Finding Auction Items For Your Charity Event

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Auction Items for Charity

Finding auction items that will bring in substantial sums of money for a charity event can be a challenging endeavor. Many event organizers simply cross their fingers and hope their legion of supporters will donate a decent assortment of products and services while they spend most of their time looking for one or two big-ticket auction items. By the time the event rolls around, they are often left with excessive amounts of uninteresting random knick-knacks and not enough charity auction items that their donors will want to bid on.

We often get charity organizers who, after asking for donations all year long, worry donors will show up to their big annual fundraising gala or auction without the intention to spend big money. This is commonly referred to as donor fatigue, and can happen when the same repetitive auction items are offered year after year. This can be remedied by working on the quality and variety of your items. Keep in mind when it comes to the auction and raffle, you are offering donors the opportunity to walk away with something. You shouldn’t feel guilty about putting desirable items in front of them to buy.

It’s important to remember that auctions should be viewed as a shopping experience. Every donor has money set aside each year for giving. These same donors have money budgeted  for vacations and entertainment. Try envisioning your auction or raffle as an opportunity to tap into these budgets. Wouldn’t it be great if your donor purchased their vacation at your auction instead of calling their travel agent or going to Travelocity? Focus on creating a fun atmosphere with charity items your donors can’t walk away from!

Winpsire provides once-in-a-lifetime Experiences that can be used as charity auction packages and help you do just that. Your organization doesn’t pay for anything until a Winspire Experience is sold at or over the cost of the package, so there is no risk for you and your Nonprofit to include it in the event. Not only will you keep all money that is generated over the reduced price of a Winspire package, but these incredible Experiences will also generate an invaluable level of excitement around the event.

Instead of wasting time sitting around and hoping for the best, use an inspired auction item Experience from Winspire to generate some buzz leading up to your next event. Since all of our auction packages are risk-free, you’ve really got nothing to lose.

Top 10 Ways Major Donors are Changing and What To Do About It

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Here is a great article from Gail Perry about 10 ways your major donors are changing in today’s fundraising landscape. In her list she outlines the general mood of major donors, which demographic segments are best targeted and some best practices for getting the best bang for your buck.

By Gail Perry in her blog GailPerry.com

Major donors have changed a lot in what they want and expect from nonprofits.

Ten years ago, you could raise good money with a “spray and pray”  appeal that was boring and generic.

Now we have to work harder and smarter.

The good news is that we can rely on plenty of research about major donors. What are they are thinking about their philanthropy and nonprofits?

I’ve culled through the research – and here are my Top 10 Major Donor Trends for 2013 – along with a strategy to ride each trend productively.

Trend 1. Donors are wary of trusting us.

Trust is a huge issue these days. What can you do to help your donors trust you?

Timothy Ogden, the author of Guidestar’s “More Money for More Good”, claimed yesterday that donors do NOT pick nonprofits based on their impact. What?

Instead, he said that donors choose charities based on personal relationships. Wow.

Agree or not – he does have a huge point.

Getting to know major donors personally is a must.

How can they trust you if they don’t know you? Why would they invest in you?

Your Strategy: Build trust by fostering personal relationships with your major donors.

Trend 2. The Boomers are becoming the #1 donor population.

Boomers, how do we love thee?

Boomers own most of the nation’s wealth, they are more generous than the Silent Generation, and they volunteer in droves.

What do boomers want? They want personal self-expression.

They want to express their passions and their individuality. They want to be involved.

Your Strategy: Let Boomers’ personal passions and interests guide their cultivation plan. Help them connect to what is most meaningful to them.

Trend 3. Older ladies are THE major donor demographic.

Here’s something amazing. Women are far, far more generous than men. (Hey, we knew this, didn’t we?)

A recent study found that women are more than TWICE as generous than men.

For every $100 boomer and older men gave, women in the very same economic circumstances gave $258!!

Women are more likely to give to charity, and they are more likely to give more. (Women Give 2012, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University.)

Your Strategy: Review your prospect lists. Reevaluate the giving capacity of the ladies. Get to work and go see them.

Trend 4. Donors want Donor-Centered communications.

