ONLINE/FACEBOOK AUCTIONS
I would like to welcome our guest post writer today, Sara Gentry. Sara was very kind to write up her tips on doing an online facebook auction as a fundraiser. She has provided many helpful tips below on how to set one up and some great guidelines to make it a success.Hey everyone! I’m here today to talk to you about fundraising, specifically online auctions. I’ve completed three auctions through Facebook, so I guess that makes me an “expert”. Ha! Definitely not an expert, but I have learned a few things and continue to learn new things with each auction, so take that into consideration as you plan your upcoming fundraiser. And good luck!
My favorite way to host an auction is through Facebook. The other option is to host it through your blog, but I think Facebook is easier to navigate. For an auction on your blog, each item gets its own post, with any information you want to include (see later in this post for tips on that). For an auction on Facebook, it is best to make a group for your fundraising endeavors and then make a photo album that is open to the public. I haven’t been able to find a way (on Facebook) to make it completely open to the public, but I just let anyone who wanted to “friend” me do so, and then they can defriend me after the auction if they choose. In the photo album, list each item in a different picture with a description of the item. Bidders place their bid by commenting with the dollar amount they wish to bid.Step #1 - Create a Facebook Group
Step #2 - Collect Donations
Before the auction-
- Collect donations- I did this almost 100% through Facebook. Over the course of a couple weeks I put on my status that I was hosting an online auction and needed donations to raise money for our adoption. Donations can come from anywhere. If they’re local, you can take care of shipping, but if they aren’t local they can ship the item directly to the winner of the auction for that item.
- Make sure people know what kind of donations you’re looking for- ANYTHING! I received donations from people who made some sort of craft (chidren’s clothes, hairbows, knit items, etc.), people who sell a “home party” brand (Scentsy, Thirty-One, Mary Kay, Premier Jewelry, etc.), people who have a skill to offer (hairdresser, painter, babysitter, etc.). I also had several people donate very gently used items with high value (a video game system their child didn’t use anymore, high end clothing they had only worn once, etc.).
- Gather pictures of items people donate- organize this well so you’ll be able to find it easily when it’s time to make the photo album. I made a folder on my desktop for “FB Auction” and saved photos in there. I would save them with the name of the person who donated and any important information about the item. This helped me remember who donated and the information about the item without having to dig through old emails and/or Facebook messages when the time came
During the auction-
- On the photo album, in the description of the album, put all your “rules”. I hate that these are necessary, because it’s a good case and fundraising... all that, but there are still people that are just there trying to get something really cheap and not in the spirit of fundraising.
- Promote, promote, promote! Make sure your friends and family share your fundraising group and your photo album
Step #3 - Promote your auction
*add in tip from article "Fundraising on Facebook"*Hold a 24-hour Facebook awareness campaign
One additional Facebook strategy you can use is to do a 24-hour Facebook awareness campaignHere’s how it works — with a 24-Hour Facebook awareness campaign you don’t actually ask people to donate money. Rather, you simply ask that everyone “donate” their Facebook status message for 24 hours by changing it to “Please Help [NAME OF YOUR FRIEND]” then a link to your online fundraising page.
The idea is that even if your friends can’t afford to donate money, they will be happy to “donate” their status message. With hundreds or even thousands of people all with the same status message many friends, family and strangers around the world will see it and will be inclined to donate.
Step #4 - Contact Winners & Send Items
After the auction-
- Comment on each picture, congratulating the winner. This prevents people from commenting or messaging you with “did I win” questions, and lets people know that you are working on getting their things to them. I do this asap when the auction is over. Because of this, I make sure my auctions end at a decent time (didn’t think about it the first time and had my auction end at midnight... tired momma the next day!)
- Let everyone know how they will receive their winnings and how they need to pay. When I comment to congratulate the winner I say something like this- “Congratulations Jane Smith, you are the highest bidder! Winners will receive a message via FB in the next day or two with further instructions.” This gives you a day or two to get in touch with everyone, and it lets them know more information is coming.
- Message everyone- if you say “in the next day or two”, make sure it’s really done within that time frame. Try to schedule your auction to end at a time that you’re not going to be slammed with other things. When you message them, let them know how to pay. The easiest way to accept payment is through Paypal. If they are local I would schedule a time to meet (often the next time I would be seeing them anyway- ie: church, MOPS, child’s school, etc.) and they could pay me then. You will also need to get their address when you message them so you will know where to send their item, or you can pass their address along to the donor who will be doing the shipping.
- Message all the donors- if the person who donated needs information about where to ship, etc. make sure to let them know it’s coming.
- Follow up- make sure everyone received everything they were suppose to. No one will participate in another auction (or any other fundraiser) if they paid, but never received their items!
- Thanks- make sure all participants (donors and bidders) in the auction know how grateful you are to them for supporting your adoption. I had people (donors and bidders) from all parts of my life contribute- family, current friends, people I knew in high school and are “Facebook friends” with now, new adoptive mom friends, and friends of friends that wanted to support a good cause.
- Minimum bid- for each item, in the description I thanked whoever donated, described the item, and put a minimum bid. My first auction I had the “ebay mentality” that things would get more bids if they didn’t have a minimum bid. This was true for some things, but then other’s ended up selling for a good deal less than they were worth. Some of the donors were upset their item sold for so low because it actually cost them more to make the item than I made off it.
- Bidding increases- each bid must increase by $1. For my first auction I didn’t have this rule either and people were increasing their bids by 1 penny.... just not in the spirit of fundraising, so I made this rule for subsequent auctions.
- “Winner pays shipping”- if the item is coming from you, I highly suggest adding shipping to the end bid. I included shipping with all my items for the first 2 auctions and ended up paying up to $20 to ship a box to someone, when their winning bid was $30. Sort of defeats the fundraising idea. Many people who donate items will include shipping in their donation, which is great. I had many donations from local friends who gave me their donation in person to deliver to the winner. For those things I added shipping to the winning bid.
- State *exactly* when the auction ends- this is what I learned after my last auction. I ran it from 12pm on Monday to the following Monday at 12pm. Some people took that to mean they could still bid at 12:00pm and some people took that to mean bidding was over when the clock struck 12:00pm, so be very clear about when bidding will end.
I have had a lot of success with these auctions. It’s an easy way for a lot of people to get involved and help with your adoption, either by donating something or by bidding.I'm Sara and my husband is Andrew. We have 2 biological daughters, ages 4 and 3 and just returned with our daughter Emily, 2 1/2 from the DRC. Sara blogs at Our Adoption Adventure.
Have you used an online auction as a fundraiser? Do you have additional tips? Please add them in the comments below and I will update this blog post to include them.
It is time for a fundraising linky as well. Please link up to your fundraiser below. I love supporting adoptions and and always share this post on Monday with my friends and family and encourage them to shop as well.
SHOP and SUPPORT an adoptive family....
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