Agenda: how to keep the live auction intact ● Challenges of fundraising during the Coronavirus crisis ● Convert silent auction to online auction ● Shift live auction to virtual auction ○ Live streaming options ● Auctria features ○ Live auction bidding activity ○ Paddle raise ● Setting- up the live auction within Auctria
Fundraising Consultants Weigh-in GivingTuesday campaign re-deploying for GivingNow on May 5th. This is a global initiative like they do the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Pamela Grow tweeted “The 2 worst kinds of fundraising you can do in COVID-19… 1 Tone Deaf: you send out that e-news appeal you scheduled in January with no changes, 2. You pause all your fundraising, assuming your donors don’t want to give right now. Mark Phillips tweeted “.. look at results from the appeals currently running and I think anyone that called an appeal should get it out urgently. People are helping. People are giving. People are great.” Jeff Brooks then follow-up with this Tweet “...seeing the same… getting better-than-usual results. Some dramatically better. All types of causes. Sandy Rees in her RISE webinar stated “Mission needs to keep moving even though the world is standing still. People are hungry for happy stories, happy leaders that result in happy endings.”
Challenges Fundraising during the Coronavirus If not now, then when? ● Are you fully funded? What do you need to continue to be committed to the cause? ○ How will not fundraising hurt long term and compound the end result of NOT feeding, sheltering, researching, proving medical services, educating ● Cost of postponement in dollars and commitment to the cause ○ Move to the summer - when? ○ Move to the Fall - potential conflict with other longstanding events
Entice Participation Upbeat and meaningful gathering ● Lead with the mission, active voice ● Promoting ahead of time-use video and on dedicated website to tell your story ● Enhance donors & sponsors with sponsor catalogs on dedicated website and live activity ● Speakers, influential ● Future token of appreciation ● Raise the paddle with micro donations ● Even if can’t give, share & join
People only give if you ask Right now you have a very captive audience ● Opportunity to share your story ● Convert silent auction to online auction either leading up to or after the virtual event ● Invite everyone through usual communication channels ● Encourage sharing before and after the event ● Use sensitive language
Virtual Events are Real Events Virtual events are versatile ● REMEMBER stay on message ● Choose your ‘stage’ ● Chat box or all attention on presenter ● Single camera, single presenter ● Multiple presenters ● Require screen compositing program ● Invitation & RSVPs
Embark on new chapter Embark on new chapter ● Post event wrap-up still imperative ● Thank you to donors, bidders, volunteers ● Online activity easy to track internally ● Online activity easy to send bidder statements ● Report and stay engaged with status of activities on how funds were used ● Donations ongoing, YouTube Giving, on own website, on Auctria dedicated website
Choose a favorite livestream style Online Meetings Zoom, Google Meet, Ring Central... ● All gather and immediately interact, no buffer to live feed ● Minimal registration Webinar Clickmeeting, WebEx, ... ● Lobby and buffer then ‘open the door’ ● Registration & tracking for better planning What are your needs? How many seats needed for admin, emcee, auctioneer? How public do you want to broadcast? Social Media FB Live, YouTube Live, Instagram, ... ● Live alerts for visibility ● Less private ● Familiarity
Live Stream Considerations Basement → Full production, or something in between ● Most streaming technologies introduce latency between the recording and the viewer. Optimistically 10-20s … maybe more. ○ Avoid giving $ specific amounts in the stream ● Screen compositing for more comprehensive content ● Auctioneers need to fill more space ○ More selling of the item vs encouraging specific bids? ● Lack of feedback from ‘reading the room’ Pre-plan, practice, be prepared.
Latency Considerations For streaming services, we reviewed: ● Zoom & Zoom Pro Webinar ~less than second ● LiveStorm ~2-15 seconds ● YouTube Live ~2 seconds using ultra ● Facebook Live ~24 seconds For screen compositing, we reviewed: ● Streamyard ● OBS
Live Auction Controller: Single Item Let the bids soar Single Item Focus ● Shows the currently focused item(s) ● Quickly see the total winning bid amount ● Shows when the open/close status and the remaining time if timed ● Has controls to close the item and control the time Two modes for closing: manual & timed ● Manual: the bidder doesn’t see a time, and you must click Close Now ● Timed: the item follows the timer, but you can adjust
Live Auction Controller: Multiple Items Let the bids soar Multiple Item Focus ● You can have multiple items in focus ● Keep the bidding open longer and talk about both of them ● Still see the total winning bid amount on each item ● Bidding times affect all items in the group Two modes for closing: manual & timed ● Manual: the bidder doesn’t see a time, and you must click Close Now ● Timed: the item follows the timer, but you can adjust
Live Auction Controller: Multiple Items Multiple Items ● Bidders stay on the same page ● The get a button to switch between the focused items ● See notifications for all items
Live Auction Controller: Bidding Tab Let the bids soar Bidding Tab ● See the full bid history for all focused items in the order they are placed ● Winning bids are highlighted in green ● Quickly call out the names of the current high bidder and amounts
Live Auction Controller: Next Up Tab Next Up Tab ● Easily select the items to switch to next ● Single click to choose the next item# ● Or choose the items to group together ● Preview current bid and open/close status
Live Auction Controller: Active Group History Tab Let the bids soar Active Group History ● See the history of items you had in focus previously ● Single click to jump back to a previous group in case of mis-clicks!
Auctria Usage: Live Auction Item Set-up (cont’d) Auction Items 1. Ensure Participate in online bidding is checked 2. Choose the closing mode a. Default (pre-bidding only) b. Timed c. Manual
Auctria Usage: Paddle Raise Multiple Levels 1 Item Paddle Raise ‘Items’ 1. Enter donations levels a. * for any amount 2. Enter fundraising target for thermometer usage Thermometer will roll totals for all donations at all increments
Auctria Usage: Paddle Raise Single Levels Paddle Raise ‘Items’ 1. Enter a single level 2. No fundraising target -- doesn’t make sense for one item generally MAY want to add a thermometer to show entire fundraising status
Auctria Usage: Bidder Registration Invite bidder ● Ordinary channels ● Auctria Bidder Access email ● QR code ○ This QR codes was created with QRCode Monkey ● Register by text (optional)
Resources [ARTICLE] Convert Silent & Live to Online & Virtual fundraising event [USER GUIDE] How to convert on Auctria Spotlight on NorthStar Academy converting from silent to online Stephen Kilbreath’s Virtual Gala Streaming events platform review [USER GUIDE] Auctioneer Experience, virtual live gala & paddle raise QR Code Monkey