Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Volume 13 | Issue 7

ISSN 2155-787X

Welcome new readers! You'll love these resources to help you plan a fun-filled, profitable benefit auction.

Friend, spring breaks are wrapping up, which means the fundraising auction season will be particularly active now through late May.

That puts me smack dab into the middle of Brood X season.

This year is the 17-year cycle of the Brood X (Ten) cicada emergence. Some people get so creeped out by them, they leave town.

Watching billions of bugs emerge from the ground has a science fiction look to it. When I work in my garden, I always dig up ~15 of them and offer them to birds. But that doesn't compare to the big birth.

At the height of the emergence 17 years ago, I stood with a housemate watching the lawn under a tree. The earth seemed to quiver. Grass blades shifted as a slow-moving cicada emerged.

A work colleague of mine told me that she couldn't drive her convertible during that time. She’d learned the hard way --- when she cruised the parkway with the top down, her head would get smacked by flying cicadas, and she’d end up picking them out of her hair.

Friend, that’s the stuff of nightmares.

I might join others in finding a place to vacation in late May / early June. Brood X isn't in every zip code.

Sherry

P.S. For all the news coverage I read about Brood X, I’m curious to see if they emerge as dominantly as expected. With changing weather patterns and ground temperatures, maybe their pattern will shift?

P.P.S. I shot these photos last night. I pulled up one of my garden's stepping stones and to find five occupied holes. They were already getting set up for graduation.

I dug these guys up with my trowel just so you could see them. Then I ate them. (Kidding.)

Predicting proceeds: What will the auction raise?

A common question from those planning a virtual gala is how much they should expect to raise from their auction.

If you've run an in-person gala in past years, you can use your past yield results to estimate revenue. Projections will be adjusted, depending on the type of virtual gala you'll be hosting.

And if you've not hosted an in-person gala, your projection will be more of a shot in the dark -- yet I'd still encourage you to host a virtual gala this year. Your sunk costs are considerably less in 2021, so you have reduced risk of loss. Moreover, it's easy to test the waters to see how your audience likes the auction.

(Make sure you hire a savvy auctioneer to ensure your crowd loves the event.)

Listen to today's video for full details.

<Read more>

©2021 Red Apple Auctions Co. All rights reserved.

In 2005, award-winning auctioneer Sherry Truhlar launched Red Apple Auctions. Today, you'll catch her working at fundraising events around the United States and consulting for charities around the globe. Nonprofits worldwide have used her products and classes to learn how to plan top-producing auctions.

A prolific writer, her how-to advice has been read in publications such as The NonProfit Times, Martha's Vineyard Times, Vineyard Gazette, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, Sun Sentinel, Town & Country, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, and Missouri Meetings & Events, and she's appeared on shows on E! Style and TLC channels. She speaks at conferences about benefit auction tactics and teaches her peers at industry-wide events.

Sherry has worked with hundreds of schools and nonprofits, helping them create a positive, profitable fundraising auction -- virtual and in-person. She looks forward to hearing from you.