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June 16, 2008

Charity Auctions Hurt by Economy

The sluggish economy has dealt a blow to charity auctions, which aren’t raising as much money as they have in past years, according to a new survey by cMarket, an online-auction company.

Sixty-five percent of charities said the economy had an impact on their fund-raising event, while 66 percent said it had become more difficult to get donated items from local merchants. Twenty-nine percent reported lower attendance at this year’s event, while 20 percent said they’d had fewer bidders.

Two hundred and fifty charities responded to the survey, which was conducted from January through April.

Of those surveyed, 38 percent said merchants were demanding more marketing benefits, while 34 percent said corporate sponsors had become more demanding.

“We found that respondents were feeling the impact of the economy in many different ways,” said Timothy Matthews, senior analyst at cMarket, in a statement. “Even those whose auctions did well said they felt at least some softness, particularly on the supply side in terms of item donations and acquisitions.”

Charity leaders reported that travel, entertainment, and dining were the most-popular auction items. Art, collectibles, and jewelry performed less well, according to the survey.

The survey found that charity leaders had different ideas for how they might compensate for the soft economy. Sixty percent said they had start getting items farther in advance, while 39 percent said they’d use the Internet more to auction off goods.

What has been your experience with fund-raising auctions this year? Are you finding it more difficult to acquire items and raise money? If so, how do you plan to compensate?

— Caroline Preston

Monday June 16, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. Thanks for the comments, but we’re going to cut off any further testimonials about cMarket. This is a forum for news and commentary.

   — Peter Panepento    Jun 18, 03:22 PM    #

2. One way organizations can compensate for decreased donations is by closely analyzing their community of bidders, and crafting innovative “up close and local items” such as special services or time with a community member. I have witnessed creative and priceless items such as “Front Row Seats at Graduation” or “Lunch with the Coach” incite bidding in auction fundraisers time and time again, elevating total fundraising revenue and inspiring novel “donations” of service or time in future fundraisers.

   — Elle Callahan    Jun 19, 09:34 AM    #

3. We had our annual auction this last March and definately saw some of these economic factors at play. Several people who were big bidders last year did not show and a number of the live auction high rollers were much less active.

   We did go online and that did help offset some of the softness and in the end we came out flat with last year (online generated almost 500 bids from outside our group and gave us a better marketing value to merchants). We also saw that the economy can help as most of the silent auction items sell for less than retail and everyone likes a bargain, especially in a down economy.

   My big take-away was that you have to think like a retailor. Build a great catalogue with stuff folks want and then promote the heck out of it offline and online.

   — Diana Carson    Jun 28, 02:46 PM    #

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