Charities Clearing Out The Garage For Auction Items
by Mark Hrywna
The American Red Cross (ARC) is cleaning out its closets and having a garage sale of sorts. As part of cost-cutting measures, the ARC is closing a warehouse facility in Lorton, Va., leaving very limited space to store pieces not on display at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. Aside from what was kept, a large portion of the items in storage went to the National Archives, said Carol Robinson, director of creative resources, where the ARC has a permanent agreement to transfer collections.
What won’t be transferred or stored at headquarters will be put up for auction later this year. Closing the warehouse facility will save $3 million annually for the ARC, and a conservative estimate of $200,000 is pegged for auction revenue, according to Jonathan Aiken, director of media relations.
The auction is an opportunity for Americans, many of whom have a connection to the ARC either through donating blood o rswimming lessons, to own something from the iconic organization, said Susan Watson, archivist.
“We have other artwork and sculptures throughout the Red Cross building, those remain untouched,” said Watson. “Things in the warehouse have been in storage many years and haven’t been on display for a variety of reasons. The pieces that are not on display, we looked at them in total and made a decision on what could or couldn’t go, and what could go back on display as well,” she said.
Most of the 150 items to be auctioned by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas are artwork and illustrations made for the ARC over the years, the heyday of which spanned the early 20th century, up to the 1940s, Watson said. Artists from that time, including luminaries such as Norman Rockwell, would do a painting that would get turned into a poster to use in fundraising campaigns and other programs.
The online auction begins in mid-November and runs through February. There will be a live auction at some point in the Dallas facility. “We also have a lot of items that are of lesser value, like vintage textbooks and uniforms, and some posters that were not selected by Heritage that will go into a lower-end auction,” Watson said.
There was quite a bit of duplication, so where they might have multiples of the same item, such as World War I-era uniforms, Red Cross would keep one and select the others for auction. “We kept representative samples of all uniforms, to be able to tell our story,” said Robinson. “We really wanted to keep sufficient paintings and illustrations so that we could continue to tell our story to our public,” she said.
In addition to illustrations, the auction will feature other unique items, including a four-faced Cartier clock lamp, believed to be one of only three ever created, said Watson, and a 23-inch “Rose Percy” doll that was sold in 1864 to raise money for the Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the American Red Cross, which was created in 1881.
There were other items in storage that just didn’t have any connection to the ARC, such as a 1936 World Series pin, which will be sold off later next year as part of a separate auction of sports memorabilia by Heritage. “That was representative of what we found going through collection,” Robinson said. “We found other things and part of the criteria was how related is it to the Red Cross. There were things that just were not related to Red Cross,” she said.
Unique items, like the iconic ARC images and artwork, usually are winners in any auction, which are becoming a money maker for nonprofits looking to generate more revenue.
“Charities really need an alternative source of revenue. There are a lot of good ways to get people to auctions,” said Stuart Paskow, CEO of Mitch-Stuart, Inc., which has offices in North Miami Beach, Fla., and Laguna Beach, Calif.
Auctions are that alternative source of revenue. “It’s not a direct solicitation. It’s not direct mail. It’s not approaching a donor for a gift. It’s money you would not have otherwise had,” he said.
“The neat thing about it (the auction business) is it can be passive income or an add-on or the highlight of an event. So auctions are done in different ways,” said Michelle Cohen, president of Mitch-Stuart, Inc.
“The online auction network has evolved into a sophisticated triangle where charities, item donors, and consumers all benefit from each other, and the more they do, the more successful it becomes,” said Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket/BiddingForGood in Cambridge, Mass. “With over 130,000 active bidders and millions of dollars of donated items the value proposition to charities is becoming more and more of an easy decision,” said Carson, who estimates spending in the auction market to be around $16 billion annually.
Whether it’s excess equipment or a random white elephant donation, nonprofits should try direct selling on eBay or take their silent auction and migrate it to eBay, said Clam Lorenz, vice president of operations at MissionFish. With millions of users, the site can “get eyeballs that just aren’t available through any other charity platform, whether open or not,” he said.
“Every nonprofit should be a part of it, because it’s free and your supporters are probably there. If a nonprofit is selling items, it makes sense to offer at least some on eBay because the size of the audience is hard to beat," Lorenz said. eBay fee credits make if free for nonprofits to sell through eBay Giving Works and MissionFish does not take an administrative fee from nonprofit sellers.
