Because of the pandemic, it’s been difficult to hold large events or galas for fundraising. Charities and organizations really depend on these types of events in order to raise funds. People were able to socialize at these fun events in which items were auctioned off in person or there were silent auctions. Seems like such a long time ago, right?
Many organizations are now turning to online auctions as an alternative to live auctions. There are many benefits to hosting an online auction including reaching a more global audience. Of course, it’s not as exciting as putting together a live event, getting dressed up, and engaging with donors. It’s exciting, though, to know that there’s an option for you to raise money despite the current circumstances.
Is your organization thinking about holding an online auction? Here is how you can do it using a virtual platform…
First, you will need to gather prizes from donors. Reach out to your community and local businesses to see if anybody will donate goods and/or services to be auctioned off. If you’re experienced in putting together auction events, then you probably already have this step covered.
Take pictures and write descriptions for each auction item. You can either do this yourself or if you hire us, we can do this for you. Our online auction platform is relatively easy to use and you can do it all on an iPhone. If you have many items to upload, then it might save you a great deal of time and headache if we do it all for you.
Marketing is key to any successful online auction. Here are a few ideas to promote it for maximum exposure:
1) If you have an email list, send out an announcement about the auction.
2) Let your followers know about it on social media.
3) Send out a press release to the media. Make sure to contact all the local news stations and newspapers. You could also submit press releases to sites such as PRweb.com to reach more outlets.
4) Put an ad in a local publication, newspaper, or online channels such as Google ads or Facebook ads.
When marketing the auction, make sure to include the date it starts closing and a link to the auction itself.
Once the auction has ended, you’ll have to determine how you want to deliver items to people. Do you want to personally ship items yourself, have people pick them up, or arrange for a third-party shipping company to deliver for you?
Here at Cal Auctions we have local customers either pick up items themselves or contact our shipping partner, Pakmail La Jolla, to ship items.
What’s nice about a virtual online auction platform is that it takes care of collecting customer’s information such as addresses and payment information for you.
As you can see, hosting an online auction for fundraising doesn’t require as much work or planning as a live, in-person event. You could also do this type of auction more often.
If you’re in the Southern California area and are interested in our online auction platform to host an event, contact us today!
