The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 - (Page 6)

Hot Auctions Continued from page 5 in this order, trips, sports items, art, entertainment/leisure, and dining. And while Carson and others advise including these mainstays in an auction, “the broader theme here, however, is the groups that can access the more interesting items, the celebrity items, and most specifically celebrity experiences, will generally always have a good outcome.” For St. Mark’s Catholic School in Plano,Texas, raising funds traditionally centered on a one-night event.To promote its “fund-a-cause” goal of purchasing projectors and screens for every classroom, the school branched out and preceded the event with its first-ever online auction. “We would normally have a silent auction followed by a live auction,” explained Louis Murad, event co-chair and professional auctioneer.“We did WALKING “ITEMS” those items that would be considered silent -- items The Emmanuel Cancer Foundation runs a sucwe thought would bring less than $1,000 online.That cessful annual golf tournament, with an auction way we were able to solicit piece that generates around grandparents, extended family $100,000 each year from the and friends of the school who sale of sports items, golf outwould now have a chance to ings, the typical fare, said Xibid on items at any time during mena Gutierrez, central the day, but there was also an regional director at the chararea where they could also just ity’s Scotch Plains, N.J. office. donate money electronically to To reach out to a very different the school.” crowd, young people in their St. Mark's instituted Auction20s and 30s, the cancer charity Pay's Online Auction solution, decided to try something a bit which helped reach out beyond racier. school parents to relatives and This year’s fourth annual other school supporters that bachelor/bachelorette auction were unable to attend its live was held at the Colorado Café, event. AuctionPay's online aucin Watchung, N.J., a spacious tion tools produced a flurry of venue popular for its live music, online bidding activity that was line dancing, and often unlimconvenient for many people ited rides on the venue’s resioutside the school's local geodent mechanical bull.The space graphic range, added Murad. DFW CEO Jeff Fegan with the New Jersey Devils’ Brian was donated, and promotion In fact, a bidding war Rafalski who played in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game hold- was made possible through ing one of the two masks that were auctioned off. erupted between two grandFree FM,92.3,allowing the founmothers -- one in Florida and one in California -- dation to waive charging an entrance fee.The foundaeach eyeing a lunch with one of the school’s teach- tion also garnered free promotion via New Jersey ers followed by a movie at the local cinema. The Young Professionals (NJYP), an online social networkitem was pegged to go for around $200, Murad said, ing group,which also provided a host of the bachelors but sold for $2,200. and bachelorettes. The online auction raised $25,000 – more than Laura Labriola, a Caldwell, N.J., resident and memone-fourth of the school’s total revenue of $97,000. ber of NJYP, said she learned about the auction In some instances, the best auction items are the through a posting on the group’s Web site.“I decided ones you had no idea about.Take Save the Children to sign up on a whim. It was for a good cause and I (STC), which learned along with the rest of The was single,” said Labriola. “I figured that getting Colbert Report viewers that it would benefit from ‘bought’ by a random person and going on a date the sale of host Stephen Colbert’s portrait on eBay. with him is not that much different than meeting Colbert made the surprise announcement on his someone on an online dating site.” Comedy Central show at the end of last year, saying, Labriola and the other 19 participants ac“This is a real auction of a real portrait to benefit a counted for $4,000 of the $5,500 raised during the real charity.”The portrait, a picture of Colbert stand- April 12 event. ing in front of a picture of Colbert, eventually sold Celebrity auction items are generally solid sellers, for $50,605 to eBay bidder “Colbertnationalist1,” the according to cMarket’s Carson, who noted a charity alias of the Charleston, S.C.-based Sticky Fingers auction at this past February’s South Beach Wine and restaurant owners. Food Festival, generated nearly $280,000. One of the “Basically, we were thrilled,” said Mike Kiernan, standout items was an opportunity to have pop spokesman for the Westport, Conn.