Episode 35: Seven Post-Auction Duties

Auctions

Dec 19

The silent auction has ended and you’re done. Well, almost. There are seven things you need to do to wrap up your auction.

In this episode I share:

The first thing you should do. It might surprise you
The things you need to document for the organization
The things you should document for yourself or the future auction chair

TRANSCRIPT + LISTENER ACTION ITEM

As with all of the auction podcast episodes, I am talking to you as if you are the chair or the leader of the auction. There are typically seven things you need to do in order to wrap up an auction, I'm going to take these step by step, and I recommend that you do them in order.

Step #1 - Relax and reward yourself.

You might be wondering why this is first on the list and not last, and you can absolutely do this again after you finish your final post-auction duties, but I want you to take a small amount of time, whether it's a full day, a half day, or even a few hours to decompress and reward yourself for a job well done.

It doesn't matter if you hit your financial goal or not. You just achieved something big. Coordinating an auction is a lot of work, and you did it!

Goal Post Syndrome

There's a phenomenon called goal post syndrome. It's where you never feel like you've achieved your goal because once you hit it, you then move the goalpost. It's like running a marathon and you can see the finish line. You're just a few feet away, but then someone picks up the finish line and moves it another mile down the road. Imagine how frustrating that would feel. Most often in this scenario, we are the ones moving the finish line. We're doing it to ourselves because we never stop to reflect on our we focus only on the negative and how we'll do it better next time. I am so guilty of this, which is why I want you to learn from my mistakes.

Step # 2 - Take care of the items that didn't get picked up at your auction.

If you have certificates to be mailed, get those in the mail. You can organize your physical items that are available for pickup during the time frame that you gave bidders, if you need a refresher on that, go back to Ep 34 where I talk about having a specified post-auction pickup time for people to get their items.

If you gave bidders the option to ship items, you want to get them out as soon as possible, whether that's mail, UPS, FedEx, whatever carrier you choose.

Step #3 - Write acknowledgement and or thank you letters to your auction donors.

You should check with your accountant on anything related to donor acknowledgment, but here are some general guidelines.

Your acknowledgement letter should include:

· Your nonprofit's name

· The nonprofit employer ID number

· The date

· A description of the donated item - but not its value. As I mentioned in Ep. 32, it’s up to the donor to determine the value of their donation

· And one of these statements:

o No goods or services were provided in return for the contribution OR

o A good faith estimate of the value of any goods and services that were provided in return for that contribution, if that's applicable.

· A personal, handwritten note at the bottom of the letter or send a separate thank you card.

Step #4 - Update your donor database.

There are some auction platforms that will sync directly with donor software, either automatically or manually. If your auction platform doesn't sync with your donor database, you will need to export a spreadsheet of auction donors and then import that into your donor management system so you can keep track.

Step #5 - Document your process for future auction chairs.

This is a task that is often delayed or overlooked and skipped altogether, but it is so important. As much as the organization would love to have you chair the auction for the next ten years, and even if you do, at some point, you're going to want to step away. When you do, you don't want the person it comes after you to have to start from square one.

That doesn't mean that the new person can't come along and tweak things and make it their own. It just gives them a starting point. Having a documented process isn't just about passing information on to someone else. It's also for you.

If you're planning to chair the auction again next you don't have to, nor should you, need to rely on your memory. Get things in writing step by step so you can refer to it when the planning starts up again for the next event. The ideal situation is to document your process as you go. But if you didn't do that, now is the time to write everything down while it's still somewhat fresh in your mind.

It can be as simple as creating a Google Doc of everything you did and when. The when, the timing is extremely important. Write down the what and the when. The more detailed you can be, the better,

Step #6 - Submit your volunteer hours to the organization.

Again, this is something you should have been documenting all along. But if you didn't, try to create an estimate of the number of volunteer hours you spent on the auction and send it to the volunteer coordinator or whoever creates the year-end report.

It's important for nonprofits to put the number of volunteer hours that were donated to the organization in their year-end report.

Step #7 - Get information ready for the debrief.

Collect and review data on your auction and jot down your thoughts for the debrief meeting and the recap document. The format of a debrief meeting start’s with what worked well, challenges faced and then recommendations for future for every single aspect of that event.

That feedback gets put into a recap document that the people who are working on the event the following year can go back and look through those learning moments so that mistakes aren't repeated. For more information on creating a post event recap document, go to Ep. 22.

Always start with what went well. As I mentioned, it's really easy to get fixated on the negatives. That's how the goalpost or the finish line keeps getting pushed further out. No matter how badly you think the auction went, you can find something that went well. You can probably find several somethings that went well once you start to think about it.

The nice thing about auctions is that you have data you can use to guide decision making for future auctions. This is especially true if you used an auction platform. But even if you used bid sheets, the info's there. It's just going to take a little bit longer to compile it.

Some of those things you want to look at are:

· Number of bids per item

· Average bid per item

· Top sellers

· Items with either no bids or the fewest bids

There's always something that can be done differently or better next time. When I say that you should focus on the positives first, I'm not saying you should sugarcoat your mistakes that could have been avoided, I just don't want you to beat yourself up about those perceived failures.

That's it. The seven post auction duties.

In the next and final episode, I will focus on live auctions. We're going to talk about what is the purpose of a live auction and should you have one. Watch for that episode coming up next.

Questions about fundraising events or ideas for future podcast episodes? I would love to hear from you! Go to Submit a Question. Let me know what you're struggling with because chances are someone else out there is struggling with it too.

Send me your Qs, and I'll give you my As. Now that sounds like a plan. I'll see you next time.

Listener Action Item

The seven steps above are your action items. Follow them step by step.

Coming up in the series…

Part Five - Should I Have a Live Auction?

A live auction has the potential to raise more money for your organization. Aside from raising more money, live auctions serve a purpose. We’re going to talk about what that purpose is and some criteria to determine if your event is right for a live auction.