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As you begin planning your silent auction, you may think you have everything you need: you’ve procured great items, set up a simple bidding system, and printed invitations to send out for your event. However, to maximize your event’s success, it’s important to take additional steps to streamline your planning process and event execution.
To implement these additional steps, you’ll need access to the best silent auction software for your event. With the right suite of tools, your nonprofit can make your next silent auction a success.
Once you start with a great auction management software, you can start building out your software stack with other tools for entertainment, corporate giving, donor management, marketing, and more. These additional tools expand your marketing threshold, boost your fundraising, provide data about donor prospects, and add exciting activities to your classic silent auction event.
Silent auction trends to watch for
As technology advances, it’s best to look at what you can include in your silent auction experience. Mobile bidding apps have increased in popularity as they provide a more personalized and convenient bidding experience. In the past few years, artificial intelligence has become more and more popular, and your nonprofit can use it to your advantage to help create marketing materials and other resources.
You can also livestream your auction to reach more potential donors and provide some excitement for virtual auctions. As other advanced technologies, such as augmented reality or virtual reality, become more accessible, your organization may want to look into incorporating them into your silent auction experience to enhance your attendees’ engagement.
Another trend growing over the past few years is sustainability. Environmental and social consciousness have become a larger focus and can be used in your fundraising auction by featuring eco-friendly items and sustainable options related to environmental conservation. You can even include trips and experiences curated by sustainable travel companies.
Use this buyer’s guide to help you determine the tools and software your nonprofit may benefit from!
- Qgiv | Best silent auction software for nonprofits
- Bloomerang | Best software for volunteer and donor management
- Fun Team Events | Best software for entertainment activities
- Double the Donation | Best software for gift matching
- Bonterra | Best software for corporate giving
- Mailchimp | Best software for multichannel marketing
- Constant Contact | Best software for email marketing
- Buffer | Best software for social media management
- Winspire | Best software for item procurement
- ReadySetAuction | Best silent auction software for bidding valets
- Clickbid | Best silent auction software for virtual paddle bidding
- Auctria | Best silent auction software for small events
- Accelevents | Best silent auction software for unrepeated auctions
Qgiv | Best silent auction software for nonprofits
Qgiv’s silent auction software offers a simplified and engaging auction experience. Customize your donors’ bidding experience and eliminate long checkout lines by simplifying your event with Qgiv’s online auction platform. This software also features the Givi app, a mobile auction app your donors can use to buy tickets, bid on items, and complete their purchases.
Qgiv’s auction software includes top features, such as:
- Easy event setup and guest registration
- An in-app or web-based check-in and checkout process
- Real-time bidding
- Outbid notifications
- Maximum bid settings
- Fully integrated event management with multi-guest ticketing
- Easy item setup
- Fund-a-need, raffle, and “buy now” options
- On- and off-site bidding
- Data reporting
Raise more money with a streamlined auction planning process and eliminate long lines so that you don’t deter bidders. When everyone has an easier and convenient experience, they’ll be more likely to give their support.
What we love about Qgiv
With Qgiv, you not only have access to a robust suite of auction tools, but you also have an entire fundraising platform at your fingertips. Create customizable donation forms and boost your silent auction revenue with additional donations. Qgiv will help your auctions become a seamless part of your big-picture fundraising and engagement efforts. Take advantage of this fundraising platform to drive the donations you need for your organization to thrive.
Pricing
Qgiv’s silent auction software costs $259 per month or $687 per quarter plus processing and other transaction fees.
Bloomerang | Best for volunteer and donor management
Bloomerang is a volunteer and donor management software which allows you to manage your entire constituent ecosystem, including donors, volunteers, sponsors, grantees, and more. Bloomerang features you can take advantage of include a nonprofit CRM, email marketing, integrations, engagement meters, generosity scores, and smart reports. You can even see all of the events your donors are involved with on comprehensive donor timelines.
What we love about Bloomerang
Bloomerang’s giving summaries give you an at-a-glance view of auction guests’ past giving to your organization, as well as their current engagement level and generosity score. Their engagement is based on their past interactions with your organization, and their generosity score is based on publicly available philanthropic screening data.
Pricing
Bloomerang’s pricing plans start at $79 per month and are based on the number of contacts your organization has and how much money you raise each year.
