Running an Online Auction Can Increase Your Donor Base

As a charitable organization, you survive on your donor base. If it isn’t growing, you won’t thrive. What can you do to increase your donor base? That’s the million-dollar question. One way to increase your donor base is to host an online auction for charity.

Auction software allows organizations to create customizable auctions for charity which include a registration page and auction pages. Within these auctions are social media share buttons. Everyone who views or bids on the auction as the opportunity to share it via social media.

What does this mean for your organization?

When you host a virtual auction for charity, the charity auction software allows administrators (you) to the email winners. That means you have a whole new donor base! Everyone who signs up to bid on the auction must leave their email address. So, you have people sharing your auction to their friends and family via social media and you are collecting their email addresses for future use. That’s a win-­win.

These online auctions connect with past and future donors making recruiting new donors easier. There is very little overhead, so virtual auctions are an easy way to leverage donor relationships. You’ll not only get more donations, but you’ll also attract more donors while spending less money.

In a recent article, Givergy, stated that the Blackbaud report had announced that while overall giving increased by only 1% in 2015, online giving increased by 6.1%. They also noted that 27% of donors believe online auctions are the best way to attract donations.

Developing fundraising campaigns

Online auctions are an excellent way to develop fundraising campaigns. They often increase the overall contribution to your charity while increasing your donor base. An online auction reaches far more possible contributors than a local live event. Think six degrees of separation. If you follow that theory, for each online auction donor, you’ll get 6 more donors through word­-of­-mouth and social sharing.

Accelevents says, peer to peer fundraising leverages your supporters and turns them into fundraising advocates for your charity. This word of mouth through like-­minded individuals expands your reach, which in turn, expands your donations and your donor base.

When you motivate your supporters to help share the news, you reach a much larger possible donor base. It works because people trust word-­of-­mouth recommendations.

It goes something like this:

Hey, did you see the auction for XYZ’s fundraiser? There are some great things. I know you’ll want to check it out.

Really? Where can I find it?

I’ll send you a Facebook link.

Now, the second person goes to the online site and registers. That’s a two­fer! These contacts will expand your donor base while creating a cycle of sharing. An online auction makes it easy for your supporters to share your cause and do something good. It is also a great way to keep your current donors active and motivated.

The importance of automation

With Kindful, everything is automatically updated for you. If your donor information is outdated, when the new info is entered by the donor, it updates your existing list through donation tracking.

Integrate your payment processing and accounting platforms with Kindful to seamlessly manage all your donations in one place. Our donation pages automatically sync with industry ­leading payment processors. QuickBooks integration, donations, and pledge installments are automatically tracked with donor profiles reducing your workload.

Host an online auction today! There’s no easier way to grow your donor base.