This text is contributed by Jeff Cova, President of Winspire.
When your nonprofit hosts a fundraising public sale, your catalog is a crucial 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, however it’s additionally a part of your advertising technique and a useful resource for thanking everybody who made your fundraising success attainable. Moreover, an public sale catalog with an expert design and well-written content material can encourage occasion contributors to bid on high-value objects.
Based on the fundraising consultants 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 record is normally brief and finalized effectively upfront, making the catalog comparatively straightforward to place collectively. For silent and digital auctions that function extra objects, well-designed bid sheets serve an identical objective in catching supporters’ consideration. Nevertheless, you would possibly nonetheless create an abbreviated catalog to preview a number of rigorously chosen silent public sale prizes.
On this information, we’ll cowl the important thing components 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 objects are the star of the present. Though you need to mirror this by making your merchandise descriptions take up the majority of your public sale catalog, this isn’t the one part you need to embody.
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 after they decide up (or obtain) your public sale catalog, it must be eye-catching and have an expert really feel to entice them to look inside. Among the finest 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 components in your group’s advertising supplies, together with your public sale catalog’s cowl web page:
- Colour palette. Guarantee satisfactory 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, think about 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 rapidly perceive the trigger they’re supporting by taking part in your public sale.
Moreover, embody pictures 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 objects, 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 objective 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 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 offers house to incorporate knowledge and inform tales that reveal your group’s influence, however the signature from a pacesetter at your nonprofit additionally boosts credibility to reassure contributors that they’re supporting an excellent trigger.
Occasion Agenda
The occasion agenda part is pretty easy: embody the order of occasions on the fundraiser, the beginning and finish time for bidding on dwell public sale objects, and every other logistical particulars contributors ought to know, resembling the place to gather their prizes and whether or not meals might be served. As soon as the dwell public sale begins, bidding can rapidly turn into intense, so it’s useful for attendees to know the way the occasion will proceed beforehand.
Merchandise Descriptions
This part ought to take up the vast majority of your catalog, and it’s greatest to incorporate about 12-15 dwell public sale objects in complete. This fashion, you may spotlight two or three per web page, add related pictures, 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. Maintain your sentences brief and use bullet factors the place attainable to make your descriptions skimmable.
- Embrace all important data. Record the whole lot 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 yow will discover the profitable bidders and guarantee they declare their objects on the finish of the public sale.
Sponsor Acknowledgments
Securing sponsorships is vital 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 objects at little or no price. Nevertheless, sponsorships must be mutually useful to succeed.
One profit you may present your occasion sponsors is free publicity by recognizing them in numerous occasion supplies, together with your public sale catalog. If a company companion donated an public sale merchandise, add their emblem to the outline with a brief blurb resembling, “This merchandise was supplied by [business name].” On the final web page of your catalog, record monetary contributors in line with 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 the entire 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 essential 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 somewhat obtain the catalog on their smartphones.
Moreover, having each print and digital variations of your public sale catalog ensures you may seamlessly incorporate it into your entire 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, irrespective of how supporters discover out about your public sale, they’ll get a sneak peek at your public sale objects and are available ready to bid on their favorites.
Whereas some nonprofits solicit skilled graphic design companies for his or her public sale catalogs, there are additionally free instruments and templates out there on-line in case you’d favor to take a do-it-yourself strategy. By together with the entire components listed above, incorporating your group’s branding and high-quality pictures, and making certain your design interprets to each print and digital distribution strategies, you may create a polished-looking catalog to your nonprofit’s subsequent public sale irrespective of your stage 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 aim of serving to non-profits throughout the nation enhance their occasion fundraising income and establish new fundraising sources. Jeff and his workforce at Winspire have helped over 12,000 non-profits so far.
