Happy New Year! I hope 2017 was everything you hoped for and more!

Zan Auctions ended with a bang, making 300 times more for our last client than they made the year before. How do we achieve such chart topping success? It’s all about the pre-game. My client took all of my consultation for pre-gaming The Paddle Raise, the Live, and more and hustled to make the notes become a reality, and touchdown! Now, I’ve got some information for you on pre-gaming with your Board.

We know that we rely on Board involvement for about 50% of our fundraising. That’s a huge responsibility of theirs, but have we been responsible and educated them as to how to do their work?

Cindi Phallen, an expert in Board Development recently gave a talk at the Association of Fundraising Professionals and shed some light on the matter. I’ll share some of it here with you, but to learn more from her, please visit her website at www.possibility-cp.com.

Remind your Board:

1. Fundraising takes work, but the work can be fun! It’s all about relationship building.
2. If you believe in your organization, it should be a pleasure, not a chore to share your passion.
3. Have a personal story ready, why this is their passion. Not what we do, but why we do it.

Let’s talk about language and your Board:

4. Erase the words Ask, Give, Campaigner, and Fundraising from your vocabulary.
5. Instead let’s use Invite, Invest, Ambassador, and Outreach (aka telling stories about the org.)
6. After they have their story, then they can invite their friends to invest in the cause.

You have to touch base, and take care of them during the year, to be able to ask them to show up once a year and fill your basket.

“Cultivating the relationship, helps the ask become a natural progression of the relationship, rather than this thorny objective we need to accomplish. Our donors will want to come forward because they are enthusiastic about the organization, and because they are enjoying the relationship with you.”

Brian Saber in Joan Garry’s Podcast “Nonprofits are Messy” Episode 22: The Art and Science of The Ask

The following are also from Joan Garry’s Podcast. I suggest you listen to her work, but in case you don’t have time to download them right now, here are some choice words of wisdom.

Role Playing The Ask.

“You’ve been so wonderful to us. Thank you for supporting the work we’ve been able to do. You’ve helped build this (foundation, organization, school, etc.). As you know (insert problem here. Funding dropped out, growing into new building, serving more people, etc.). And I’m really hoping, I know this is more than you have done, but I’m hoping you will consider a gift of (whatever you think they can raise up to) because what that would do is allow us to do is (fill in the blank). “ Ask them to be a part of the legacy.

Often times we don’t expect Silent Auction items to sell for full price, or go over the market value.

As a Benefit Auction Specialist I here are 10 tricks and tools of the trade to increase the bidding action and get those bids up and over the value. Let’s break some records!

1. Placement. Place your items so that they are literally in the way of the bid-ders. A mistake I see often is putting the silent auction items along the perime-ter of a room. What often ends up happening is that people get their drinks and congregate in the center of the room. When the room fills up, people can’t even see the carefully arranged items on the silent auction tables. I suggest putting the tables in the center of the room.

2. Create attractive displays for the items. Have the item there beside the bid sheet if possible. Use varying heights. Put jewelry and smaller items on top of a box with a pretty cloth over it. If you can’t have the item at the event, have a color photo of the item along side the sign up sheet. Use clear plastic frames to stand next to the sheet, showing a nice photo display of the item. People often browse from a few feet back, so use height to your advantage to draw people’s attention to your items.

3. Use large font. Don’t make the bidders have to find their reading glasses in order to bid.

4. Where to start the bidding? Industry standard is to start at about 40% of the value, and increase it in 10% increments.

With EasyBlog, you can be assured of quality blogging with the following features: Drag and Drop Blocks Add elements to your blog with a simple drag and drop element blocks. Blog now, post later You can compose a blog now, suffer temporal writer's block, save and write again, later. Social media sharing Automatically post into your Twitter, Faceboo...