Prior to the Auction
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 have outstanding volunteers that contribute greatly to your event. When you contract with Silent Partners, we become 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 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. Outsourcing the auction to Silent Partners 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 auctions require. In addition, mobile bidding websites can be quite confusing for a staff member or volunteer to handle. We staff and run auctions almost every weekend and are experts working with the OneCause mobile bidding platform. We create the website, write the auction descriptions, create the graphics, opening bids and increments, Buy it Now’s, send text alerts out, and much more!
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 input them into a database developed for your organization. This database, we call an “Update,” is then emailed 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!) We will package the items (e.g. restaurants with movie tickets), write an alluring and fun description of the package, then label and number the packaged items and envelopes with a special thermal printer.
How do we get our guests excited about the auction before they arrive? And what about people who can’t attend the event?
Silent Partners will jump-start the bidding by launching your auction ten days prior to the event. We assist our clients with three email blasts that are sent out to attendees and their entire following. This gets the bidding started and requires credit card registration in advance, which reduces registration lines at the event. We produce an attractive website complete with catchy titles and alluring descriptions of all silent, live and fixed price items. Your guests will arrive excited and continue bidding on the items. For those who can’t attend the event, they are still able to bid!
How do we get our Board, volunteers and auction committee excited and motivated to work with Silent Partners’ staff?
When you sign a contract, we provide your staff with a timeline that will cover everything that needs to be done. At this meeting or conference call, 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 a reason. They have a passion for the cause! Yes, Silent Partners will do all 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 our worldwide database of great donors along with our individual contacts that raises the bar and consistently exceeds our client’s goals.