This week we had the honor of hosting our friend from Winspire, Ian Lauth, to talk about how to maximize the use of travel packages at your benefit auctions. We’ll go over a quick summary here, but if you’d like to listen to the whole webinar, you can download it here.

Travel packages

Having a high perceived value, travel packages are top sellers at auctions. Donors bid on a complete travel experience including airfare and lodging. Because of this value, and because the money goes to support a good cause, donors are likely to pay more for these packages.

That’s why it’s important to have unique travel packages – bucket list items that these donors will bid on.

There are three main strategies for using travel at a fundraising event.

  • Acquisition
  • Promotion
  • Maximizing profit

Acquisition

In order to know what type of travel packages you should offer at your event, you need to know your audience.

Only about 10% of your audience will be active in a live auction, so figure out what these people will enjoy bidding on.

A great way to do this is to survey your donors. But who do you survey?

At auctions, you can group your audience into three tiers.

  • Top Tier – 10%
  • Middle Spenders – 30%
  • Minimum Participants – 60%

The best results will come from surveying the people who typically make large purchases at auctions. This would be your Top Tier and Middle Spenders. Ask these groups what type of travel they’d like to see, and which they’d be more likely to bid on.

Promotion

It’s extremely important to promote your event! Promoting will 1) encourage people to show up for your event, and 2) know what items you’re going to have available for bidding.

Condition your bidders to expect big travel experiences at your auction. Give them a sneak peek on social media, your email newsletters, and other forms of communication. This allows your donors to make decisions on what they’re going to bid on before they attend the event.

You can also pre-sell some of your packages. This helps you know which packages you should collect, and increases competition throughout the event.

Don’t forget to advertise! A great place to advertise is on Facebook. You can easily update your guests every time something big happens. Did you secure an awesome venue? Great! Share it on Facebook. Was a huge prize donated? Awesome! Let your guests know.

Maximize profit

One key strategy for maximizing profit is to set a minimum bid. This way you can ensure you’re going to make a profit, even if only one person bids on that item!

You can also sell items to multiple bidders. The beauty of travel packages is that you can sell each package as many times as you want. By selling items at a lower price, but to multiple people, your nonprofit can capitalize your revenue, while making more of your donors’ travel dreams come true ✨.

Travel packages are some of the most popular items sold at auctions. And it’s no surprise as to why. With these tips, you can make sure you’re maximizing the revenue you make at your fundraising events.

 

To hear more great tips about maximizing travel at auctions, watch the complete webinar here.