 We
have an excellent group of volunteers that have organized
our auction in the past. Why should we outsource our
auction coordination to Silent Partners?
We are sure your organization has outstanding volunteers
that contribute immensely to your event. When Silent
Partners is contracted to work with you, we look forward
to becoming part of your team. We work side by side
with volunteers and value the genuine help they provide.
If one of your volunteers has a personal friend at a
great restaurant in town, we would much rather have
them solicit the restaurant for a donation. Odds are
that their personal touch and relationship will secure
the item. If they wish, we will even write a letter
on their behalf to any of their personal contacts. What
Silent Partners does, is all the “grunt work”
from beginning to end. This frees up hundreds of hours
for your staff and volunteers to focus on “the
bigger picture” of securing sponsorships for the
event and attending to the myriad of responsibilities
that all events require.
 Our
offices are buried with auction items! It's a full-time
job keeping track of everything.
Upon receipt of the items, we store them at our office
(within reason) and immediately input them into a database
developed for your organization. This database, we call
an “Update,” is then emailed by the Account
Manager assigned to your organization every week so
you can keep track of the items that have arrived. (Be
sure to share this list with your staff and volunteers
-- it will certainly boost their enthusiasm!) The donations
are then given to your designated Account Manager at
Silent Partners. Your Account Manager packages the items
together (e.g. restaurants with movie tickets), writes
an alluring and fun description of the package, then
labels and numbers the packaged items and envelopes
with a special thermal printer.
How do we get our guests excited about the auction
before they arrive?
Jump-start the bidding by mailing out the auction catalogs
to your attendees one week prior to the event. Silent
Partners produces an attractive Auction Catalog complete
with catchy titles and alluring descriptions of the
auction packages. Your guests will arrive excited to
begin bidding on the items they read about in the auction
catalog. We have seen people bring the catalogs to the
event with corners folded down and filled with notes,
eager to begin bidding.
How do we get our Board, volunteers and auction committee
excited and motivated to work with Silent Partners’
staff?
When you sign a contract with Silent Partners, we provide
your staff with a Procedures Manual that will cover
everything that needs to done including a review of
your Auction Timeline. At this meeting, we will provide
you with what we call a “Wish List” for
you to forward on to your Board, volunteers and committee.
This Wish List is intended to get their creative juices
flowing and to focus on procuring great unique auction
items from their contacts. Many clients have said that
they didn’t even realize that they had contacts
that would donate such great items. The great thing
is that they won’t have to do any of the work!
Why should our volunteers solicit donations for the
auction if we are contracting with Silent Partners?
Every volunteer is involved with their favorite nonprofit
for one reason. They have a passion for the cause! Yes,
Silent Partners will do all of the work but why wouldn’t
someone who cares try to secure items along with Silent
Partners? It’s a team effort and it’s the
combination of Silent Partners worldwide database of
great donors along with their client’s contacts
that raises the bar and consistently exceeds our client’s
goals.
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