When thinking about the list of potential lots for your live auction, there are many ways to lay out your data. Some people work in spreadsheets, others like to use Greater Giving’s software. Whatever methodology you choose, the goal is to be able to see in an instant what your live auction looks like.
A great example of this is the live auction “mood board,” a wonderfully simple way to break down an auction in its entirety. Every auction lot is written down on a 3×5 card, and the colors of each card correspond to a particular category of auction item. Yellow = trips, green = adventures, pink = special access and so on.
The event chair who introduced me to this concept carried her mood board with her to every meeting she had on the auction. The photo to the left was taken in a booth at Rosso Pizza & Wine Bar in Santa Rosa, which had the added benefit of making for a great reminder to the restaurant owner that he hadn’t gotten his auction lot in yet.
The mood board is especially useful for ensuring you don’t overload your event on any one type of auction lot. The above board is very balanced, with a few more trips than other types of lots - but in planning we knew that and knew that the crowd would support it. If, however, more than half of the board was yellow, we would have known we were in trouble.
The goal is simply to make sure that in a snapshot you can see and communicate exactly where your auction is, and what your auction needs. What tactics do you use for managing your potential auction lots?
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