-based children’s singer Jessica Simpson record an outgoing voice charity. Kiernan said not only was the money a message, which sold for around $500. pleasant surprise, but so was the added benefit of The National Hockey League (NHL) profited reaching an audience “that every charity wants to from its own celebrities when it auctioned two reach. People in their 20s and 30s who are pretty goalie masks, designed and painted by sports artist savvy about what’s going on in the world.” David Arrigo and signed by the six goaltenders Maria Herrmann found herself in a similar situa- who played in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game. The tion after an auction item, a golf trip she at first masks drew 190 bids and netted a combined dubbed “a minor tournament in Orlando,” turned $12,030 for the USO at Dallas/Fort Worth Internaout to be one of the most popular items on the bill tional Airport, the Canadian Forces Personnel Supat a recent online auction to benefit Points of Light port Agency, and The Sapper Mike McTeague Foundation (PoLF). Wounded Warrior Fund. NPT 6 DECEMBER 15, 2007 THE NONPROFIT TIMES Herrmann said the golf trips, which included two tickets to the event, a weekend stay at a resort, and the occasional shoulder rub with the likes of Tiger Woods, sold for about $1,500 apiece, nearly double their original cost. Herrmann acquired the trips from incentive travel company Mitch-Stuart, Inc., which provides travel packages at no risk to charities. “Because Mitch-Stuart’s prices don’t fluctuate based on market price, there are certainly times of the year that you can get a better deal. But nine times out of 10 their prices are competitive with the marketplace,” said Herrmann, who said PoLF has sold more than $1 million worth of trips provided by Mitch-Stuart since 2003. To get the biggest bang for the buck, Stuart Paskow, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, advised capitalizing on the competitive nature of a live auction. “At a live auction, (charities) very often make twice as much as a silent auction.” Is It $10, $25 Or $100? Deciding how much to ask for in a solicitation very fundraiser wants to maximize the giving of a donor. But, how do you determine that number? The answer is a mix of testing, intuition and prodding. Getting from point A, the ask, to point B, the bank, was the topic of a recent Executive Session, held over lunch at the National Press Club in Washington,D.C.during a break in the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation meeting this past January. The experts participating in the Executive Session were:Brian Cowart,senior director,Mail Acquisition/Donor Retention, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.; Cathy Finney, associate vice president, MINDset direct, Arlington, Va.; Tom Gaffny, executive vice president, fundraising, Epsilon,Wakefield, Mass., Stephen Mally, principal consultant, Professional Services, Blackbaud, Charleston, S.C., and Rita O'Neill, president O'Neill Marketing Company, Fairfax,Va. The session was moderated by Rick Christ, president, NPAdvisors.com in Warrenton, Va., and Paul Clolery, editorial director of The NonProfit Times. Paul Clolery: I’ve always been curious about “the ask." How do you evolve your solicitation and message to get to that very important point? And, how are you deciding what that ask will be? Around the table, we have people who are experts in online strategy, in list selection, creative and technology.We have both vendors and clients.Does it start with the creative? Does it start with list selection? Tom Gaffny: Like any form of communication, it really comes down to the sender and the receiver. In terms of the sender, it's, what is your objective? In terms of the gift ask, organizations have different objectives. Some want to acquire a lot of people, and they might leverage a price point towards that goal. Some might want to acquire a certain kind of person at a higher range. And given that they know that at the outset,they're going to be limiting the number of gifts they get. In terms of the receiver, I think the key thing to identify -- more particularly for renewal -- is the comfort zone/price point.The surest path to failure is to ask someone to give more than they're capable of and you've lost the sale immediately. It really is a question of looking at an array of lists and determining based on the history of the Executive Session, page 8 www.nptimes.com http://www.NPAdvisors.com http://www.nptimes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 Say Hello To 2008, Kissin’ Cousin of 2007 Scandal Ensnares Red Cross CEO Contents Nonprofits Getting A Second Lease On Life Hot Nonprofit Auctions Is It $10, $25 or $100? The World’s Best Fundraisers Turbo-Charged Web Use Help Wanted: 640,000 Open Positions Focus On Community Impact Has United Ways Changing Donor Migration - North Putting That Spark In Your Script NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

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