It is with heavy hearts that we announce that David Reynolds, co-founder of Reynolds & Buckley, suffered a fatal heart attack in his London family home on Saturday, December 7, 2013. David spent the last 30 years helping non-profits around the country revolutionize their approach to fundraising auctions. He was a visionary and he was […]

The most valuable live auction lots in a fundraising auction are the unique, exclusive, impossible to find elsewhere packages that make a crowd bid with wild abandon. So far this year I have sold over 1,000 lots at fundraisers across the country, and these are the 10 charity auction lots that stand out strongest in […]

San Francisco entrepreneur Trevor Traina recently launched If Only, a for-profit luxury lifestyle firm that sells access to high-end experiences with celebrities for ultra-premium prices. Traina, a veteran of many a fundraising gala, “…noticed that people seem more intrigued by experiences than things” and set out to build a service that cuts out the middleman […]

A fundraising auction requires myriad volunteers, vendors and staff, all working on their individual pieces to create a greater whole. Every individual working on an event always has their own personal agenda. Successful events manage to get every individual to buy in to a larger goal, and bend their personal agendas towards the “greater good.” […]

Culturally, we love surprises. The surprise birthday party is considered the greatest of celebrations. A surprise ending to a novel or movie is heralded as excellent fiction. A larger-than-expected return from the IRS is like manna from heaven. So it makes sense that donors and event planners often try to use surprise to their advantage […]

A successful fund a need is a magic moment. The auction stops, the crowd quiets, an emotional story is told, and then BOOM! The whole crowd is swept up in an avalanche of pledges that brings everyone together in support of a common cause. It is the emotional cornerstone of the evening; it is inspiring, […]

At a recent planning meeting where we were discussing repeat auction lots for an event, it came out that one of the donors felt seriously slighted because their lot was never redeemed. A buyer had paid top-dollar for the lot at the auction, and had yet to cash it in with the expiration date looming. […]

Lots of events work hard to find creative ways to provide meaningful engagement to their sponsors. Full-page ads in the catalog, banners hung around the room during the event, even brand placement on pre-event collateral are all benefits offered to event sponsors at various levels. Similarly, many events spend a lot of time trying to […]

When the economy took a nose-dive in 2008 it made fundraising an even greater challenge. In 2009, it was clear that message that was king. As donors began making choices between potential events, cutting back on the number of auctions they attended, it was the events that effectively communicated their message in advance of the […]

As a profession, auctioneering has long had performance tied to compensation. Auctioneers have based their worth, literally, on their ability to market and sell assets for their clients. This makes complete sense in the world of antiquities, fine art, liquidations, estate sales, vehicle auctions, real estate auctions and the like, but it is unconscionable in […]