The Ultimate School Auction Guide: Planning for Success

If your school is looking for a high-energy event that will boost revenue and strengthen relationships with your community, look no further than a school auction. School auctions are flexible, fun, and rewarding events everyone can enjoy, from your students’ parents and teachers to community members.

Best of all, auctions can be tailored to your school’s exact needs. Whether you’re hoping to pair a virtual silent auction with your in-person event or host a hybrid auction experience to maximize participation, the sky’s the limit!

To pull off a successful school auction, you’ll need the right strategies and tools.In this guide, we’ll explore the essential steps to create an unforgettable auction experience, meet your fundraising goal, and effectively serve your students in need.

Set concrete goals

Your school wants to raise more funds to support your community, but how much do you need to raise? How many attendees do you hope attend your event? What’s your target average bid amount? Setting clear goals with a blueprint for how you’ll achieve them will set your auction on a trajectory for success.

To support your goal-setting process, use the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) model. Let’s take a look at an example SMART goal for your school fundraiser:

• Specific: Our school aims to raise enough funds to replace our computers in the library, allowing students to effectively conduct research for their homework assignments and projects during school hours.
• Measurable: Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 to meet this objective.
• Attainable: By implementing a robust marketing strategy to maximize attendance and partnering with local businesses for item procurement and financial support, we’ll have a realistic chance to reach our $20,000 target. Plus, last year we hosted a walkathon that raised $15,000, demonstrating we have the community support needed to meet our goal.
• Relevant: The funds raised from our auction will directly support our initiative to update the school’s technology, helping our students progress in their academic journeys.
• Time-bound: We’ll give our school’s PTA and fundraising staff four months to plan our auction, with regular check-in meetings on a weekly basis.

As part of your goal-setting process, it’s also important to nail down the type of auction your school will be hosting—including whether it will be a live or silent auction and if it will take place in person, virtually, or as a hybrid auction. Consider your school’s audience and what will lead to the most engagement. For example, if your students’ parents have busy schedules, you might opt to host a virtual silent auction so they can conveniently submit bids online over the course of a week.

Invest in the right technology

Running an auction can feel overwhelming, but luckily, there are plenty of tools that can make the planning process less daunting. Make sure you have the following solutions in your tech stack:

• School auction software: OneCause recommends looking for a solution that will help you manage registrations, smoothly handle the check-in and out process, streamline the bidding process with mobile bidding capabilities, and keep your audience actively engaged using gamification. Plus, the right tool will help organize your procurement efforts so you know what items you have and what items you still need.
• Marketing platform: Your marketing strategy will have a big impact on how many people attend your auction. Invest in a marketing platform to easily manage, automate, schedule, and send important promotional messages so you can keep your event on your audience’s radar. Keep in mind that some auction software solutions also come with built-in marketing capabilities, meaning you can save money by investing in an all-in-one event management and software solution.
• Data management solution: Data collection helps you actively measure your progress toward meeting your fundraising goals. Performing a fundraising assessment with that data better informs decision-making to enhance your results. Make sure you have an underlying database, such as a CRM, that will integrate with your auction software.
• Payment processing: Your school auction software should come with payment processing capabilities so you can reliably and securely transfer funds from winning bids to your school’s bank account. Ideally, look for a software solution that is PCI-compliant so you can boost supporters’ trust in your institution by protecting their private information.

While investing in new technology might feel like a big expense, you’ll be able to reduce your team’s administrative burden and increase your ROI with the right solution. Plus, an all-in-one school fundraising platform will provide value to your institution beyond auctions, helping you to plan and host fundraisers like walkathons, fundraising galas, peer-to-peer campaigns, and more. Do your research to find a solution that will meet your school’s unique needs over the long term.

Market your event

Marketing your auction is crucial to your school’s fundraising success. After all, how can you get people to attend and bid if they don’t know it’s happening? By leveraging multichannel marketing, you can effectively get the word out about your auction and engage your entire community in your event.

Consider using the following platforms:

Suggested alt text: A list of key platforms to leverage in a multichannel marketing strategy, repeated below.

• Social media: Along with sharing visuals across platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Double the Donation’s roundup of marketing ideas recommends creating interactive content to step up your audience engagement. For example, you might leverage polls, livestream capabilities, and Q&A tools in the platforms you use.
• Your website: Develop a visually appealing and informative event landing page on your website that goes over everything prospective attendees need to know about your event, including its purpose, fundraising goal, steps to register, and logistical details like time and place.
• Email: Highlight your upcoming auction in your email newsletter and include links to your event landing page to boost traffic and registrations.
• Text messaging: Your school’s supporters are almost always on their phones, so why not meet them where they are with text messages? Send concise yet inspiring messages that encourage audiences to sign up and even donate in advance.
• Direct mail: Even in today’s digital-savvy landscape, it’s important not to discount direct mail! Direct mail can feel more personal to a lot of supporters, so design engaging letters that explain your auction’s purpose and why people should attend.
• Print ads: Create ads about your upcoming auction in your town or region’s newspaper to expand your reach and ensure community members can get involved.
• Flyers: Don’t forget that your students can also help with spreading the word about your auction! Send them home with fundraising flyers they can share with their parents.
• Radio or TV slot: Ask your local news or radio station to give a shout-out to your school and its auction event. You might even form a corporate sponsorship with these media businesses and, in exchange for them marketing your school, you can include their logo in all of your promotional materials.

Between procuring appealing items and organizing your event venue, you might find it hard to find time for marketing. Recruit and prepare volunteers from your PTA and school community to provide a helping hand so you can lead a dynamic marketing campaign.

Wrapping Up

With a well-designed auction plan, you can optimize your school’s chances of success and meet and exceed your objectives. Actively track metrics and stay flexible so you can make quick changes to your strategy as needed. As you plan and run your event, remember to thank your school’s team of staff and volunteers so you can keep motivation high and effectively rally everyone around your goals.