Fun Team Events | Best software for entertainment activities
Fun Team Events combines entertainment and philanthropy to provide a unique and enjoyable way for your donors to support your cause. The platform hosts a variety of customizable virtual activities, such as trivia nights, game shows, and interactive challenges, designed to foster team spirit and encourage active participation. This software uses technology to seamlessly connect you to your virtual auction attendees, creating an event that transcends geographical boundaries.
What we love about Fun Team Events
Fun Team Events not only helps you raise funds, but it also helps strengthen relationships among your community. The platform is also user-friendly, allowing your team to easily set up and manage event activities while providing a seamless experience. This is an innovative solution to adding some excitement to your online fundraising auction event.
Pricing
Contact Fun Team Events for more pricing details.
Double the Donation | Best software for gift matching
Double the Donation is a leading provider of matching gift and volunteer grant solutions. Their comprehensive database lists thousands of companies that your donors can search for. With Double the Donation’s matching gift solution, your donors can search for their company, view the guidelines for submitting a match request, and easily submit their match request and see it through to completion.
Incorporating a matching gift tool into your auction allows guests who make additional donations during your event to submit their donations for a match through their companies. Double your donations during your auction and increase your revenue without extra solicitation.
What we love about Double the Donation
It’s easy to overlook matching gifts while planning your auction event. Double the Donation’s database makes it easy for donors to look up their companies and submit their match requests. Simply embed the matching gift search tool into your organization’s website and direct your auction guests to the appropriate page so they can look up their company.
Pricing
Double the Donation plans start at $999 per year.
Bonterra | Best software for corporate giving
Bonterra is a nonprofit software solution used by corporations to manage corporate giving programs. Some of the corporate giving programs Bonterra’s software helps with include matching gifts, payroll deductions, charitable spending accounts, product/in-kind giving, tuition reimbursement, and wellness programs.
What we love about Bonterra
Bonterra streamlines employee giving programs for corporations and the nonprofits they support. Because Bonterra manages matching gift programs for corporations, auction guests who are employees of those corporations will be able to easily match their donations made during the auction.
Pricing
Contact Bonterra for pricing details.
Mailchimp | Best software for multi-channel marketing
Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform which can help you build your nonprofit’s brand and find your supporters. This software helps you gather all of your audience data, keep all of your assets in one place, create integrated campaigns across all channels, and analyze your audience engagement so you can market better with each campaign. Target supporters who would be most likely to show interest in your auction event and ensure they receive all the information they need.
What we love about Mailchimp
Mailchimp helps you collect data about your donors and turn those insights into action. Learn what your audience likes and create a conversation with them from an all-in-one platform. Promote your auction across email, social media, landing pages, postcards, and more with Mailchimp.
Pricing
Mailchimp has multiple monthly pricing plans depending on features and number of contacts, including a free plan to get you started.
Constant Contact | Best software for email marketing
Constant Contact is an email marketing software with 100+ mobile-optimized, customizable email templates that can help build your brand and stand out from the crowd. Constant Contact’s top features include email marketing with templates, marketing automation, eCommerce, Google ads, and Meta ads. Stand out from the sea of emails and build your brand using this marketing software.
What we love about Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers more than 100 beautifully designed email templates for your nonprofit to use. You can easily edit and customize each one and use it for whatever you want, whenever you want. Each template is mobile responsive and offers the flexibility you need as you create your content.
Pricing
Constant Contact pricing plans start at $12 per month.
Buffer | Best software for social media management
Buffer is a social media management system which helps you to draft your posts, coordinate with your team, and plan your social media marketing campaigns, all within one platform. You can use this software solution to further market your silent auction event by easily planning your content using scheduling tools, managing access to each social account, and building your brand to drive conversions. Drive traffic to your event registration from your social media pages and analyze the performance of your content to see where you can improve and grow your engagement levels.
What we love about Buffer
Buffer’s platform is highly collaborative. Drafting posts and sharing feedback allows you to refine content as a team. Review your posts to ensure they’re of the highest quality and adhere to your brand standards before publishing on your preset schedule. This helps you make sure you’re posting live from your auction event to keep your at-home supporters up to date!
Pricing
Buffer’s pricing plans range from a free plan to $120 per month based on your nonprofit’s needs.
Winspire | Best software for item procurement
Winspire’s unique platform offers a diverse range of travel and experience packages for fundraising auction events. This software provides your nonprofit with high-quality auction items, such as luxury vacations, exclusive experiences, and memorabilia, to be featured in fundraising events. Winspire’s process involves selecting desired packages, promoting them during events, and, upon winning bids, your winners can redeem their experiences. This platform ensures that each package is curated to captivate your donors and boost fundraising efforts.
