We conduct a Cinco de Mayo fundraiser at our preschool each year with raffles and silent auctions. The event is held during the day, and as we're a special needs preschool, we have morning and afternoon classes. We have the same items with the auctions ending after the second event.
Most parents attend only the event where their children are performing and not both -- meaning that morning parents don't bid on the auction items because they "won't win" if they do. Ditto with parents who can't make the event at all due to work or other reasons. We also promote this heavily in the community, where they don't attend the event but do presales.
To accomodate this last year, we allowed submission of a "top bid" ahead of time that a designated committee member was in charge of placing as needed (we'd put only what they neeeded to win). This didn't work when someone forgot to turn in the bid in their pocket, etc. Many people also weren't comfortable with this, which I can understand.
To increase the appeal -- as we've gotten some great items donated this year! -- I thought about doing our silent auction online starting a few weeks ahead of time and concluding right around the event. However, we have no experience in this whatsoever, nor do any of the other schools in our district.
1) Has anyone conducted online auctions for items in the past?
2) How did it work? Would you do it again?
3) What do we need to watch out for to ensure we have success?
4) What provider did you use?
5) How do you maximize profits -- minimizing credit card fees, increasing publicity, etc?
6) What is the best time to have an auction end? Weekday or weekend? I'll assume evening sometime.... How long should it run for? One week or two? End before the event itself or after?
Anything else you can think of or suggestions you might have?
