Seven Tips To Raise More Money In Your Charity Auction Cash Appeal
| Posted in Fundraising on Oct 18, 2010 by |
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Many auction ideas can help you raise cash, but no other singular activity during your charity auction will have more financial impact than the cash appeal. It can be such a cash cow that some of my clients have no live auction and only conduct an appeal.
The appeal is heard by various names (e.g. gift from the heart, cash call, paddle raiser, community gift), but whatever you call it, follow this format to be successful.
1. Select a single item or cause to fund. You will confuse your audience if you have a laundry list of activities or items. I saw an appeal flop at one school because they insisted on raising money for three items. Some members of the (tipsy) audience became confused and thought they could choose which item they got to fund. Ugh! Keep it simple by keeping it singular.
2. Advertise the appeal. Just as you would advertise a silent auction item or live auction item, you should advertise the appeal. Talk it up prior to the gala, put it in your catalog, highlight it in your program, and ensure it has its own display table in the silent auction. Showcase it.
3. Describe the need. This can be conveyed in a heart-wrenching video, a heart-warming live testimonial, or via a short plea from someone close to the need who can succinctly describe its impact. Guests need to understand where the money is going, and how it will help the cause.
4. Offer several different pledge levels so everyone can participate. The appeal is the “group gift” of the gala, but not everyone is going to be able to give at the same level. By offering four to six different levels of pledges, you ensure everyone in your crowd can give and feel good about it.
5. Start high; end low. Begin by asking for the most amount of money (your highest giving level), and end by asking for the least amount of money (your lowest giving level). This is simple psychology. Asking a guest to pledge $100 seems a modest request after they have just witnessed other guests pledging $1000.
6. Make the pledge public. Ask auction guests to raise their bid card to make their pledge public. With few exceptions, public pledging will raise more money than silent pledging. Pledges written on note cards and collected by volunteers aren’t as effective. When a guest watches a neighbor raise his bid card or stand to make a pledge, there is subtle pressure and encouragement to do the same.
7. Announce the total of what was raised. Guests are always curious about the total, and my experience has been that even when the money raised hasn’t been as spectacular as privately had been hoped, guests don’t know it. “Wow, we raised $25,000,” a guest will exclaim (even though we hoped for $35,000) “That’s wonderful!” Announcing the total inspires guests; they feel good about their participation. You’ll likely even collect a few more donations as guests check-out.
If you haven’t yet incorporated a cash appeal into your charity auction or annual gala, add it to your bag of fundraising tricks. It’s a wonderful way of simultaneously highlighting your mission and collecting donations.
© 2010 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved.
Benefit auctioneer Sherry Truhlar, CMP, BAS has been featured on television
(E! Style, TLC) and in national publications (The Washington Post Magazine,
AUCTIONEER) for her trend-setting work with auction fundraisers. In
addition to serving clients as an auctioneer, she teaches popular online
classes designed to educate volunteer auction chairpersons about simple ways
they can improve the bottom-line results of their auctions. Her free or
nearly free resources are used by hundreds of charities, and her
complementary Auction Item Guide is downloaded by dozens every day who seek
auction procurement help. Get your own FREE ITEM GUIDE (listing the 100 items selling over value) at www.RedAppleAuctions.com
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Charity Benefit Auction Nonprofit Non-Profit Red Apple Auctions
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