This text is contributed by Jeff Cova, President of Winspire.
When your nonprofit hosts a fundraising public sale, your catalog is an important useful resource for connecting with supporters and sponsors earlier than, throughout, and after the occasion. Not solely does it function a information to the occasion, but it surely’s additionally a part of your advertising technique and a useful resource for thanking everybody who made your fundraising success potential. Moreover, an public sale catalog with knowledgeable design and well-written content material can encourage occasion contributors to bid on high-value gadgets.
In accordance with the fundraising consultants at Winspire, a totally fleshed-out public sale catalog is finest suited to an in-person reside public sale as a result of the merchandise record is normally quick and finalized properly prematurely, making the catalog comparatively simple to place collectively. For silent and digital auctions that characteristic extra gadgets, well-designed bid sheets serve an identical function in catching supporters’ consideration. Nonetheless, you may nonetheless create an abbreviated catalog to preview a couple of rigorously chosen silent public sale prizes.
On this information, we’ll cowl the important thing components of a nonprofit public sale catalog and focus on how you can distribute the catalog when it’s full. Let’s get began!
Contents of a Nonprofit Public sale Catalog
It’s no secret that at a fundraising public sale, the gadgets are the star of the present. Though you need to replicate this by making your merchandise descriptions take up the majority of your public sale catalog, this isn’t the one part you need to embrace.
Let’s stroll by way of every part of a well-designed catalog in additional element.
Cowl Web page
As a result of your cowl web page is the very first thing supporters will see once they decide up (or obtain) your public sale catalog, it must be eye-catching and have knowledgeable really feel to entice them to look inside. Top-of-the-line methods to perform that is to characteristic your nonprofit’s model entrance and middle.
Kwala’s information to nonprofit branding recommends together with the next model components in your group’s advertising supplies, together with your public sale catalog’s cowl web page:
- Colour palette. Guarantee enough distinction between the textual content and background colours. Darkish textual content on a light-weight background or mild textual content on a darkish background improves readability.
- Typography. So as to add visible selection to your catalog, contemplate selecting two model typefaces: one for titles and one for physique textual content. However keep away from utilizing greater than three fonts in order to not create a cluttered design.
- Emblem. Place your emblem on the high of your catalog’s cowl web page to make sure it’s instantly seen and recognizable to public sale contributors.
- Tagline. A tagline is a brief, memorable phrase that captures the essence of your mission. Embrace it on the quilt subsequent to your nonprofit’s title and emblem so new supporters can shortly perceive the trigger they’re supporting by collaborating in your public sale.
Moreover, embrace photographs or one other attention-grabbing visible design in your public sale catalog cowl web page. These visuals ought to relate both to your mission or to your public sale gadgets, relying on what would enchantment most to your nonprofit’s supporters.
Mission Data
When you’ve drawn supporters in with a visible overview of your occasion and its function in your cowl web page, dive deeper into the trigger your public sale will assist. On the within cowl of your catalog, write out your group’s mission assertion and supply particular examples of the way you’ll use the funds raised to additional that mission.
You possibly can additionally convey this mission data with a letter out of your nonprofit’s government director or board chair addressed to public sale attendees. This strategy not solely gives area to incorporate information and inform tales that reveal your group’s impression, however the signature from a frontrunner at your nonprofit additionally boosts credibility to reassure contributors that they’re supporting an excellent trigger.
Occasion Agenda
The occasion agenda part is pretty simple: embrace the order of occasions on the fundraiser, the beginning and finish time for bidding on reside public sale gadgets, and some other logistical particulars contributors ought to know, corresponding to the place to gather their prizes and whether or not meals will probably be served. As soon as the reside public sale begins, bidding can shortly develop into intense, so it’s useful for attendees to understand how the occasion will proceed beforehand.
Merchandise Descriptions
This part ought to take up nearly all of your catalog, and it’s finest to incorporate about 12-15 reside public sale gadgets in whole. This fashion, you possibly can spotlight two or three per web page, add related photographs, and write detailed descriptions that encourage supporters to bid.
Listed below are some tricks to make your descriptions extra persuasive:
- Give every merchandise a catchy title. For instance, “French Countryside Chateau Getaway” will pique supporters’ curiosity greater than “Trip to Bordeaux, France” would.
- Write concisely. Preserve your sentences quick and use bullet factors the place potential to make your descriptions skimmable.
- Embrace all important data. Record all the pieces included in a prize bundle, together with any limitations on its use (such because the dates when tickets are legitimate), so supporters could make an knowledgeable determination about whether or not to bid on every merchandise.
Accompany every description with a monitoring quantity so you could find the successful bidders and guarantee they declare their gadgets on the finish of the public sale.
Sponsor Acknowledgments
Securing sponsorships is important to maximizing your public sale’s fundraising ROI. Company companions can both present monetary assist to offset occasion planning prices or help you in procuring public sale gadgets at little or no price. Nonetheless, sponsorships must be mutually useful to succeed.
One profit you possibly can present your occasion sponsors is free publicity by recognizing them in varied occasion supplies, together with your public sale catalog. If a company associate donated an public sale merchandise, add their emblem to the outline with a brief blurb corresponding to, “This merchandise was supplied by [business name].” On the final web page of your catalog, record monetary contributors in response to their sponsorship stage to thank them for his or her assist.
The way to Distribute Your Nonprofit Public sale Catalog
When you’ve designed an public sale catalog that features all the above components, you need to ship it to a print store to make bodily copies and put it aside as a PDF for digital distribution. There are two major causes for utilizing each distribution strategies. The primary is to permit supporters to decide on their most well-liked technique of following alongside through the occasion—some contributors may like a tough copy, whereas others would somewhat obtain the catalog on their smartphones.
Moreover, having each print and digital variations of your public sale catalog ensures you possibly can seamlessly incorporate it into your whole advertising supplies. Embrace a bodily copy with mailed invites, and hyperlink to the PDF in emails, social media publish captions, and the occasions part of your nonprofit’s web site. This fashion, regardless of how supporters discover out about your public sale, they’ll get a sneak peek at your public sale gadgets and are available ready to bid on their favorites.
Whereas some nonprofits solicit skilled graphic design providers for his or her public sale catalogs, there are additionally free instruments and templates out there on-line in the event you’d choose to take a do-it-yourself strategy. By together with all the components listed above, incorporating your group’s branding and high-quality photographs, and guaranteeing your design interprets to each print and digital distribution strategies, you possibly can create a polished-looking catalog to your nonprofit’s subsequent public sale regardless of your stage of design expertise.
In regards to the Writer
Jeff Cova
Jeff has over 17 years of expertise within the Nonprofit and fundraising trade. Previous to Winspire, Jeff labored for five years because the Director of Growth at Cal State Fullerton earlier than co-founding an organization specializing in producing charity auctions for Nonprofits the place he efficiently produced the auctions for 250 of Southern California’s most profitable fundraising occasions.
In 2008 Jeff based Winspre with the purpose of serving to non-profits throughout the nation improve their occasion fundraising income and establish new fundraising sources. Jeff and his staff at Winspire have helped over 12,000 non-profits up to now.