Be sure to contact local tour operators and see if you can get a discounted ticket package for your fundraiser. When choosing items for your live auction, consider what prices your audience would like to offer competitively? For example, if your organization is made up of community-oriented parents, consider partnering with a local family restaurant for gift cards to feed the whole family. Alternatively, if your visitors tend to be older, they might enjoy fine jewelry or souvenirs. A high-end hands-on cooking class with a professional chef can be a great silent auction item for your next event.
This is a good alternative to the larger, flashier items in a live auction and is perfect for this environment. Perhaps the most popular item, which appears 5 times on our top 20 list, falls into the category of unique experience packages. For something truly special, reach out to well-connected board members or spend time brainstorming Auction Item Ideas with your volunteer committee to see what unique relationships they can have. Be sure to promote these high-impact items before the event (our online pre-bid package makes it easy) and encourage your auction volunteers to point them out to guests. If you’re looking for unique silent auction ideas, you’ve found them.
While these are cheaper items, offering them gives all bidders the opportunity to contribute to their goal. You can even group them together or with any of the ideas from previous free silent auction items to create a more attractive auction package. One of the most important and perhaps most complicated parts of planning a charity auction is the process of acquiring items. After all, your virtual, live or silent auction items are the stars of the event! It is definitely worth spending a lot of time and attention on getting the perfect range to offer your bidders. Live, silent and online auctions can be very effective fundraising events for schools.
Silent auctions go very well with a number of other fundraising activities. Organize items and their bid sheets on tables and encourage the public to stop by or make the silent auction part of a larger fundraising event. Use mobile bidding technology to enable people to bid on items without being present at the auction. Finally, it’s a good idea to figure out in advance how items from your auction will reach your guests, especially if you’re hosting a virtual silent auction. We recommend that you work with a local courier to set shipping expectations and then include shipping costs in your initial auction bid. If it’s an item that may raise shipping concerns, let your bidders know that shipping is included in the auction item description.
Tickets for popular events are another classic online auction idea, live and silent. Contact local venues to discuss the possibility of a donated ticket package and be sure to think about what types of events will be most exciting for your donors. If you can get the right tickets for a sold-out event, you can quickly generate a lot of deals. Sponsored gift cards are great ideas for charity auction items that can cover a variety of experiences or products. For example, you can contact a local retailer or business to donate a gift card for your products and then list them as event sponsors in return.
For many organizations, golf-related fundraising ideas can be hugely popular. Some nonprofits regularly host extensive golf tournaments that conclude with a gala and a live auction. At OneCause, we’re experts in charity auctions, so we’ve put together an example of the best online, live and silent auction items to get your event off to a great start. In addition, we’ll share some best practices for purchasing items to save you time and take your auction bids to the next level.
People love sports and these auction ideas are especially popular if your local or regional professional teams are doing well or have a large following. Here are some of the most popular sports-related silent auction items that tend to generate notable bids. Silent auctions differ from live auctions in different ways. For starters, a silent auction requires people to submit their bids in secret, while a live event requires people to bid on items in front of all participants.