00:00 How do we get better live auction items? 00:02 This is a question that I have fielded 00:04 hundreds of times. Now, the simple 00:06 answer is that great auction packages 00:08 live at the intersection between your 00:11 donors and what they want and the 00:12 connections that you have. Now, let's 00:15 break down exactly what that means. Hey 00:18 I'm Danny Darosa. I help nonprofit 00:20 leaders crush their annual gaylas. And 00:21 over the years, I have seen a ton of 00:23 live auctions that do really well and 00:25 some that fall flat. And a lot has to do 00:28 with the types of packages that are in 00:30 the auction. Before we get into what 00:34 makes a great live auction package or 00:35 how to get them, let's just review the 00:37 size and the number of packages. In 00:40 terms of the number of

packages, five to 00:42 seven is generally correct for most 00:44 gallas. That's because majority of your 00:47 audience doesn't even have the means to 00:49 bid on these packages and each one takes 00:51 about 3 to four minutes to auction off. 00:53 So you don't want something that's 00:54 dragging on for too long and sucking the 00:57 energy out of the room. You also don't 00:59 want to run out of money before you run 01:00 out of packages. So five to seven is 01:03 generally correct in terms of the size 01:05 of the package. This is based on your 01:09 individual ticket price. The lower your 01:11 individual ticket price, the smaller the 01:13 packages should be. The higher your 01:14 individual ticket price, the higher the 01:16 packages should be. So, an individual 01:18 ticket price below a hundred, you can 01:20 expect that your packages will likely go 01:22 for somewhere around the high hundreds 01:25 maybe a little bit over a thousand in 01:27 some cases. If your ticket price is 01:29 between 100 and 200, you can expect that 01:32 your live auction packages are going to 01:34 be going for the low thousands, maybe up 01:36 to the mid thousands. If your ticket 01:38 price is above 200, then you're looking 01:40 at mid thousands and above for the final 01:43 purchase price of your live auction 01:45 packages. It's important that the value 01:48 of these packages gets matched to the 01:50 audience. You don't want anything going 01:52 for too low and you don't want people 01:54 getting bargains and deals on packages 01:56 that don't go for anywhere near the 01:58 value that they actually hold. Now 02:01 assuming that you have a great grasp of 02:04 the size and number of packages you're 02:06 going for, the places you're going to 02:08 start looking for packages are your 02:11 board members, your longtime donors 02:13 vendors, sponsors, people who already 02:17 love you. Now, the the packages that you 02:20 want to look for is first you want to 02:22 look for where is the lowhanging fruit. 02:25 What is the easiest thing for you to get 02:26 a hold of? So to go through this, we are 02:28 going to go through the acronym benefit. 02:32 These are seven packages that generally 02:35 do really well on a live auction. This 02:37 doesn't mean you need all seven packages 02:39 in your live auction. Again, you know 02:41 five to seven is generally correct and 02:43 five, you know, might be even more 02:45 correct for you depending on your 02:46 audience. See our previous video for 02:48 more about that. But you want to look at 02:51 each one of these categories and see 02:54 what is already lowhanging fruit for 02:56 you. We're going to start off by looking 02:57 at B. B is booze, wine, and spirits. So 03:02 this is like a wine seller or a booze 03:05 wagon or something, you know, a really 03:08 unique wine tasting, something in that 03:10 department. Uh, I've seen a lot of 03:12 schools able to make wine sellers pretty 03:14 easily by getting, you know, a little 03:17 drawing going that says for, you know 03:20 every parent that drops off a bottle of 03:22 wine above $25, you're entered into a 03:24 drawing to win $500 off tuition 03:27 something like that. Sometimes, you 03:29 know, board members, it's like, bring 03:31 one to two bottles of wine above a $25 03:34 value to each board meeting. You know 03:36 maybe you have some connections to some 03:38 distributors, but creating a wine seller 03:41 of like 25 to 60 bottles can be really 03:46 popular as one auction item by itself 03:49 especially if you have one or two 03:51 bottles that are valued, you know 03:52 something a lot higher, maybe 75 to $100 03:55 or something like that. So, that's B. 03:58 The first E is exclusive dining. So 04:01 think private catered dinners 04:04 uh, you know, something where you get a 04:05 chef's table at a restaurant, maybe a 04:08 really high-end cooking classes or 04:10 something like that that are hard to 04:11 get. People always have a reason to go 04:13 out and eat and celebrate. 