Category: Plan Your Gala

Silent Auction Display

10 Amazing Tips to Increase Bidding at Your Silent Auction Fundraiser

In this post, you’ll learn 10 amazing tips to increase bidding at your silent auction fundraiser. 1. More items are not always better A good rule of thumb is to auction approximately one item for every two attendees. For example, if you expect 200 people, then the ideal number of Silent Auction items would be 100. If […]

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auctioneer

How to Hire the Right Auctioneer for Your Benefit Event

Are you running a charity gala and need the help of a benefit auctioneer? Hiring an auctioneer can seem daunting, particularly if it’s your first time as the auction chair. Not to fear! Regardless of whether you’re running a small live auction, a big gala or perhaps even a virtual gala, this post will teach you how […]

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Auction Statistics key performance indicators

The Key Performance Indicators for Your Fundraising Auction

In this post, you’ll learn the key metrics you need to evaluate after each fundraising auction. These metrics will help you determine how you performed compared to last year and highlight what to improve. Revenue and Costs First, look at the big picture stats. Specifically, total revenue, total expenses and finally your expense ratio which is your […]

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auctioneer

The Definitive Guide to Hybrid Fundraising Events

The benefits of virtual galas are undeniable. But, there are trade-offs as well. Many donors, for example, miss the communal feeling of everyone coming together at an in-person gala to help a dear cause. Fortunately, there’s a way to reap the benefits of virtual event without the trade-offs: the hybrid fundraiser. In this post, you’ll learn what […]

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volunteers picking up trash

5 Tips for Staff and Volunteer Management During COVID-19 (Guest Post)

There is no doubt that you have been affected by COVID-19 both at home and work. However, your organization’s work needs to continue, so what does that look like in terms of fundraising and sustaining operations? The travel and events industries have been some of the hardest-hit groups, causing a standstill as public health regulations halt travel […]

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nobelprize_milgromwilson

Apply Nobel Prize Winners’ Findings to Your Benefit Auction

Two economists, Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson, won the Nobel in economic science on Monday for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats. At TravelPledge, we are quite excited about auction theory getting so much attention in the news! We looked at a few of Milgrom and Wilson’s findings to see how […]

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Make the ask for a donation

Donation Request Letters: Are You Making These 3 Critical Mistakes?

Charity auction organizers know the importance of connecting with generous businesses to find silent auction items. However, it’s cumbersome to write hundreds of online donation request letters (not to mention the cold-calling) hoping enough generous business owners say “yes.” How do you make your charity auction stand out when requesting donations? In this post, we cover the […]

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online auction

Online Auctions: A Step-by-Step Quick Guide for Nonprofits (Guest Post)

Earlier this year, society came to a halt as COVID-19 spread to all corners of the globe. For nonprofits, this meant finding digital alternatives to their donor engagement activities in order to keep their doors open during this uncertain time. Even though the pandemic has turned society upside down, nonprofit fundraising doesn’t stop for anything. Thanks to […]

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living room captains

Living Room Captains: The Key to Your Virtual Gala’s Success

The most important thing for a virtual gala fundraiser is not the scripting, the video, the hosts or the auction items. The most important thing is getting people to tune in, ready to open their wallets. In this post, I’m going to show you how to achieve just that using “living room captains.” What Is a Living […]

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auctioneer

How Much Does It Cost to Throw a Virtual Gala?

Despite the virtual gala being the “plan B” for many nonprofits in 2020, many organizers have realized that their net donations are increased by going virtual! Since their virtual gala was less expensive to throw, the decreased revenue from ticket sales was more than offset by the lower costs. But just how much does it cost to […]

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