many are setting new records, after setting new records last year. This is partially the work of expectation management, of crowds expecting to raise more money each year. But it is also the work of development teams, boards, and committees who do a great job of setting individual attendees’ expectations for their participation in the event.

One disturbing trend we’ve seen emerge this year is fake bids: people making a bid and then either denying they made the bid or outright refusing to pay. This has happened at numerous events this spring, including at some of our biggest events. At one event, a bidder obviously and repeatedly bid on a lot until the lot sold to them for $36,000 – at which point they simply refused to acknowledge their winning bid and insisted they had not been bidding. Utilizing a payment processing system that enables you to tie bidder numbers directly to credit cards will help prevent this, but it will not make it completely go away.

Another great solution for this is to utilize professional bid spotters. You may already pay a premium for your fundraising auctioneer, but the additional cost of professional bid spotters will more than pay for itself, especially if you have a crowd of more than 350 people. Professional spotters help make the auction livelier and more engaging for the whole crowd, but especially those last few rows of tables.

Without professional spotters, we often do not know a bid was false until the lot has already been sold to that false bid. Then we have to re-open the lot, find the last bidder, re-engage them, and so on. Professional bid spotters can help verify bidder behavior and alert the auctioneer to false bids before they become problematic. They can directly engage with bidders and confirm a bidder’s intent (or lack thereof) while the auctioneer is still actively selling an auction lot. As few as one or two professionals “on the ground” in an auction can make everything go more smoothly.

To summarize: what we are seeing so far in 2023 are crowds that wait longer to buy their tickets, are louder than ever when they get to the event, and spend more in support of their chosen charities than ever before. These crowds are getting younger and require both programming and auction lots that map to their demographic. If your event has more than 350 attendees, consider using professional bid spotters to help make your event more successful.

Make a Lot with Sponsor a Spot

One of the most successful fundraising auction trends to emerge post-pandemic is the opportunity to sponsor an experience for someone else. Essentially, it is a lot where multiple donors can enable people served by the charity to do something cool or meaningful. We have typically seen this work well for service organizations that work directly with youth, but it is relevant to other organizations as well.

The lot usually consists of an experience such as attending a professional baseball game. Bidders pay a premium to sponsor individuals served by the charity to attend the event. The first time I encountered a lot like this was pre-pandemic, for a Boys and Girls Club. We had sixteen tickets to an A’s game, and we paired it with transportation and food for each youth, and offered bidders the opportunity to sponsor a youth to attend their first professional ballgame for $1,000 each. It sold out quickly.

Access to professional sports teams is an easy place to start, but there are many other opportunities out there.

Since then, we’ve seen similar opportunities with sailing excursions on the Bay, the SF Giants, the 49’ers, and more. At the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area event this spring, we sponsored 45 Big/Little matches (90 people total) to attend either a SF Giants or SF 49’ers game at $1,000 per match.

Best of all, this did not negatively impact the fund-a-need. We still had the same number of pledges at the $1,000 level that we had in years past. It underscores that there are different types of donors: those who want to sponsor a very specific outing and those who want to simply give to the organization.  

These examples have been very focused on sports, but there are plenty of other possibilities: a trip to the Theater to see a Broadway show, a behind the scenes visit to the zoo or a museum, private screening of a film, and more.

The intent is to offer people access to something that would be meaningful to them – both donor and recipient. If you can partner with an organization and create an event that maps well to your people and your mission, you will be tapping into new potential at your next event.

Check Out This Amazing Event Recap Video

By The Bay Health’s 2023 gala was a phenomenal success, and their videographer did an amazing job of capturing the spirit and generosity of the evening. Most impressive is the way they connected the motivations of donors with the gifts they made.

Watch the full video below:

And we are totally flattered that the videographer managed to make Greg’s fund-a-need cadence seem like it was part of the band’s performance.

The Top Trends in Fundraising Auctions in 2022

During 2022 we saw a return to in-person fundraising almost exclusively, and as the year progressed certain trends emerged in fundraising auctions. Now that the year is officially over, let’s take a look at the biggest trends:

Tardy Crowds

People waited longer to commit to attending fundraising events. There were a few events that sold out immediately, but most events saw a nerve-wracking portion of their crowd wait until the last minute to purchase tickets. It seems that post-pandemic, people are less willing to commit to an in-person event in advance. One possible explanation is virtual events required little or no pre-commitment, and people became accustomed to that. Or some people are still nervous about committing to anything, given the climate.