What we love about Winspire
Winspire integrates with various fundraising formats, including live and silent auctions, providing flexibility for your organization. This software’s innovative approach can help you elevate your silent auction prizes by offering enticing experiences that motivate your attendees to bid generously.
Pricing
Winspire only requires payment for experiences that have been won, so pricing depends entirely on the experience you choose.
ReadySetAuction | Best silent auction for bidding valets
ReadySetAuction helps simplify the auction process for managing everything from item procurement to bidding to checkout. Bidders can automate their bidding experience with the Otto-Assisted Bidding Robot or use a volunteer bidding valet through proxy eBidding for a unique auction experience. ReadySetAuction also offers an eCatalog Access Period for pre- and post-bidding options. While ReadySetAuction provides mobile-optimized event pages for mobile bidding, it doesn’t offer a silent auction app.
Pricing
ReadySetAuction pricing plans start at $1,099 per year.
ClickBid | Best silent auction software for virtual paddle bidding
ClickBid is a silent auction platform which provides item listing, bidding, and donation management options. The software utilizes mobile bidding, real-time notifications, and automated checkout for a convenient auction experience. It also offers virtual paddle bidding for live auctions to streamline the paddle raising auction experience. While the nonprofit auction software offers mobile-friendly auction catalogs, it doesn’t provide a silent auction app.
Pricing
ClickBid pricing plans start at $795 per year.
Auctria | Best silent auction software for smaller events
Auctria is a fundraising auction software tailored specifically for auctions and features item listings, donor management, mobile bidding, and customizable auction websites. This silent auction software offers robust reporting and analytics to provide insights for strategic decision-making and integrations with payment gateways and third-party platforms for easy checkout. Auctria provides three ways to bid: through a website, through their silent auction app, and through text messaging.
Pricing
Auctria pricing plans range from free to $700 per year.
Accelevents | Best silent auction software for unrepeated events
Accelevents is a silent auction software that facilitates various fundraising formats, including auctions, raffles, and virtual events. This platform offers event management solutions with features such as online ticketing, customizable registration forms, and secure payment processing. The software’s virtual capabilities incorporate live streaming, chat functionalities, and other interactive elements for online experiences. Accelevents offers mobile-bidding options through a web platform, their silent auction app, and text bidding.
Pricing
Accelevents pricing starts at $499 per auction, raffle, and fund-a-need, plus $1 per each bidder. There’s an additional price of $49 per month for text-to-give, plus 1% of the donation amount.
Getting started with Qgiv
To kick off your next silent auction using Qgiv’s auctions tools, follow these steps to get started:
- Set up your auction. Create your auction event page on Qgiv and add your auction items, configure bidding options, and customize your auction page to match your branding.
- Promote your auction. Share links to your auction page on social media, through email campaigns, and other communication channels to attract bidders. Advertise your big-ticket items to boost excitement surrounding your event.
- Monitor and manage the bidding process. During the auction, use Qgiv’s monitoring tools to track bidding activity, answer your attendees’ inquiries, and ensure a smooth process. Take advantage of real-time reporting to stay updated on how your auction is going.
- Close and settle your winning bids. Once the auction concludes, close out the event through the Givi app or Virtual Terminal. Manage payments, send notifications to your winners, and gather feedback for future improvements.
- Evaluate your silent auction’s performance. After your event, assess the performance using Qgiv’s analytics and reporting features to understand what worked well and identify areas for improvement.
Final thoughts
Mix and match different software combinations to meet your nonprofit’s silent auction needs. Technology is going to keep advancing, so take advantage of it to personalize and simplify your donors’ auction experience. With the right software, your next silent auction is guaranteed to be a success!
Check out these additional silent auction software resources:
- Silent Auctions | The Ultimate Guide for Your Next Event. Check out this guide to host the ultimate silent auction.
- Mobile Bidding Technology: App-based vs Web-based Silent Auctions. Learn the differences between app-based and web-based mobile bidding to discover which solution is best for your organization.
- 50 Silent Auction Basket Ideas to Bring In the Big Bids. Use these 50 silent auction ideas to motivate your bidders!
- 35 Exciting Raffle Prizes to Spice Up Your Events. Take a look at these raffle prize ideas to get your attendees excited for your event.
- 50 Awesome Auction Item Ideas for Your Next Fundraiser. These auction item ideas can help you boost bids at your next silent auction!
