For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been showing you how to run a silent auction – check out part 1 and part 2. Today is the third part of the series:
At The Silent Auction
1. Check up on volunteers – Volunteers should have been advised before the silent auction what tasks they were responsible for. Check on them during the night though to make sure everything’s going OK and to find out if they have any questions.
2. Monitor the bidding sheets – If possible, have one or two volunteers monitor each table. That may not be feasible depending on the number of volunteers you have, so at least ensure that there’s one close to every table. These volunteers are there to answer any questions, to make sure the bidding sheets are completed correctly and to gather up any bidding sheets where someone has bid the amount to guarantee that they win the item.
3. Communicate when each item is going to end – This is a job for the emcee. Depending on the number of items being auctioned, it can be a good idea to end the bidding on an item every few minutes. This has a number of benefits:
- It helps create a sense of urgency throughout the evening
- It means additional items can be auctioned if there isn’t space for them to all be displayed originally
- Payments can be processed throughout the night, rather than there being a mad rush at the end
4. Process payments – After the bidding has ended for each item, have the emcee announce the winning bidder’s number. Ask them to go to the payment table, where a volunteer should have already taken the winning bid sheet. Check with the winning bidder to see if they’ve bid on any other items (or are still planning to). If so, check to see if they’d prefer to pay for each item as they go along, or if they’d rather wait until the end of the evening to pay for all items they’ve won in one batch.
5. Provide a receipt – Once the winning bidder has paid, they should be given a receipt. The receipt should detail who won the item, what the item was, how much they paid and their payment method. To make this process easier, consider using something like these receipt books. These work especially well as you can retain a copy of the receipt for your own records.
6. Collect the items – While people are paying for the auction(s) they’ve won, have your volunteers gather the items for the bidders to collect once payment has been taken.
Come back next week for the final part in the series on how to run a silent auction – what to do after the auction has ended.
Question: What other tips would you give people for how to run things at the silent auction? Share your ideas in the comments below.
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