Donors don’t want to hear you talking talking talking about how wonderful you are… Read More

Presenting mySuitcase… A New Way to Browse for Charity Auction Items

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The new Winspire website provides a powerful resource for finding the best once-in-a-lifetime travel Experiences to use as charity auction items at your next fundraising event. Our goal is to make it as simple and easy as possible for event organizers to select, reserve and fulfill Winspire Experiences.

Winspire Suitcase Logo

We are proud to present mySuitcase, a tool for selecting Experiences you want to consider for your event. We built mySuitcase with collaboration in mind, empowering you to involve colleagues and our professional Event Consultants in the decision-making process of auction item selection.

Following are a few aspects of mySuitcase designed to make auction item procurement much easier for you.

Browse & Select Experiences

  • Use mySuitcase to select from our list of unique Winspire Experiences. When you find an Experience you like, simply hit “Add to Suitcase”.
  • After creating your account, a preview of mySuitcase will appear at the bottom of your screen, letting you manage your selection of Experiences while you browse.
  • Think of mySuitcase as your wish list. Grab the kind of travel Experiences you expect your donors to get excited about. Have a theme? We have Experiences that will fit almost any type of fundraising event.

Collaborate With Your Team

  • Send email invitations from mySuitcase with a link that gives your team access to view your selection of Experiences.
  • While invited users will not be able to make any changes, they can provide feedback in the Comments section, located below the Experiences.
  • Your Winspire Event Consultant will also get involved in the dialogue, making comments, providing professional advice and adding Experiences they recommend to mySuitcase.
mySuitcase Tip: Using Indicators

When you add an Experience to mySuitcase, it will first appear with a grey ribbon in the corner to signify the package is a ‘Maybe’. Clicking on the grey ribbon will turn it blue, making it a ‘Definitely’. Click the ribbon again to turn it back to a ‘Maybe’.

Recommended travel Experiences added by your Winspire Event Consultant will show up with a yellow ribbon, which can also be turned blue. These indicators are helpful while you are collaborating with your team and discussing Experiences with your Event Consultant.

All Experiences must be marked “Definitely” before you can continue with the reservation process.

Reserve Experiences

  • When you and your team are happy with your selection of Winspire Experiences, hit “I’mPacked” to reserve them for your fundraising event.
  • After filling out some additional information about your event, mySuitcase will be “Packed” and you will receive a Reservation Confirmation email with a copy of your Letter of Agreement attached.
  • When mySuitcase is “Packed”, you can download Display Materials for each Experience, including a Package Description, Display PDF and additional images.
  • If you need to add or remove Experiences, simply do so and mySuitcase will return to the “UnPacked” status. After making your changes, it’s important to select “I’mPacked” to reconfirm your reservation.

…More to come! Check back for an overview of our brand new Invoicing & Fulfillment Process, which will make delivering Winspire Experiences to your Winning Bidders easier than ever.

Come Visit Us at AFP San Diego!

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We are excited to participate in the 50th AFP International Conference on Fundraising, which is being held just down the coast from us in San Diego. Come visit us in Booth #1003 as we would love to meet you. This will be a great opportunity to review new and exciting Winspire Experiences, be the first to test-drive the new website, enter to win Fairmont certificates and discuss your personal success strategy for your 2013 fundraising events.

New Winspire Website

The new Winspire website will be unveiled at AFP and you will have the opportunity to test drive it first-hand. The new website is a dramatic improvement over the existing site, making it much easier for you to browse, find and reserve Experiences. There will also be some brand new features, including a tool for collaborating with your peers to select packages, an improved invoicing & checkout system and completely redesigned Booking Vouchers for you to send to your Winning Bidders.

AFP Booth Contests

We will be holding 2 separate contests for those who come and visit us at our booth. Winners of each contest will win two 1-night Fairmont Collection B certificates. Participate in both to increase your chances of winning!

Try Out the New Website – Mostly for those representing Nonprofits, anyone who comes to the booth and sets up a new account through the website will automatically be entered into a drawing for the Fairmont certificates.

