5 Ways to Use Silent Auction Data for Successful Fundraising

At GiveSmart, we see thoughtful and creative fundraisers think #OutsideTheRoom, at every opportunity they have. Virtual silent auctions are a great way to help you meet your fundraising goals, and with a powerful fundraising platform like GiveSmart, you’ll have lots of data at your fingertips to better understand what happened at your silent auction.  But what does it all mean, and how can you apply it to achieve even greater results next time? 

We wanted to highlight how looking at your silent auction data more in-depth can further drive and capture new donor giving. To that end, here are 5 strategic ways to utilize your silent auction data in your fundraising strategy: 

1. Look at the ones who missed out on the prize, what did their bidding tell you and what price point might they most often bid at? See if you might be able to tie an auction item into meeting that price point to gain those dollars. You can also double down, where you offer the same item to a second or third person at the price they were willing to pay.
    
2. Use the bids report to see who was interested in an item but did not win that item. This not only enables you to see what they were willing to spend but further will give you insight on their giving capacity.
    
3. Find the gem items and identify items to avoid. For instance, anyone bid on that safari to Africa? Or did more people than could win the bid on a gem item you can source a higher quantity of in the future?
    
4. By using your bid history reports strategically you can see how many bids an item received and filter out items that only had a couple of bids.
    
5. Using the data gathered you can also estimate growth in giving opportunities and benchmark goals based on that growth. 

In the fundraising world, standing out and being able to maximize every opportunity to raise money for your cause is key to your mission success.  With the right data and the knowledge to interpret it, you can help grow your organization with every event. 

Bonus Tips— 

• Guarantee a sale of an item once again. 
• Pull a data list for those who were auction watchers, not bidders, and see if there is a way you can entice them to bid on something in the future. What about bringing out an item at the end as a surprise for all those who haven’t bid on something yet? Or consider sending out a separate wrap-up email that targets that specific list after the event?