Fundraising is about revenue, and the more to the charity the better.
Live auctions and Silent auctions are popular fundraisers that have two main revenue drivers – ticket sales and revenue from the winning bids. In part 1 of a 3 part series we look at using an advertisement book (aka auction guide) to increase revenues.
How to Increase Revenue from Fundraisers
So the question is – how do you increase your revenue? A main way is to cut down on your overhead by working to get all items donated and spend next to nothing putting the event on. Another way is to find additional revenue streams, such as an auction advertisement book.
Auction Guide
Auction Advertisement Book
An ad book, or auction guide, can be a significant source of revenue if done properly. The point is to solicit advertisements from businesses and individuals who pay a fee to be in the book. These are usually businesses that may not have an actual item to donate to your auction, but can still benefit from the publicity of being included in the event.
Ideas for Business/Individuals to Solicit From
- Realtors, builders, etc.: A donation of services isn’t a great fit for an auction event, but an ad is great publicity for them. They get in front of all your attendees.
- Individuals: If your event is congratulating people during an awards ceremony, talk to that person’s family or friends about taking out “congratulations” ads. This is fitting for graduation auctions as well.
- Ads as Add-on: If you are negotiating a donation for an item that is hard to get or a must have, you could give an ad away as part of your marketing deal with the company. You can also say that donors and sponsors of a certain level automatically receive an advertisement. This can help persuade donors and sponsors to increase their donation amount.
Specs
The size is usually the same as a regular book – or roughly an 8.5 x11 page folded in half. Charge a different fee depending on where the ad is placed. The full pack page is significantly more than a quarter page ad inside the book. Examples of prices:
- Full page back cover: $2,500
- Two-page centerfold: $2,000
- Full page front or back inside cover: $1,500
- Full page inside: $525
- Half page horizontal inside: $400
- Quarter page vertical inside: $25
Outside of ads, if there is room, you can also use the book to market your current event by including:
- A cover that is similar to your invite and theme
- A listing that highlights your live auction items
- A thank you to your sponsors and key donors
- An advertisement of an upcoming event that you are throwing
Key to Success
If you can get a graphic designer to donate their services for designing the book and laying out the ads, and get a printer to donate their printing services, then everything you make is revenue. If not, ensure you review your ad prices so you can come out ahead.
Stay tuned for part 2: Advertisement Book Solicitation Letter
2 comments
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Christopher Lee says:
August 9, 2011 at 5:06 pm (UTC -4)
I am on the board of a charity in Westchester County that has successfully employed the use of advertisements in the program guide for our annual Spring gala. We are constantly looking at ways to boost revenues and minimize costs and to that end we decided to pilot selling add space on a PowerPoint presentation that looped during the cocktail hour, silent auction and during dinner. This eliminated the cost of having the adds printed and after the gala we posted the PowerPoint presentation to the organization’s website. From a fee schedule standpoint we charged more to have adds looped more frequently (ie. $500 to have your add looped 5 times per rotation and $100 to have it looped once). The only thing you have to be careful of in implementing this strategy is make sure you get good pricing on AV equipment. If you rent equipment that you didn’t intend to use for other parts of the program you could end up canceling out any cost savings.
Cynthia Greenberg says:
August 9, 2011 at 6:52 pm (UTC -4)
Chris – that is a terrific idea and very economical since a professional designer and printer aren’t necessary. Thanks for sharing. I’ll be sure to include this idea in an upcoming article.
Fundraising Idea: Advertisement Book Solicitation Letter | Red Carpet Rollout says:
August 10, 2011 at 9:52 am (UTC -4)
[...] hosting social, charitable & corporate events Home AboutContactSubmission Guidelines« Fundraising Idea: Increase Revenue from a Live Auction or Silent Auction with an Advertisement BookAug10 Fundraising Idea: Advertisement Book Solicitation Letter Categories: FundraisingPrint this [...]
Fundraising Idea: Advertisement Book Specs and Contract | Red Carpet Rollout says:
August 12, 2011 at 9:18 am (UTC -4)
[...] Fundraising Revenue at a Live Auction and Silent AuctionIn part 1 of this series we discussed increasing revenue from a live auction or silent auction with an advertisement book. In part 2 we included an example of a letter you can use to solicit ads for an auction [...]