Photo Contest – We will be distributing little cardboard cutouts of the Winspire Twins, Winston & Winnie, at the convention. The person or group that takes the most creative picture with the Winspire Twins will be awarded the prize. There will be directions on the back for submitting your photo, so come have fun with it!

We love meeting new people, visiting with our clients and collaborating on new and innovative ways we can support your organization. The Winspire Event Consultant team will be at the booth throughout the conference along with our new Director of Sales, Brett Banner. If you want to set up some time in advance or need anything, you can email Brett at bbanner@winspireme.com. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

Social Influences in Giving

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From Nonprofit Quarterly – nonprofitquarterly.org

Editors’ note: The following article was excerpted from the book The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity, edited by Danny Oppenheimer and Christopher Olivola. The chapter, entitled “Social Influences in Giving: Field Experiences in Public Radio,” by Rachel Croson and Jen (Yue) Shang, provides an approach to understanding the role of social information in fundraising.

While the public broadcasting environment in which the study was conducted may seem unique, we believe that this article holds implications for online fundraising specifically and also for individual donor fundraising in general.

What social information about fellow donors and a donor’s own network has an impact on gift size? This article reviews research in the field, but there is much more to find out.

Individual donations are the bread and butter of the public broadcasting industry in the United States. In 2006, more than 800 member radio stations collected $275 million from individual donors. 1 These donations were collected based on the fundraising principle that public services drive public support: that is, when people listen, they give;? when audience declines, so do donations. 2

This wisdom has inspired sophisticated practices, such as distinguishing between core and fringe listeners, understanding how listener loyalty translates into donations, and learning how to design fundraising appeals to remind people of the importance of listening to public radio. This mental model of fundraising, however, assumes a one-to-one relationship between a station and a donor in the transaction of service and support and does not typically incorporate into the equation the social environment surrounding listeners and donors.

In contrast, our research expands the vision of giving to include the social environment of public-radio donors. The focus of this research is to understand the social environment that surrounds audiences’ listening and donating behavior. Our research highlights the observation that listeners and donors are not only individuals who act on their own but also social animals. 3 They live in connection with one another. Audience research can indicate how much an individual listens, but it does not tell us how long they listen with friends, how much they talk with others about the programs they listen to, how often they discuss their donation decisions with their family, how their donations are influenced by others’ donations, or how much listening and donating constitutes their self-identity. 4

Our research set out to study this social context surrounding listening to public radio and, in turn, donating. So, first, we review the research on how providing potential donors with information on other donors’ contributions affects donations. Second, we discuss the impact of such information on others’ use of or value of the organization.

Models of charitable giving typically balance these two factors within the individual. In deciding whether or how much to give, an individual compares the value of an organization’s services with his potential contribution. He contributes up to the amount that he values an organization’s work. We argue for an expanded conception of an individual’s value of an organization that includes not only the value an individual receives but also the value his social network receives. What members of the network value increases their satisfaction and, thus, our own. Thus supporting services that provide value to one’s social network in turn supports one’s own values… READ MORE

Infographics: Should Your Nonprofit Hire A Designer or Do It Yourself?

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By Beth Kanter in her blog Bethkanter.org

In 2013,  social media will continue the trend of “going visual.”    More and more nonprofits are adding data visualization to compelling story telling to create amazing infographics as part their marketing tool kits.  For a quick primer on infographics, see “Five Infographics To Master Infographics in Five Minutes.”

If you have decided that your nonprofit going to go visual in 2013, figure out your goal.     Infographics can be used in different and creative ways and some obvious ones such as marketing messaging, educating about a social issue, to celebrate a successful campaign,  to report to stakeholders on key performance metrics, an  annual report, and even a marriage proposal!    Need some more  ideas?   Check out my pinterest board “Nonprofit Infographics.”   Before you hire a designer, work with your in-house design or do it yourself, it is a good idea to identify the goal, audience, data, and key message that you to communicate.   Your graphic designer will certainly help you refine this initial idea.

Some nonprofits  make use of their in-house designers to create beautiful and eye-catching infographics.    One example is Best Friends Animal Society as profile by John Haydon on his blog in “Nonprofit Storytelling with Infographics” which offers some simple tips for getting the most out of your infographic.   Others are working with graphic designers to commission infographics as part of campaigns.    For example,  last year, when the Humane Society reached 1 million fans on Facebook, they created an infographic as part of the marketing campaign.

