Take advantage of the natural cycle of December gift giving. Use it to help sell your auction items as brilliant gifts even Santa would want to give! Go ahead. Promote your reason AND the season! Tips on how to blatantly, visually, and verbally use the holiday season to generate more bids at your auction are inside.

Call it flirting. Call it sales. Call it good customer service. You want your silent auction table monitors to do it. You’ll be happier with your returns and ensure all your items have bids, which makes your donors happy. Let’s learn how…

All school districts have stuff they are not using – excess assets, surplus, or dust gatherers. It's probably time to think about turning these unused items into money for priority needs. Which of these items can you incorporate into your school auctions? Generally, it will be those items that produce fond memories. Let's look at some of these items and match them with the style of auction that can generate the most interest and money.

Looking for free publicity in any shape and form? Here are five free online calendars to list your school auction on, so roaming eyeballs can find it. Increase your attendance, publicize your school, and improve your promotion for donors. Here’s how.

At a benefit auction a few years ago, a woman in the back enthusiastically bid on a trip to Hawaii, won it, then her husband let her have it verbally. In tears she told my auction team member that she couldn’t buy it. Has this happened to you? If not, you just haven’t run enough benefit auctions. Get some advice on what to do and what not to do inside…