However you look at it, last-minute registrations are always a nerve-wracking challenge, especially with a catering deadline looming. Knowing that 15-25% of your crowd may wait until the last week to register doesn’t make it psychologically easier to deal with, but it does give you advanced warning that you should plan on some strategies to work with it.

Smaller Crowds

Less people were ready to return to in-person fundraising events. Some people may not have felt comfortable being extremely social, instead choosing to stay home and avoid crowds. Others may have simply moved on from the organization or event. Whatever the cause, most events saw a downturn in the number of attendees.

Smaller crowds did not mean lower proceeds in 2022

Loud Crowds

It started as a novelty as the first in-person post-pandemic events took place: Even though crowds were smaller than pre-pandemic, they were also louder than they’d ever been before. At first, we thought it was simply because people were happy to be back in person for the first time in years, but that energy carried throughout the entire year. Every event was louder than it had ever been before. Crowds weren’t just happy to be back in person in February, they were thrilled to party together in March, July, and November. There may have been less people in the room, but they were happier and more motivated to be there.

More Philanthropic

Smaller crowds? Yes. Louder? Absolutely. But also, more giving. On the whole, people donated more per-person than we saw pre-pandemic. Smaller crowds were able to achieve or exceed results from pre-pandemic events, sometimes with a radical reduction in crowd size.

San Francisco’s largest food and wine event reduced its crowd from 1,000 to 500 people and raised as much as it had pre-pandemic. A South Bay event with a slightly smaller crowd than “normal” experienced a three-times increase in giving. These are both extreme examples, but they represent a wealth of other events that had similar experiences. Overall, people who were willing to show up did so, with a passion.

Auction Lots Returned to Normal

Our answer to the perennially popular question “what are the hottest lots right now?” started to sound very familiar to clients who have worked with us for many years. Because what was hot in 2022 was very similar to what was hot in 2019.

Trips regained their popularity as travel increased. Dining and entertainment reemerged as some of the most profitable auction lots in live auctions. Experiences were popular again, as were relationship-based lots. One of the hottest categories of auction lots last year were buy-in parties (aka sign-up parties, buy-a-spots, etc.), which made a huge comeback post-pandemic.

You can see great examples of what was hot in 2022 in our annual list of the “Most Exciting Lots of the Year.”

The Death of Hybrid

The final trend of 2022 was the disappearance of virtual and hybrid events. You can read about this in more detail in this blog post, but the short version is people wanted to be back in person, not attending events virtually.

What will 2023 hold for fundraising events? Stay tuned for our next post on predictions for the upcoming year.

What Became of Hybrid Events?

When the pandemic first struck and virtual events became the go-to method for conducting fundraising auctions, hybrid events seemed to offer so much potential. Hybrid events offered many promises, including the capability to bridge the divide between attendees eager to be back in the room together and crowds that still wanted to remain socially distant.

Two years later, what became of hybrid events? The short answer is they never lived up to their promise. The long answer is slightly more nuanced. Once in-person fundraising became an option, would-be supporters were separated into two distinct camps: those who were ready to be back in person, and those who were not.

Hybrid galas never truly took off

The at-home crowd seldom met financial expectations, let alone donated or spent enough to justify cost.

The people who wanted to be in-person were really ready to get out of the house and leave the virtual world behind. They were eager to gather, eager to party, and eager to support the cause. If they couldn’t get tickets to attend an event in person, there was no way they were going to log on to a virtual gala: they simply wouldn’t attend.

Those who chose to remain socially distant were less likely to purchase tickets for an in-person gala, obviously, but they were also less likely to log on for a virtual event. Multiple times we witnessed organizations work really hard to appease the “at-home crowd,” only to see tickets sales flag for the online event. And on those rare occasions when there were a decent number of online attendees, we seldom saw the level of participation we were hoping for from the online crowd. Simply put: virtual crowds did not donate or spend much within the hybrid model.

Which leads to the final reason hybrid events didn’t succeed: cost. Adding a hybrid component to an in-person event at least doubles the associated AV costs, and more than doubles the workload for event planning staff. And if the virtual crowd isn’t going to show up and spend money, those costs simply are not worth it. We saw a fall ’22 event spend over $15,000 on the virtual component of their hybrid event, only to have 12 people log on to watch the show.

