Fundraising Auctioneer

We are some of the liveliest, most entertaining and engaging fundraising auctioneers in the United States. We are also some of the most knowledgeable, insightful and provoking consultants you’ll ever see engage your committee.

Focused solely on the theater of fundraising, we hone our craft on a daily basis and constantly strive to become better onstage performers. Each time we take the stage, our performance is rooted in the belief that every bid is an act of heroism, and every bidder is doing good work for your cause. We treat each of your bidders with respect and honor your donors, all while making the auction entertaining for all.

We also know that our success onstage takes months of planning, and offer strategic consulting on every event we work with throughout the planning process. Our goal is to get as involved with your event as early as possible to offer strategic guidance on the many facets of your event.

When you hire us as your Fundraising Auctioneer, you get strategic input on a variety of aspects of your event, including: creating new and creative live auction items; when to sell your most expensive item; how many lots you should do in your silent auction; online auctions; and how you can motivate your board to stay engaged in your fundraising.

In addition to the five precepts upon which all of our consulting is based, our strategic  pre-event consulting services include:

Hot New Auction Items
You need to keep your crowd engaged in your auction, and that starts with the lots that you put up for sale. Every successful auction, big or small, adds a few new lots to the catalog ever year (and retires a few). Drawing upon experience gained from working with over 130 events every year, we bring fresh ideas to your committee and help them brainstorm new and exciting auction lots. Our goal isn’t to make your committee work harder, but to help them identify opportunities and relationships that exist within your community that we can use to create new lots.

The newest, hottest lots for your next auction are within a degree or two of separation of your committee. Put our auctioneers to work with your committee and come up with fun, exciting and highly profitable auction lots that will help raise the level of excitement at your auction.

Lot Ordering
We understand the ebb and flow of an auction and built our careers studying the nuances of bidder behavior along with the challenge of building and sustaining momentum.

Working with your committee, we’ll gain an understanding of your previous event, and then make a recommendation on how to order the live auction lot sequence.

Silent Auctions
Depending upon your perspective, silent auctions can be the bane of any committee or a wonderful opportunity to showcase a large donor base of items that aren’t live-auction-appropriate. We understand both sides of the fence (and a few other sides of the fence as well).

There is a science to crafting a silent auction that will engage people and get them to spend. We know what items sell well and which your committee should stay away from. We have equations for how many items you should have in your auction and how to set your opening bids and Buy It Now prices.

If you need help organizing and implementing your silent auction, our Auction Director service offers implementation-level auction event planning.

Online Auctions
Online auctions are a wonderful tool for expanding the number of items you can sell, without having to rent out a pavilion or convention center to do so. They aren’t magic, however, and seldom result in less work or an incredible influx of bidders who never heard of you before.

If you haven’t done an online auction before, we can help explore how appropriate it would be for your support base. We understand the work that goes into putting together a good online auction and getting people to come bid on it (hint: it’s not much less than a silent auction) and can discuss it clearly and openly.

If you already do an online auction and are looking for assistance beyond strategic consulting, our Auction Director, Beth Sandefur, includes online auction implementation as part of her service offering.

Motivating Your Board
  Your board’s support and involvement is integral to the success of your auction. You know it, we know it, and we’ll work with you to ensure that they are empowered to help make your auction successful.

We speak to numerous boards of directors every year, motivating them to help achieve tangible goals that will have long-term benefits for your auction and organization.

Sponsorships
The strategic consulting included with our Fundraising Auctioneer service covers high-level methodologies for engaging event sponsors. Once you have a sponsor, how can you get them to fill their table with qualified bidders?  Is providing a table the best option?  What other perks can you offer sponsors?

We’ve seen it all, from VH1 sponsoring 3 tables and then not sending a single person to the event to Wegman’s Supermarkets offering a 3-to-1 challenge grant in the fund-a-need. We understand the relationships it takes to cultivate sponsors, and have fresh ideas on how to get them involved in your event.

Volunteers
Volunteers are the lifeblood of every fundraising auction.  We have specific formulas for how many people you need to staff each job in the silent and live auctions, and can provide descriptions of those jobs.

The night of your auction, we’ll happily train all of the volunteers working on the live auction – the spotters, recorders, runners and Vannas. In the process, we’ll motivate them to help make your auction exciting, memorable and successful.

Each of these services is included when you hire one of us as your Fundraising Auctioneer. For those events seeking more hands-on assistance  in addition to an auctioneer, we offer the Auction Director service.

Treat your crowd and your committee to the best fundraising auctioneer they’ve ever seen. Contact Reynolds & Buckley today.