04:14 Anniversaries, client appreciation 04:16 events, birthdays, there's so many 04:18 things to celebrate and, you know 04:20 frankly, we're always eating and we 04:22 always have to eat. So, it makes a great 04:24 live auction package. One idea also is 04:27 to ask your caterer if they are willing 04:29 to donate a catered dinner in someone's 04:31 home. In a lot of cases, they will make 04:32 that part of their package. Sometimes 04:34 you might need to pay a small fee for 04:37 some of the food or something like that 04:38 but it could be well worth it for your 04:40 live auction. N is nimble and notable. 04:44 This is a really great area of 04:46 opportunity where we have the lowhanging 04:48 fruit that I was mentioning. Now, this 04:51 is packages that you put together with 04:53 smaller donations. So, think date night 04:55 packages, family fun packages, sports 04:58 packages. A date night package could be 05:01 four to six really great dates. You 05:03 know, with a date being symphony 05:04 tickets, an amazing bottle of wine, and 05:07 a gift card to go to a restaurant 05:09 downtown. Maybe the the second date 05:12 there is an overnight stay at, you know 05:15 a town that's within an hour drive, a 05:18 nice breakfast gift card there, and a 05:20 gift card to go shop at one of their 05:22 local boutiques. 05:24 something like that. Now, creating four 05:26 to six of those is what makes it a 05:29 valuable larger live auction package. 05:32 When your donors are hearing date after 05:34 date and gift card after gift card, as 05:36 the live auctioneer is describing it 05:38 they get really excited about it and 05:41 you know, really excited about bidding 05:42 on it for their family, their 05:44 significant other, whatever that is. 05:46 Again, this is something that schools 05:49 can put together pretty easily, I found 05:51 because another thing you can add to the 05:53 drawing is if you also submit a gift 05:55 card above $50, you get put into this 05:57 drawing for $500 off tuition or 06:00 something like that. And you can put 06:02 together these packages. Also, schools 06:04 tend to have such large silent auctions 06:06 anyway that drawing some of the items 06:09 out of that silent auction to create 06:11 this package is usually pretty viable. 06:13 The second E is exotic and unique. So 06:17 think private behind the scenes tours 06:20 uh, onfield access at a game or a live 06:24 painting, something like that. Now, this 06:27 is going to be with your connections. 06:28 Uh, I had a client who was a police 06:31 officer and he was able to organize a 06:35 behind thescenes tour of their crime lab 06:38 and then taking the winners to a 06:42 policeonly boxing gym. So, this was 06:45 definitely an exotic and a unique type 06:48 of package. So, this is where you really 06:50 want to tap your board members, your 06:52 longtime supporters, and just try to see 06:54 who has access to something that would 06:57 be unique and off thebeaten path. 06:59 Another example of this would be, you 07:01 know, dinner with a local celebrity 07:03 dinner with a a politician, you know 07:06 something along those lines could make 07:08 it exotic and unique. Maybe you know 07:10 somebody who works at the local museum 07:13 that can show a part of the museum that 07:17 isn't available to the public or maybe 07:19 they can give a preview of an exhibit 07:21 they're starting to work on, show you 07:22 how they make an exhibit. This is also 07:25 you know, a brewery or a winery that 07:28 allows you to make your own brew or, you 07:32 know, stomp the grapes and barrel up 07:34 your wine, things like that. 07:37 Now F is a fly somewhere vacation. So 07:40 this is you know at least 5 to seven 07:42 days. This is out of state. Not 07:44 necessarily out of the country but this 07:46 is definitely where you fly somewhere. 