This isn’t to say that there were not successful hybrid events; there were. We participated in hybrid events where the online audience generated over $155,000 in the fund-a-need, adding 33% to the overall take. And another event where the at-home crowd donated more than the in-person crowd. But these events were the exceptions, not the rule.

By the time crowds could gather in-person again, they were all-in or all-out, there was no middle ground.

Now is NOT the Time to NOT Be Fundraising

Many organizations are having a difficult time fundraising right now. Or rather, they are having a hard time justifying to themselves that they should be fundraising right now. They feel that since they are not a direct service organization feeding the needy, or providing PPE to front line workers, or helping maintain a roof over people’s heads, they don’t deserve to ask for money.

It is an understandable sentiment, but one that may prove to be extremely self-harmful. If you are an organization that is dependent upon annual fundraising efforts for survival, 2020 may be the most important year to be asking your donors to support you.

We know from experience that if you do not ask supporters for donations one year, it is harder to get them to engage the following year. People who are used to being asked to support you on an annual basis won’t simply stockpile that cash on your behalf. They look elsewhere to donate and give another organization the opportunity to build a meaningful relationship.

Now, more than ever, is the time to be reaching out to your supporters and engaging them to support you.

This tendency is being heavily multiplied right now since we also know that in an economic downturn, donors don’t stop giving, they simply reduce the number of organizations to which they give. They pull back and fortify the organizations they perceive to need them most.

During 2008, for example, if a donor usually donated $10,000 across five organizations, the trend we saw was to reduce the number of events they attended and possibly increase the donation per event. So a donor would attend three events and donate $10,000 to each, or two events and donate $15,000 to each. They didn’t stop giving, but they became more selective in their giving. Organizations who were able to clearly and effectively communicate the immediacy and relevance of their need were able to convince these retracting donors to fortify them, and not another organization.

Which brings us to right now: you may feel like now is not the time to be asking for money. You may feel like the right thing to do is to encourage people to support our front-line health care workers, a food bank, or another organization that is directly addressing our current crisis. It is a valid and understandable feeling, and those organizations deserve support. But so does yours.

I am a firm proponent of honest, engaging fundraising. So indulge me three questions:

• Has your need become greater since the outbreak of the Coronavirus?

• Do your clients need you?

• Are you dependent upon fundraising to survive?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you have an honest, engaging reason to reach out to your donor base and ask them to support you. If you answered “yes” to all of those questions, you should undoubtedly be fundraising this year.

My final thought: people want to give money to more than just one set of causes. Yes, people want to support direct service organizations; but they still want to support the arts, and their kids’ school, and…well…you.

How to Knock Your Next Fundraising Auction Out of the Park

I was recently contacted by Anthony Wilson, founder of Groupfinity, about participating in his podcast series. Groupfinity is a new resource for volunteers and volunteer organizations, committed to providing support and tools for success.

Anthony contacted me because he had served on a number of fundraising auction committees, but had never worked with a professional fundraising auctioneer and consultant before. He had a lot of questions about best practices, and once we got rolling our conversation was, as you can imagine, extensive. I ended up providing him with enough material for two podcasts. We covered myriad topics, from how many volunteers it takes to make an auction successful, to the goals of fundraising auctions, to how to leverage your board to make your next fundraising auction successful.

In short, it was a distillation of my entire philosophy down to an hour of podcast. You can find the entire podcast here, and the timestamps below outline the entire podcast.

[2:48] How many people do you have who are committed to volunteer to make the auction successful
[3:08] For an auction to be successful you have to have a couple of key components taken care of
[3:52] Get people you know have capacity and are prepared to support your event/organization
[4:12] Every event is made by 15 bidders
[4:42] You need people who have connections to invite your supporters
[5:02] The goals of a fundraising auction is three fold 1 Raise money 2 Tell your story 3 Engage new supporters
[6:47] For an event chair, you’ll spend 700 hours over 9 months
[7:39] If you’re looking for someone to chair your fundraising auction, find the busiest person you know
[9:58] In putting together a fundraising auction, it has to be FUN and it has to be FUNdraising
[10:28] Don’t throw a big party and then hit them over the head with an auction when they get there
[15:14] Fund a Need
[16:02] Keys to making your Fund a Need successful
[19:15] 7 Keys to a Fund a Need
[20:35] Fundraising is conversation with your community
[21:00] Talk to your donors to see what they’re interested in supporting
[22:20] We need somebody to get the ball rolling
[23:33] An auction breaks into 3 groups of people
[25:38] Your board needs to do 3 things to make the auction successful
[27:58] What item can I count on you to help bid up?
[28:39] Peer pressure drives donations
[28:56] Fundraising auctions are a place for people to make donations in a public setting

