We are pleased to announce The Borgen Project will be hosting an online silent auction this spring! As you know, we do have operational expenses to support our quest to alleviate global poverty. As we are an all volunteer organization, with zero paid employees, 100% of the proceeds will be used to help further our cause.
How you can help
Everyone here plays a part. We need to gather 100 items of value to be auctioned off. We are asking all volunteers to seek business owners who have a product or service you believe would be of value, and ask them to donate something worthwhile. Most businesses mark up their products by a significant amount, so if you ask the camera shop owner to donate a $200 camera, it probably costs them less than a $100, thus they’ll be more likely to give an item than simply donating cash. When we auction it, we’ll hopefully be able to sell it for the full $200 value or more.
When you are asking them to donate the item, if it is something that will require shipping, please ask the owner if they can handle the shipping and shipping costs as well. If they can’t, that’s okay, we will note that shipping costs are not included in the winning bid, and those costs will be added to the cost of the winning bid.
Timing
March 29 – All donated goods and services needs to be committed
April 12 – noon PST – Online Auction commences
April 28 – 5:00 pm PST Online Auction closes
Week of April 29th – invoicing of winners begins, shipments commence upon payment received
Examples of Auction Items
Please keep in mind that items which can be used nationally tend to be better than local items. For example, a gift certificate from a business with a web-site storefront is of high value everywhere, whereas a certificate for a business that has only a local presence has relevance only in that one local market. Also, big bulky items are expensive to ship. If the owner is not willing to pay for the shipment cost of the bulky item, it may prove to be prohibitively expensive for the buyer.
Examples of items
- Use of a vacation home
- Gift certificate for on line store
- Cameras
- Cell phones (new, in box)
- iPad/Kindle
- Computers
- Software/Video Games
- Electronics accessories
- Gift baskets (coffee, etc.)
- A unique experience (balloon ride, backstage passes, helicopter ride with local reporter, etc.)
- Sports equipment
- Entertainment tickets – chain movie theaters, professional sporting events, concerts
- Celebrity auction items
- Art
- Jewelry/Purses/Apparel
- Spa
- Snowboarding/Skiing passes
Marketing the Auction
We need everyone’s help in marketing this too. We all have hundreds of contacts in our social networks. Once we have the items input, and are within 2 weeks of the start dates, we will send out the URL address of the online auction site for you to send to your personal networks. Post it on facebook, tweet about it, tell your family and friends about it. This is a way for someone to help support our cause while receiving something of value, and it’s a way for you to promote our goal of alleviating world poverty.
When you get approval for an item to be donated, what do you do?
Please send the following information to Don Girskis at [email protected] :
- Up to 4 clear photos of the item (file size under 1MB please)
- Detailed description – must be strong enough to fully answer potential questions on what is being sold
- Name, email address, and phone number of the person that is donating the item
- Website address of the business donating the item
- Your name, email, and phone number in case we need to talk live about the item.
- If the shipping is being paid for by the owner, please ask them to keep it until sold, we’ll notify them where to ship it immediately following the auction. If we are paying for the shipping, please pick up the item right away, and we’ll notify you of where to ship it immediately following the auction.
What do you do once the item has been sold? If the item does not require shipping, or the business owner is handling the shipping, you are done, thank you! If the Borgen Project is paying for the shipping, you will need to physically take the item to the UPS store, print the label we will email you, and have the item shipped to the winner. This will need to occur during the week of April 29th.
What if the donated item doesn’t sell? Please pick it up from the owner and hold it for us. We will place unsold items on ebay during the May/June timeframe and auction the items off there. Once it has sold, we will send you the shipping label and ask you to deliver it to the UPS store.
Other questions or comments? If you have any questions about the auction or your role, feel free to contact [email protected] or call Don at 714-412-0000.
A BIG THANK YOU for everyone’s anticipated support – this should prove to be an exciting fundraiser for The Borgen Project!