One of the most common questions I get is: "How many live and silent auction packages should we have?"

It's a great question because the answer affects everything from your guest experience to your fundraising results. And like a lot of things in gala fundraising, the answer is: it depends. But here's the principle I want you to keep in mind as you read this:

The goal isn't to have more packages. The goal is to create competition.

That's true for both your live auction and your silent auction.

Start With Your Audience, Not Your Procurement List

When organizations are deciding how many auction packages to have, they often start by asking:

"How many packages can we get?"

I think a better question is:

How many packages can our audience support?

Because auction revenue doesn't come from having more inventory.

It comes from having enough demand around each package to create bidding activity.

That's why audience size matters so much.

Live Auctions: Five to Seven Packages Is Usually Right

For most events, five to seven live auction packages is the sweet spot. Why?

Because every package takes time.

A live auction package can take up to four minutes to sell. Five packages is roughly 20 minutes of program time. Seven packages can push you closer to 30 minutes.

And remember: most of the audience isn't bidding. They're watching.

This is one of the reasons I don't love seeing long live auctions. Every package needs to earn its place in the program.

Do The Bidder Math

A good rule of thumb is that about 10% of your audience can realistically bid on live auction packages.

Let's say you have 100 guests.

That might mean 10 potential bidders. In reality, it may only be five, six, or seven bidder numbers actively participating.

Now think about what creates a great live auction.

You need multiple qualified bidders who want the same package. That's where bidding wars come from.

If you only have six active bidders in the room, it may not make sense to have seven live auction packages. You simply don't have enough competition to support them.

In that situation, two or three strong packages might be the way to go.

On the other hand, a 500-person event may have 25 to 35 active bidder numbers participating. Five to seven packages can work extremely well in that environment.

The key isn't the number of packages. The key is whether you have the right packages and enough bidders to create competition.

Silent Auctions Are Different

Silent auctions are a different beast.

The return on effort is usually much lower, and they require significantly more work to procure, package, display, manage, and fulfill.

That's why one of the biggest questions isn't:

"How many packages should we have?"

It's: How many packages can we execute well?

Your team capacity matters. A school with hundreds of engaged parents and volunteers can support a much larger silent auction than a small nonprofit with a lean staff.

The One-to-Five Rule

For most organizations, I like using a simple guideline:

One silent auction package for every five guests.

Package, not item. A package is something valuable and compelling. An item is just an item.

If you have 100 guests, that means up to 20 packages.

If you have 500 guests, that means up to 100 packages.

And I want to emphasize the word "up to." This is not a target. It's a ceiling.

Why More Isn't Necessarily Better

This is where I see organizations get into trouble. They assume that if 20 packages is good, then 40 must be better.

But auction fundraising doesn't work that way.

The more packages you add, the more you spread out bidder attention.

Competition drops. Bidding activity slows down.

And the auction can start to feel more like a shopping experience than a fundraising experience.

The strongest silent auctions are curated. They feel intentional. They create demand. They make people compete. That's what drives revenue.

????????Schools Are Their Own Category

Schools can often exceed the one-to-five ratio.

They have parent parties, teacher experiences, class projects, kid experiences, and a much larger volunteer base helping make it all happen. But even then, the same principle applies. Quality matters more than quantity.

The goal is for the auction to feel exciting and valuable, not like a garage sale.

The Pattern I See Again And Again

I've worked with organizations that were nervous about reducing the size of their auction.

Every time, the same thing happens.

The auction becomes more focused. The packages become stronger. Competition increases.

And they raise the same amount of money or more.

That's why I rarely worry about making an auction smaller and only focus on make it better.

Final Thoughts

?????When you're deciding how many live or silent auction packages to have, don't start with procurement. Start with your audience.

The goal isn't to have more packages. The goal is to create competition.

????Because competition is what drives bidding. And bidding is what drives revenue.