MissionFish does keep a part of the donations it handles directly from Community Selling, donations coming from eBay sellers who are not from the nonprofit, ranging from 1.5 percent to 20 percent, depending on the size of the gift, to cover processing costs and then distributes the donation to the nonprofit. .
Things that continue to sell well are celebrity related and trendy, but rather mundane items can also be appealing if creatively marketed, Lorenz said. A unique pitch can develop a lot of interest, especially with social media, such as Twitter and Facebook and blogs. Appeals to pockets of those people can snowball when picked up on Twitter or Facebook, if they are unique, one-of-a-kind things.
Not many people normally would be interested in behavioral economics, but fans of the best-selling book “Freakonomics” likely will make an auction for Smile Train a success. Followers are finding and sharing information around the blogosphere about the follow-up, “Superfreakonomics,” the very first copy of which will be auctioned to benefit Smile Train. In the closing hours, the leading bid had eclipsed $1,000.
Organizations like to put out their best appeals as well as best auction items, and it’s usually one-of-a-kind items that do very well. Lorenz pointed out an auction featuring a charter flight with the band Black Eyed Peas to their concert in Australia, or a meet and greet with Southern rock legend Charlie Daniels.
“If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that somebody out there loves anything you can think of,” Lorenz said, be it guinea pig rescue organizations or something more mainstream. “There are people that are out there that are just passionate about that. I’m continually surprised by these auctions, being able to enable some good to come about it,” he said.
After 61 bids over 10 days, dinner with Sarah Palin went for $63,500 to benefit Ride 2 Recovery, whose mission is to “improve the health and wellness of wounded warriors by providing a life changing experience that can impact their lives forever.”
Lunch with celebrities is no longer a trend but is now a staple of charity auctions. “We’ve talked to buyers from these auctions and there’s a million different reasons why they buy these lunches,” Lorenz said, including small business owners looking to hawk a product to CEOs of large companies or someone pitching a band to a music producer.
Paskow expects next year’s new offering, Top Gun-themed items, where bidders can bid on a flight as a jet fighter, to be a big hit. Mitch-Stuart also plans to offer trips to Normandy, France, for veterans’ organizations.
As soon as the economy went south, a lot of auction organizers were selecting trips closer to home, opting for “staycations” and conservative getaways, Cohen said. Now, things are starting to perk up and becoming a little more elaborate, with a trend toward the Caribbean and Europe, she added.
Cohen said one of their most popular trips is wine tours. Based on a person’s wine preference, the tours can take people to Napa Valley or Spain or Italy. “It’s an affordable trip that everyone loves,” she said, and people also can customize their trip, adding a cooking aspect to a Spanish excursion or a stopover in San Francisco after a sojourn in wine country.
Since raffle and auction rules vary from state to state, Paskow recommends reviewing the regulations in your nonprofit’s home state. As for the night of the event, Paskow suggests hosting the live auction before the end of the meal or dessert, and be sure to advertise in advance, letting people know, without pricing them, about half of the trips that will be offered. “The live auction will always bring in the most money,” he said.
As a general rule, Cohen said a successful auction should establish a theme that can carry through all stages of event, from save-the-date cards and invitations to the night of the auction and thank- you notes.
Kaijsa Kurstin, media relations manager at cMarket in Cambridge, Mass., suggests uploading new items frequently, and at different times, to encourage people to come back and revisit the site to see the new items. Social networking tools, like Facebook and Twitter, can be used to cross-promote your organization’s auction. Emailing bid notices or outbid notices can encourage people to come back to the site to bid on items.
Promote your online auction first and your live event second to ensure the greatest number of people from both groups can view and bid on your auction items, said Kurstin. That will elevate starting bids at your live event and ultimately help to raise more money.
Restaurant and travel continue to be the most popular items in online charity auctions for Cambridge, Mass.-based cMarket. “Filling a holiday auction with an abundance of these items is key to a successful auction,” according to Kurstin. cMarket/BiddingForGood has raised more than $70 million for nonprofits.
The best products are ones that appeal to a wide audience and are easy to receive or redeem, such as items that can be shipped or gift certificates that can be redeemed at multiple locations, Kurstin said.
Restaurant gift certificates and retail gift cards, especially those with a national or regional presence, remain among the top online auction items at cMarket, along with designer luxury accessories such as handbags, purses, men’s ties, and celebrity memorabilia and tickets to sporting events.
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This article is from NPT Instant Fundraising, a publication of The NonProfit Times.
