Sponosorship for Fundraising Auction - Guide

Host an Auction Item Sponsorship Party:

If possible we recommend that you hold a Sponsorship Party for your auction items.

Here are some tips:

• Invite people who you were planning to approach anyway and have a presentation of your auction item wish list displayed. 

• Include in your auction item wish list the things you may need to conduct the auction. For example you may need the use of computers, or the use of a venue. Local Church, or Hall, table centerpieces, display items, projector,  etc. (Sometimes a wish list includes the need for ‘volunteers’)

• Give a small presentation about every item on the list and provide the consignment price if available.

• Point out that every auction item has an associated cost. Even a donated dinner, or donated service has an associated cost, so the cost difference between sponsoring a consignment item or a personal dinner may be negligible. People mistakenly assume that a fully donated item, like a self-made item or provided service/dinner/party is often a way to contribute without spending many dollars. This can be true but often is not, as the donor soon discovers when the associated bills come in for the food, or the cleaning, or the material cost, or the work hours. The actual fact is that the cost associated with consignment items are often the same as the costs associated with fully donated items. They both tend to average themselves out. For example, the cost to your donor for volunteering that spaghetti feast for 6 at their home will most likely equal or even surpass that $500 custom made golf club you need sponsored as well. It is important to make this point when reviewing your wish list with your invited contributors so they can think about what they want to sign up for.

• Remember to point out the tax benefits associated with the donor or sponsorship contribution. This is also where consignment items are simpler to value. Consignment items have an identifiable value easily demonstrated as a possible tax deduction via an invoice or receipt. A donated item like a dinner or garage cleaning or a dance lesson, or a tutoring hour, etc, is much harder to identify and value at tax time.  We do however highly recommend fully donated items since they generally make up the core of most fundraising auctions.

• Ask for people to sign up for items on the list during the course of the party. Make it a little competitive. (Have a small reward for the people signing up for the higher priced items, like a reward cake, or a bottle of wine, or a small gift basket etc.) If someone signs up to sponsor that expensive vacation trip to Hawaii for $3500 then be sure to thank them with a round of applause and nice bottle of expensive wine.

• Point out that the ‘leveraging’ benefit that exists with fully donated auction items also exists with sponsored consignment items. So for example: let’s say that a patron signs up to sponsor an item like ‘Wine of the Month Club’ which has a consignment price of $400. The bidding for this item may start at $500 and may sell at auction for a price somewhere north of $500. As a result of the patrons sponsorship your organization will pull in over $500 but the sponsor patrons actual contribution was only $400, for which they can also receive a tax deduction. The patron was able to ‘leverage’ their $400 sponsorship into 25% more dollars for your organization than they actually contributed. 

• Emphasize that donating as well as sponsorship is generally RISK FREE because if the item does not actually sell at the auction then the sponsor or the donor can elect to still contribute their expected dollar commitment or not contribute at all.  

• Allow for more than one person to sponsor any specific item. If there are items that are a bit costly but great marquee type items like vacation packages, or art, etc, then allow for a percentage sponsorship. So for example a vacation package that consigns for $2000 might be broken into 25% sponsorship where each sponsor commits to $500 of the consignment price.