Fundraising Ideas – Hosting An Online Auction

Bringing people together online for a great cause has never been easier. For the longest time, fundraising used to be an in-person only effort. In 2020 we learned that the digital space is a huge opportunity.

Events were held in various venues ranging from school gymnasiums to rented spaces. In order to get people to participate, there was an immense outreach effort. Flyers would be mailed out and posted in restaurants and local community boards. We won’t even talk about how much effort it took to track it all (that’s another blog post for another day).

In 2020, those who ran charity events were diving into new ways to fundraise, determined to keep moving forward. The world did not stop for committees, non-profit organizations, and those who wished to give back to their communities. For those needing an idea or two on how to bring your fundraising efforts online, we highly recommend hosting an online auction.

To host an online auction, you’ll need just a couple of things to get started. First, have items to auction! Reach out to sponsors and donors, post on social media, and use your connections to put together a great line-up for the auction.

Second, you’ll need an online space to hold your auction. BirdEase has a built in silent auction feature that thousands have used for their auctions! It’s easy to set up, you’ll have the opportunity to take additional donations, create a great looking home for your event, and be able to take payments from the winners right online.

Third, you’ll need a time frame for your auction. Host the auction for a day, a week, a month. Pro-tip: If there is a larger event that will be taking place, us an online auction to ramp up excitement for it!

Lastly, you’ll need participants. If BirdEase is your online auction system of choice, you’ll be able to easily share and promote your auction throughout all social media platforms.

Start your free trial today. This trial does not expire, so you’ll have plenty of time to make sure the system is right for you. After, start loading your items into the system! You can customize how the auction will work within the software. Set a starting bid for each item, include required bid increments, include information about the sponsor, images, and more!

As the organizer, you’ll be notified every time someone places a bid. Once the auction is over, invoices can be sent to the winners for easy payment collection.

Easy! Read more about the specific online auction event features here.

Or get your auction event website site up and running with a free account by visiting our account creation page.