07:48 When it comes to this uh I get this 07:51 question all the time of you know how do 07:54 we get these better vacations? How do we 07:56 get these vacation homes? Especially 07:58 when we get to the next one which is 07:59 instate vacations or stations. The 08:02 answer to that really is it is your 08:04 connections and your network. So you 08:07 want to look again at longtime 08:09 supporters, vendors, sponsors, board 08:12 members. And the key is that you want to 08:15 make a very specific ask for what you're 08:18 looking for. You don't want to say 08:21 "Does anybody have a vacation home 08:23 donate?" You don't want to say, "Um, is 08:27 there anything big like that you can 08:29 donate for any amount of time?" Anything 08:30 that's an ambiguous ask is really hard 08:33 to act upon. So if you can say something 08:35 more like, "We are looking for a house 08:40 that's on a beach property, maybe 08:41 Hawaii, maybe Florida, maybe Mexico. We 08:44 are looking to put a beach home in our 08:47 live auction. We want to make sure that 08:50 the person can stay there for five to 08:52 seven nights and that they have access 08:56 to the beach within a mile of where 08:58 they're staying. as an example. If you 09:01 can get more specific with your asks 09:03 you're more likely to be able to figure 09:07 out who has access to something like 09:09 this. But again, you want to ask even 09:11 vendors, sponsors along with, you know 09:14 your board members and your longtime 09:16 supporters. Putting it out in an email 09:18 blast is, you know, this is a way that 09:20 you can really support our fundraising 09:22 and putting that specific ask in there 09:24 is really helpful. So again, fly 09:26 somewhere vacation is F. I instate 09:29 vacation or stations, three to five days 09:32 somewhere within driving distance. Uh 09:34 these shouldn't be underestimated 09:36 because people nowadays don't have as 09:38 much time. So a smaller vacation that's 09:41 easier to get to can be really popular. 09:43 Here in the Colorado area, a mountain 09:46 home is really popular at really any of 09:49 our mountain locations. So to get that 09:53 and find connections to homes like that 09:55 it's the same thing as a fly somewhere 09:57 vacation. Last up, this category to me 10:01 is the most important for every single 10:04 like auction to have this category. It 10:07 is probably the lowest hanging fruit and 10:10 it accomplishes more than one goal with 10:12 it. So this is a treasure tradition. 10:14 This is something that comes from the 10:17 organization and can only be purchased 10:20 in this moment at this gala. So 10:22 examples of a treasure tradition are at 10:25 a school, it's front row parking, a 10:28 reserve parking spot, or front row seats 10:30 to graduation that are really hard to 10:32 get. Or maybe it's a Catholic school and 10:36 the father will come over to your house 10:38 and have a private mass and dinner for 10:40 up to 20 people. At an animal welfare 10:44 shelter that I work with, we do 10:46 something called rescue ride where two 10:48 people get to go along with the man who 10:51 traps hordes of uh cats and brings them 10:54 back to get them spayed and neutered and 10:56 releases them or transports large halls 10:59 of dogs that need to be moved to another 11:01 shelter or wherever they need to be 11:03 moved to. So, two people get to go along 11:06 with him on this adventure. I've 11:08 actually been brought on this adventure 11:10 with one of the people that bought it 11:13 that year. We sold it twice for $3,500 11:15 each, which was really great, and it was 11:18 a really fun experience. Now, why these 11:20 treasure traditions accomplish more than 11:22 one goal is because they not only make 11:25 you money. They typically are something 11:27 you can also always also sell more than 11:30 one time, which is a great live auction 11:32 package, but they also bring your 11:35 supporters closer into your mission. And 11:38 for your supporters that already have it 11:41 all and they maybe already have their 11:43 time shares or the places they like to 11:45 vacation, this is something for them to 11:48 buy that they're going to be really 11:50 excited to purchase. Other examples of 11:52 treasure traditions I've seen is your 11:55 pet can go on the front of the calendar 11:57 cover. For schools, this is like your 11:59 principal for a day or like a kids party 12:03 at school after hours where they get to 12:05 play games in the hallway, then they get 12:07 a pizza party, and then they get an ice 12:09 cream party. The point of a treasure 12:12 tradition is to just be really creative 12:14 with it and make sure it is something 12:16 extremely unique and personal to the 12:18 organization. So, the benefit acronym 12:20 gives you an idea of what some great 12:22 packages are. Another thing to remember 12:24 is that each live auction slot is like a 12:27 precious piece of real estate. You could 12:29 put a single family home on it, a 12:31 duplex, or an apartment complex. And in 12:33 your live auction, that translates to 12:35 packages that can be sold more than 12:37 once. A package you can sell more than 12:39 once is really attractive