In fewer than 15 lines of code, we now had the ability to retrieve all of the auction items, bid on them, and determine their current price. After putting those code snippets into functions and hooking them up to a rough UI, we had a fully-functional auction app prototype – only a few hours after our initial meeting. Convinced that the project was more than feasible, I decided to add as many features as possible over the rest of the weekend.
Kelly Velasquez-Hague brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit management, and sales/marketing experience to her role as the Director of Content Marketing for OneCause. As a member of the OneCause sales and marketing team, Kelly manages all of the company’s content strategy and execution. She is passionate about empowering great missions and loves that her current role allows her to continue to help nonprofits reach new donors raise more funds for their cause. Once you’ve secured your venue, procured awesome items, and are ready to enter the next stage of the planning process, it’s time to promote the auction as much as you can. This starts with compiling a guest list and sending out invites. When doing this, make sure you determine your target audience, which is an essential part of fundraising, so that the most impactful people are made aware of your event.
There, silent auction websites will be organized into categories such as dining, travel, designer, and more, allowing visitors to search for items they actually want and then make a bid. Bidding Owl’s auction management software allows nonprofits to build their charity auction websites within minutes to hit the ground running promoting their event. Bidding Owl’s fully customizable websites empower nonprofits to brand and edit their event pages however they want. It’s also important to find an online auction site that aligns with your fundraising plan.
It includes easy to browse and search the items with their bidding information. Moreover, you can have access to the winning bidder’s contact details after the auction is over. Live auctions usually bring in bids close to or in excess of the items’ market value, while silent auctions bring in only about half their market value. An expensive vacation for six will probably receive higher bids at a live or online auction than a silent one.
Auction winners are automatically charged and winning bid notices can even be automated. Auction software helps users with the event planning, bid capturing, payment processing and compliance management aspects of auction fundraisers. This kind of software can help with a one-time event or ongoing online auctions. Don’t miss an opportunity to cultivate relationships and transform everyone who participated in the auction into devoted supporters. Before the internet age, the auctions were conducted by gathering people at a physically feasible location for the bidders and auctioneers. Now, when people have started buying everything online, auctions are also getting highly popular.