If your organization doesn’t have an in-house graphic designer and you have a budget to hire one,  ask colleagues from other organizations that have created infographics for referrals.  Debra Askanase posted a request for referrals and within 15 minutes got these designer names that have experience working with nonprofits:   Rad Campaign, elefint designs, submit infographics, and Jennifer Reynolds.  Visual.ly has just opened a site to match infographic designers with those who want to hire them.  Many designers sign their work, so if you find an infographic by a nonprofit that catches your attention,  you can easily find the firm’s web presence… READ MORE >

Think About Your Mobile Strategy

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From the article “5 Tech Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore”
by in Inc.com

Silicon Valley was aflutter this week with Mary Meeker’s bold new report on Internet trends. Here’s what you missed.

When Mary Meeker speaks, the Valley listens.

This week, Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (the venture firm founded in 1972 that’s invested in pretty much every major tech company of the last quarter century) unveiled her 88-page analysis of Web, mobile, technology, and societal trends.

Here, we’ve excerpted the most important elements of the report, especially trends that may affect small business and startups.

1) Your mobile strategy may be the most important part of your business.

In 2008, only about $0.7 billion was made on mobile. By the end of 2012, the mobile market will have ballooned to a staggering $19 billion, split 67 percent between apps and 33 percent ads. According to Meeker, when looking at the average time users spend on on media, people spend about ten percent of their “media time” on mobile–but just 1 percent of ad spend is spent on mobile. In other words, despite current user adoption, there’s still plenty of room for growth. Another fact to note: In India, mobile Internet traffic surpassed desktop Internet traffic in May, 2012.


2) Don’t forget about Android users.

Meeker is bullish on Android as a platform. According to her calculations, iPhone adoption has exploded in the last four years, but Android phone adoption “has ramped even faster – nearly 6x iPhone.”
3) If you sell a product, you’d be crazy not to focus your e-commerce on mobile and tablet apps.

This chart pretty much speaks for itself: By 2012, about a quarter of all Internet shopping traffic on Black Friday were made on either mobile or a tablet.

Game Show Fundraisers Raise the Roof & the Funds

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Game Show Fundraisers can help your Nonprofit raise more money

Winspire Winnie participates in Nonprofit Jeopardy

By Vicki Blaze on Yahoo Voices

TV game shows have been a huge success for many years. Dating back to the 1970′s and 80′s with The Price is Right, Jeopardy, and Family Feud; more recent crazes include Do You Want To Be A Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. All of these game shows have a few things in common – contestants, a host, prizes, challenges, anticipation, and humor.

A game show event makes a great fundraiser or simply a school spirit event. Here are some tips to plan an evening where people can laugh out loud with their friends, family, teachers, and principal.

Design your own game or stylize it after a popular game show. Make the game your own by implementing your own set of rules and time limits. Organize the game in a way that several people can participate. For instance, in a Family Feud style game, have two teams of five players each compete against each other. If you have 3 rounds of play, then 6 different teams can play – that’s 30 people! You may want to play two or three different games throughout the evening and have a different host for each (but plan to keep the event to no more than two hours long). At least one of the games should be one where the contestants are randomly chosen from the audience. This will sell tickets and keep the audience interested and entertained at the anticipation of being chosen.

Include a mix of academic and fun questions and competition ideas submitted by both students and teachers. For instance, “Name something a hockey player has to put on before a game”; “Name three types of clouds”; or “Name a punctuation mark on a computer keyboard”.

Although your committee volunteers are the ones to make up the game rules and questions, the game show host is the person responsible for announcing the rules of the game to the audience and contestants and for keeping the game running smoothly and continuously. Remember if the game does not proceed steadily, the audience may get bored. The host of your game show has to be well-spoken, personable, quick-witted, and humorous. A high school aged student may be able to handle this role, but for middle and elementary school, we recommend an adult… READ MORE

An Open Plea to Hold Better Events

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Unsuccessful Event Means Empty Conference Room

By Katya Andresen on her blog NonprofitMarketingBlog.com

I got the following email today from one of my blog readers, John Scott Foster of the Wesselman Nature Society.

