Last Minute School Auction Tips
Last minute tips from our articles, message boards and file exchange to take care of your auction's final details.
Many
y of
y of us have a love-hate relationship with auctions. When you are in the final throws of putting the auction together, you are probably not feeling a whole lot of love. You’re too busy hunting for a few more volunteers (because a half dozen who promised to help have gone AWOL) or you are perhaps responding to a parent’s complaint about the menu. Just when you’ve wrapped the last of a few dozen theme baskets in cellophane, you proclaim: Never again!
But then the auction goes well, and you’ve pulled off a huge event for your school. You’ve had a great time and you’ve seen parents connect on the big night. And then, caught up in the joy of this accomplishment, you actually announce you’ll chair next year’s auction!
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before you get to that giddy point, you probably have a few remaining details for this year’s event. If you are in the final stretch before your spring auction, here are some very last minute tips for you to consider.
Take a look at our article on helping to keep auctions fun and festive. Some of us can lose sight of the fact that the event is supposed to be fun and this article has some good ideas on keeping the focus on the festivities. Also, it includes suggestions on practical auction issues, such as boosting profits. One idea is to stagger the closing of the silent auction items instead of ending it all at once. This gives more opportunities for bidding.
Many of our community members have weighed in on auction strategies recently and offer these great nuggets of advice:
Good luck… and have a great event!
But then the auction goes well, and you’ve pulled off a huge event for your school. You’ve had a great time and you’ve seen parents connect on the big night. And then, caught up in the joy of this accomplishment, you actually announce you’ll chair next year’s auction!
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before you get to that giddy point, you probably have a few remaining details for this year’s event. If you are in the final stretch before your spring auction, here are some very last minute tips for you to consider.
Take a look at our article on helping to keep auctions fun and festive. Some of us can lose sight of the fact that the event is supposed to be fun and this article has some good ideas on keeping the focus on the festivities. Also, it includes suggestions on practical auction issues, such as boosting profits. One idea is to stagger the closing of the silent auction items instead of ending it all at once. This gives more opportunities for bidding.
Many of our community members have weighed in on auction strategies recently and offer these great nuggets of advice:
- Give incentives to parents who buy event tickets ahead of time and promote special items by taking photos and posting them on your website. These and other suggestions are on this new auction event ideas thread.
- Need just a few more theme basket ideas? How about using an umbrella (opened, turned upside down) as the basket and load it with miscellaneous items that you would save for a rainy day? Other basket ideas are on this theme basket thread.
- At the event, watch the silent auction action. If someone gets outbid, there’s no harm in letting that person know while he still has time to place another bid! Read more about boosting the bids on this thread.
- Finally, visit our file exchange for auctions, where we have lots of downloadables. Just a few examples: silent auction bid sheets and a sample profit and loss statement.
Good luck… and have a great event!