Gamblers like to know the odds

Raffles are an important revenue generator for most fundraising events. They provide a low-cost entry point for attendees to participate while simultaneously helping raise significant amounts. We consistently see raffles that raise $5,000 - $10,000 and occasionally see them in the $15,000 - $25,000 range.

Most people think the prize is the most important piece of a raffle and focus all of their attention on finding something they think will have universal appeal. While the prize is important, I argue that the number of tickets you are going to make available is even more crucial. 

Gamblers like to know the odds before they put down their money. When you limit the number of available tickets for a raffle, you are giving people a clear understanding of their odds. And a perceived “good chance” encourages people to pay a higher price to play.

Unlimited $25 raffle tickets aren’t as appealing – from a gambling standpoint – as 1 of 100 tickets at $50 each. Who knows how many people are going to buy one of those $25 tickets? But the $50 ticket? There are only 100 of those, and odds resonate with gamblers.

By limiting supply you also enable your staff or volunteers to create a sense of urgency: “Do you want a 1 in 100 chance to win this trip to Hawaii? There are only 50 chances left…” Tickets will run out. Buy yours now. For a limited time only.

There are a number of calculations that go into deciding how many tickets you should make available for a particular raffle and how much you should charge per ticket. First and foremost, you need to determine how much you want to raise in your raffle. Our recommendation is that any raffle should raise at least double the value of the donation.

Then you have to calculate how many tickets you think you could sell. If you’ve never done a raffle before and have no data to rely on, just know that you can’t expect 100% of your attendees to buy raffle tickets. Between 15% and 20% of your attendees is a reasonable assumption, if the raffle is compelling.

It is always preferable to have more demand than supply, so people will rush to get their tickets next year. Limit the number of tickets and increase the amount you raise in your raffle. People who participate in raffles are gamblers, and every gambler likes to think they are getting good odds.

Personalize your paddle raise

The paddle raise is the most important component of most fundraising auctions, often raising more than the rest of the auction combined. The way it is introduced is crucial to engaging the crowd and ensuring success.

A good paddle raise pitch tells stories that connect your audience to your mission on a personal level. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be overly dramatic, it just needs to be honest and engaging. Like this video of Trent Yaconelli, associate executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of St Helena and Calistoga, at their BIG Night gala.

One way the election will impact your fall auction: communications

Last week we explored the upcoming presidential election’s impact on fall fundraising auctions, and concluded that the popularly held beliefs are misconceptions (see our blog post on the topic for an in-depth analysis). But there is one area where the fall election cycle is going to impact fall events: direct mail, mailing houses, and the sheer volume of communication people will receive.

The first week of November is consistently one of the top three busiest weeks of the year for mail. If you are planning on sending an invitation or direct mail to your attendees between October 1st and November 4th, make sure that your mail house is not going to be inundated with political work. One event planner we work with only contracts mailing houses that don’t do any political work; she wants to ensure her clients are top priority.

Non-profit communication always faces stiff competition for recipients’ attention, and during an election year that competition is much fiercer. It is no longer limited solely to direct mail, either. Since the 2010 election, political campaigns have come to rely more upon email, social media and other electronic outlets. For events in November, this means that your two-week prior touch-base with attendees to confirm their attendance and get them a copy of your auction catalog is going to be competing with a lot of other noise.

Your most ardent supporters will know who you are and open your emails to them – but their guests might be another story. Relationships rule development, so leverage all of the connections you have. Utilize your network of supporters: have table captains reach out to their guests directly on your behalf to market your auction (see our blog post on the subject). And start now: I am a big fan of expectation management through clear communication. If you get your supporters committed to making your event a success in advance, they will help continue that tradition every year.