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This might sound crazy coming from a

live auctioneer.

This might sound crazy coming from an

auctioneer, but not every gala should

have a live auction.

I get this question all the time. Is it

okay to not have a live auction? And in

so many cases, the answer is yes.

Teams feel pressure to have live

auctions because they see it at other

events. A lot of times when we think

about a fundraising gala, we think about

an auction. But just like every decision

within gala planning, whether or not to

have a live auction should be strategic

and intentional. So let's break this

down.

First, we're going to look at the

fundraising streams matrix. This shows

us the order of importance for

fundraising streams and how to decide to

add them in and when the time is right

for it. So, first and foremost, all

arrows point toward the paddle raiser

special appeal quadrant. It is the

highest in funds raised. It is the

highest ROI. It is the most exciting.

And it is the fundraising stream where

everybody can participate. So, when

asking ourselves, is it okay to not have

a live auction? Should we add a live

auction? Anything in that realm? We

first want to consider whether or not

we've maximized our paddle razer. Have

we planted the audience with potential

donors and matches? Do we have an

incredible mission moment video that

tugs on the heartstrings right before

our paddle razor? Have we put all of our

eggs into this basket to make sure we

are profiting as much as possible? If

the answer to that is no, then it might

not be the right time to consider a live

auction. You, you know, putting more and

more time into cultivating that paddle

racer is what is going to help you win

in the long run. However, if that answer

is yes, then you might consider adding a

live auction.

But the next area to question when we

want to add a live auction is does the

math make sense? Now, in every audience,

about 10% of the audience can actually

afford the live auction items at their

their highest bid amount at the winning

bid. If we look at an audience of 100

people, 10% is 10 people. Now, it's not

actually 10 biders because a lot of

people are coupled up. It's going to be

more between five to seven biders. And

every live auction package needs about

three to four biders on it that want the

package and can take it at least close

to that highest amount in order for it

to get a bidding war for it to get the

energy, the enthusiasm, and the funds

raised for it to meet or exceed the fair

market value of the package. If we go

back to 10% of a 100 and we take it down

to the couples, maybe there's five, six,

seven actual eligible cards that can be

raised to bid on this package. That

really isn't enough to have a live

auction. If you were to have a live

auction with that many people, you would

maybe only consider having two to three

packages so that you actually had the

the supply and demand ratio there in

order to make it exciting and make it

profitable. But if you only have about a

100 people, you might not have enough

people in the room. Now once you get up

to 200 or 300, you start to have enough

people in the room. But this math is a

major consideration.

The other part of the math that you want

to consider is the individual ticket

price.

The other part of the math that you want

to consider is the individual ticket

price and how long it takes to auction

off each package. Starting with the

individual ticket price, the individual

ticket price predetermines the resource

capacity of who is in your room.

In order to bid high on packages or

raise their paddle for large amounts of

money in the paddle razor, they actually

have to have the resources to do that.

So, if you look at your individual

ticket price, this helps you determine

if a live auction is going to add a lot

of money to your bottom line or not. And

if you decide to have a live auction,

how large the packages should be. So,

here's what I mean. A ticket price below

$100 is telling us that the live auction

packages will probably go for the high

hundreds at max. Anything between 100

and 200, we are starting to get into the

low to mid thousands. Anything above 200

is, you know, mid to high thousands. And

these are all just estimations, but it's

it's better to air on the side of being

conservative when when choosing your

fundraising streams and your auction

packages rather than being overly

hopeful. So, what is your individual

ticket price? Are you going to be making

enough money in your live auction?

Because the other consideration is that

each package can take about 3 to four

minutes to auction off depending on who

your auctioneer is. If we're going to be

spending say four minutes, again, we

want to project conservatively. If we're

going to be spending four minutes per

package and we decide to add five

packages to our live auction, that's 20

minutes that we've put into the program.

If we're going to add 20 minutes into

the program, we have to make sure that

we're making thousands of dollars per

minute for that to be worth it. So, we

want to look back at our individual

ticket price. If the live auction

packages are only going to go for the

high hundreds, there's no chance that we

will be making thousands of dollars per

minute. Whereas in your paddle raiser,

we definitely make thousands of dollars

per minute since the funds raised are so

high. I will give you a specific example

of a client of mine. We are going on

their sixth year of doing their gala.

The first three years we had nothing but

a paddle razor and a boutique silent

auction. Every year we maximized that

paddle razor. We added matches and

plants. We made sure that our mission

video told a really emotional and

personal story that got everybody in the

room really feeling the mission and

really excited to be a part of it. We

tweaked the way that we got the audience

to team up together and to raise the

money together. We did multiple things

to make sure that paddle raiser was

really successful. After three years of

doing it, it became clear not only from

me from the stage being able to feel the

energy in the room, but from from donors

giving them feedback, it became clear

they were ready for us to add a live

auction. After that, we added on a live

auction really intentionally. We started

with three packages and then we moved to

five packages. This previous year, our

paddle razor has still done a little bit

better every year and is still raising a

lot of money and the live auction is

adding on to that. Now, what these

numbers are is the paddle razor is at

about 75,000 and that live auction goes

between 10,000 to 15,000.

So, in this example where we were ready

to add on a live auction, the paddle

raiser still makes so much more money

than the live auction that by adding a

live auction, we just have to make sure

that the ROI is where, you know, the

organization wants it to be in order for

us to spend that time in the program. In

this case, this audience loves having

the live auction. the live auction has

added energy to it and it has added

money to the bottom line because that's

the next consideration. Your live

auction should add energy to the room.

It shouldn't be draining energy from the

room. And so many times when an audience

isn't ready for a live auction or an

organization doesn't have the right

packages, the right size packages, that

part of the program can just drag on and

on and on and feel so draining. So many

people can't participate in it anyway.

So, it's important that we make sure if

we're going to add it, it is going to in

fact add the right energy to the room.

To recap, not every gala is ready for a

live auction, and some might want to

remove their live auction just so that

they can focus on improving their paddle

razor. Because step one is the

fundraising streams matrix. Always

making sure you have maximized your

paddle raiser. The next consideration is

making sure your math makes sense. Do

you have enough people in the room? Is

the ticket price high enough? And do you

have the time in your program to add a

live auction? And the final

consideration is will this add energy to

your event or is this going to drain the

energy from the room?

If this video has been helpful,

subscribe below to get more videos like

this right to your inbox. And as always,

we hope you have your most profitable

gala yet.

Sweet.