because we 12:41 take the same amount of time, but we 12:43 double or triple or however much, you 12:46 know, the ROI that happens in that one 12:48 slot. This brings me to consignment 12:51 packages. I get this question a lot too 12:54 which is like, should we buy one of 12:56 these nice vacations from X, Y, and Z 12:59 company? And the question usually isn't 13:01 super straightforward. It depends. We 13:03 want to use consignment packages to add 13:05 value to our live auction, but we don't 13:07 want to build our live auction based on 13:09 consignment packages. One of the main 13:11 reasons being ROI. A lot of the money 13:14 goes to the consignment company and less 13:16 goes into the nonprofit's pocket, just 13:18 depending on how much the auctioneer 13:19 sells it for. Now, this isn't entirely a 13:22 bad thing because one of the positive 13:23 things about consignment trips is that 13:26 your affluent donors tend to also be 13:28 affluent travelers. So, offering them a 13:32 well-curated trip where they can call 13:34 somebody else for their concierge and 13:36 you don't have to play travel agent is a 13:39 really appealing thing about a 13:40 consignment package. The mistake that 13:43 I've seen in the past is when we do our 13:46 live auction before our paddle razor and 13:48 then we sell multiple consignment 13:51 packages. 7 8 9 10 12 packages and we've 13:55 sold them for $3,000 each. The nonprofit 13:58 has made $1,000 on each of them. And 14:00 then we get to our paddle razor and we 14:02 don't have any money left in the room 14:04 for our paddle razor. The reason that's 14:06 disappointing is because the nonprofit 14:09 only got $1,000 per one of those trips 14:12 but the donors shelled out $3,000 per 14:15 trip. If we were to do that in the 14:17 reverse order and first try to get as 14:19 much money as possible in the paddle 14:21 raiser and then try consignment trips 14:24 that's better for the nonprofit overall. 14:27 But in general, it's not that 14:28 consignment trips are bad. We just want 14:30 to be strategic about adding them and 14:32 making sure they're not the basis of our 14:34 live auction. We also want to make sure 14:37 that if we are offering a consignment 14:39 trip to our donors, we have vetted it 14:42 properly. Not all of these consignment 14:44 companies are created equally. I have 14:46 heard some horror stories and I've also 14:48 heard some amazing stories about some 14:51 incredible trips and experiences they've 14:52 had, not only with the company, but on 14:55 the trip. So, it's important to do your 14:58 homework. Look through the contracts at 14:59 all the hidden fees potentially, all the 15:02 extra things that they're going to 15:03 spring upon your donor. You know, I've 15:05 seen some consignment packages that have 15:07 really low costs, but the reality is 15:09 that once your donors get there, they 15:11 get pitched for a time share where they 15:14 have to buy all these extra add-ons. Uh 15:17 there's also, you know, been cases where 15:20 the the pictures don't line up with what 15:23 the donor actually gets there. So 15:26 checking contracts is really important. 15:28 Getting references from these 15:29 consignments is important, but the best 15:31 way of knowing if it's a great trip or 15:34 not is talking to somebody who's 15:35 actually been on the trip. To recap 15:38 make sure you have the right number and 15:40 size packages. You want to look through 15:42 the benefit acronym to find all the 15:44 lowhanging fruit that can help you have 15:46 a high ROI live auction. When asking for 15:50 people to donate anything for your live 15:51 auction, anything from a vacation home 15:54 to a dinner gift card to behind the 15:57 scenes tours, you name it, you want to 15:59 make sure you are really specific about 16:01 your ask and that you're really clear 16:04 about how it's going to support the 16:06 organization. If you're planning on 16:07 adding consignment vacations, make sure 16:09 that you are really strategic about 16:11 that. You do your homework and you make 16:13 sure the ROI is really high. If this 16:16 video has been helpful, let us know 16:19 below. And we would love to hear in the 16:21 comments about some great live auction 16:23 package ideas you have, especially if 16:24 it's in the treasure traditions 16:26 category. Uh fellow nonprofit leaders 16:29 are always looking for great ideas from 16:31 each other on how to maximize their 16:33 gallas and get great packages. Also 16:37 make sure to subscribe below for more 16:39 videos like this. As always, we hope you 16:41 have your most profitable gala