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 doable. Moreover, an public sale catalog with knowledgeable design and well-written content material can inspire occasion contributors to bid on high-value gadgets.
In accordance with the fundraising specialists at Winspire, a totally fleshed-out public sale catalog is greatest suited to an in-person dwell public sale as a result of the merchandise listing is normally quick and finalized effectively prematurely, making the catalog comparatively straightforward to place collectively. For silent and digital auctions that function extra gadgets, well-designed bid sheets serve the same function in catching supporters’ consideration. Nonetheless, you would possibly 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 parts of a nonprofit public sale catalog and talk about easy methods to 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 it’s best to mirror this by making your merchandise descriptions take up the majority of your public sale catalog, this isn’t the one part it’s best to embrace.
Let’s stroll by 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 after they choose up (or obtain) your public sale catalog, it must be eye-catching and have knowledgeable really feel to entice them to look inside. The most effective methods to perform that is to function your nonprofit’s model entrance and middle.
Kwala’s information to nonprofit branding recommends together with the next model parts in your group’s advertising supplies, together with your public sale catalog’s cowl web page:
- Shade palette. Guarantee ample distinction between the textual content and background colours. Darkish textual content on a light-weight background or gentle 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 prime 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. Embody it on the duvet subsequent to your nonprofit’s title and emblem so new supporters can rapidly perceive the trigger they’re supporting by collaborating in your public sale.
Moreover, embrace images 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 could possibly additionally convey this mission info with a letter out of your nonprofit’s govt director or board chair addressed to public sale attendees. This strategy not solely gives area to incorporate information and inform tales that display your group’s affect, 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 dwell public sale gadgets, and some other logistical particulars contributors ought to know, similar to the place to gather their prizes and whether or not meals can be served. As soon as the dwell public sale begins, bidding can rapidly 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 greatest to incorporate about 12-15 dwell public sale gadgets in complete. This manner, you’ll be able to spotlight two or three per web page, add related images, and write detailed descriptions that encourage supporters to bid.
Listed here 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. Hold your sentences quick and use bullet factors the place doable to make your descriptions skimmable.
- Embody all important info. Record every little thing 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 choice about whether or not to bid on every merchandise.
Accompany every description with a monitoring quantity so you will discover the successful bidders and guarantee they declare their gadgets on the finish of the public sale.
Sponsor Acknowledgments
Securing sponsorships is crucial 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 value. Nonetheless, sponsorships have to be mutually helpful to succeed.
One profit you’ll be able to 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 similar to, “This merchandise was supplied by [business name].” On the final web page of your catalog, listing monetary contributors in accordance with their sponsorship degree to thank them for his or her assist.
The right way to Distribute Your Nonprofit Public sale Catalog
When you’ve designed an public sale catalog that features all the above parts, it’s best to ship it to a print store to make bodily copies and put it aside as a PDF for digital distribution. There are two foremost causes for utilizing each distribution strategies. The primary is to permit supporters to decide on their most well-liked methodology of following alongside in the course of the occasion—some contributors would possibly like a tough copy, whereas others would slightly obtain the catalog on their smartphones.
Moreover, having each print and digital variations of your public sale catalog ensures you’ll be able to seamlessly incorporate it into all your advertising supplies. Embody a bodily copy with mailed invites, and hyperlink to the PDF in emails, social media put up captions, and the occasions part of your nonprofit’s web site. This manner, irrespective of how supporters discover out about your public sale, they will 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 accessible on-line if you happen to’d choose to take a do-it-yourself strategy. By together with all the parts listed above, incorporating your group’s branding and high-quality images, and making certain your design interprets to each print and digital distribution strategies, you’ll be able to create a polished-looking catalog on your nonprofit’s subsequent public sale irrespective of your degree of design expertise.
Concerning 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 Improvement 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 thus far.