I had an experience this weekend I thought you might be interested in.  I attended two “gala” type events.  One was the standard, at a conference center.  Held from 6 to 8:30.  Coat and tie.  Arrive at 6, cash bar, sit at a table at 7.  People say nice things.  You eat.  People say nice things.  Silent auction.  Then at the end of the silent auction, we are thanked for coming/supporting and told we can all stay and dance to the DJ selection.  3/4ths of the people run out the door, happy to have that obligation over.

The next day.  A beer tasting and restaurant sampling event at my nature center.  The only roof the spreading branches of 300 year old trees.  Jeans, sweaters, comfortable shoes.  Beautiful weather.  Among many options, a fire ring with a gourmet s’mores station. Acoustic guitarist who was amazingly talented. 3 microbreweries and then one distributor with a total of over 50 beers that could be sampled.  A wood fired brick pizza oven on wheels serving pizza.  Held from 3 pm to 6 pm.  We had to chase people out.  They didn’t want to leave.  They were having fun.

Obligation (we need to support this important cultural institution) vs. fun (this important cultural institution is providing a great experience for us).

Great story.  As John adds, “People love being out in nature. It filled a need that they might not otherwise seek fulfill.”

As John notes, we do amazing work in the world, but we nonprofits don’t always have great events that reflect the heart of our efforts… Read More

Tools to Improve Your Online Fundraising

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If you already see how your website, your online communities, and your other channels all flow harmoniously together to drive donations and other actions, then… good for you! If not, read on…

Shareable visual content like this Bearsharktopus relates to several important facets of social media fundraising: Is it easy to share on social networks? Does it link back to a page with a donation form or other action? Can you track who likes Bearsharktopi in your CRM?

By Ehren Foss
Co-Founder and CEO, HelpAttack!
Posted on NTEN.org

Last year I wrote a post for NTEN about four social media fundraising tools. This year I’m going to take a vertical rather than horizontal approach, and identify several important types of tools you’ll want to consider when raising money online – either through your website or on a social network.

Website Donation Form

I think humble donation forms are the bedrock of online fundraising: You can steer people to them from elsewhere on your website, from email, from QR codes, and of course from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networks. These forms can be great lead generation tools at the same time they are bringing in necessary revenue. While it seems like donation forms were “solved” years ago when our sector turned its attention to social fundraising and social media, many organizations are still struggling. Some causes who have invested in building their own forms find them difficult and expensive to maintain. I can see why: simple forms are harder than they seem. You should…

  • maintain a high level of security for PCI compliance
  • ensure mobile friendliness and easy social network sharing
  • provide flexibility for varying needs of campaigns and programs
  • measure, tweak, and improve conversion rates by altering images, copy, and other attributes of the form

The alternative used to be directing your supporters off-site, to PayPal.com, Authorize.net, or other secure but not as flexible (or branded) donation flows. My favorite tools these days embrace the best of both worlds.

Let someone else worry about HTML5, standards compliance, scalability, and usability while still enjoying the benefits of hosting the form at your own domain. “Embedded” forms usually have easy to use form building kits too. Kimbia and FormStack are good examples, and both are starting to integrate with large CRM platforms like SalesForce.com. Blackbaud, Salsa Labs, Fundly, and other nonprofit tradeshow regulars offer embedded forms, too.

Help The Social Web

Everything you put on the web can help – or hurt – your overall results. Does your website CMS (content management system) automatically create the proper meta tags for the big social networks? When someone shares a URL on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, what image, blurb, and text is included automatically? When someone pins a great image from your website, where do clicks on it end up?

If you view the HTML in a socially shareable webpage, you’ll see a set of meta tags. A good CMS (perhaps with a few plugins) should allow you to set up defaults for this kind of sharing, while allowing you to override titles, primary images, and other shared attributes as needed.

Your supporters will share the page you want them to, but they will also share pages buried deep in your site that you haven’t thought about in months. When they do, make it easy and effective… Read More: http://www.nten.org/articles/2012/tools-to-improve-your-online-fundraising