Building an event fundraiser takes effort—so use your marquee event as a foundation to boost income! Auctria’s features provide the tools to meet goals, engage supporters, and keep your mission thriving year-round.
Keep donors engaged and maximize your Auctria license and features:
- Make The Most Out Of A Marquee Event
- Make A Singular Event Shine
- Ticketed Only Event
- Online Fundraisers
- Giving Days & Appeals
Your license is valid for a whole year, with no performance fees, and can be used for multiple events. Boost your fundraising success by driving year-round giving and engagement.
1. Marquee Events: Make Your Big Event Shine
Turn your annual gala, auction, or signature fundraiser into a record-breaking success. Adding sponsorships, engaging activities, a dessert dash, raffles, and special catalog items can increase event engagement, which drives greater participation and takes your annual event to the next level of success.
Sponsors Beget Sponsors
Develop a sponsorship package that aligns with your goals and offers higher levels than you think will sell—you might be surprised! This behavioral sales technique encourages higher-tier participation and makes lower levels more appealing.
Promote your sponsorships on your event website by featuring logos, clickable URLs, and premium sponsor recognition in the footer of every page and your transactional emails. Advertising sponsorship opportunities adds credibility and purpose to your event.
Watch your sponsorships sell out! Nothing motivates buyers more than seeing others already committed. Creating FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) can drive urgency and turn your next event into a sold-out success. Don’t leave money on the table; while some businesses may not be able to donate cash, they can and will purchase sponsorships, often from their marketing budget, making it an easier sale for you.
Learn more about sponsorships in Auctria.
Engaging Activities and Boosting Revenue
Think about the guest experience and choose activities that fit the vibe of your event and align with your timeline. Plan ahead and let guests pre-pay for activities to start the evening with a zero balance — adding to the excitement of the evening while boosting your event's revenue!
Fun features to consider:
- VIP Perks – Early access to the event, special seating, and premium drinks that are special for the event.
- Games of Chance – Ring toss, balloon pop, and airplane contests add to the fun.
- Pre-sell Food & Drink Tickets online – Simplify purchases and speed up lines at the event.
- Wine Wall – Guests pay a fixed amount to pick a mystery bottle. See how to set up For Sale items in Auctria.
These activities can add to the excitement of the evening while boosting your event's revenue.
Dessert Dash: A Competitive Crowd Favorite
Who doesn’t love a dessert dash?! If you are unfamiliar with this, it’s a blast and a great motivator for donations! At a gala, desserts are on display, but the table that raises the most money gets to choose first. These get VERY competitive and are a high-energy way to raise more funds.
Capturing pledges with pen and paper? Auctria’s Dessert Dash dashboard gives you one place to print the table's Dessert Dash sheet, record Dessert Dash pledges, and generate reports.
Would you like to have donations online? Set it up as a donation item and place the QR code display page in the center of the table.
Even better, if you are using Auctria’s Tables feature with your Ticket sales, Dessert Dash tables will be generated automatically once enabled from the dashboard.
A little friendly competition = big donations!
Raffles: A Smart Way to Engage More Donors
Some guests may not bid on auction items—but they love a good raffle! Adding these to your event fundraiser gives people another chance to donate, especially if they don’t see an auction item they love or know they will not win.
Jumbo raffle tickets are popular on the Auction Team Talk page. Here are a few examples that were entirely sold out this past season:
1. $2,000 AirBnB Gift Certificate: $50/ticket, 100 tickets = $5,000 in sales. Subtract the gift certificate cost, and there is a $3,000 net profit.
2. $500 Amazon Gift Card: $25/ticket, 100 tickets = $2,000 net profit. Covering the cost of the gift card is a great sponsorship opportunity, and then the sales are 100% profit.
Sell the tickets online or in-room. The Auctria Admin App allows event organizers to manage guest sales on mobile devices. Give this a try for your next event fundraiser!
Auction and Raffle Donations
Struggling to find auction and raffle donations?
Here’s how to make it easier: use the Item Solicitation form to streamline requests, explore no-risk items, seek out local experiences or celebrities, and get inspired with Pinterest boards. These tools make gathering exciting items a breeze!
On Auctria’s Partners page, you'll find corporate donation aggregators (like DonationMatch and The Shareway), plus no-risk item consignment companies offering travel, one-of-a-kind experiences, jewelry, and memorabilia. These partnerships help you secure amazing items with less work and no upfront costs!
2. Ticketed-Only Events: Maximize Revenue & Engagement
Single-focus fundraisers are a fantastic way to engage your audience and drive a big impact.
They offer incredible flexibility for managing admission to all gatherings — from Bingo to tournaments, walks, runs and community events.
They’re perfect for building community through stand-alone events like talent shows, spelling bees, school activity nights, or craft fairs.
With Auctria’s Tickets portal, you can easily share tickets with guests, and they’re even downloadable to mobile wallets for added convenience.
Tournaments are a powerful way to bring in big dollars, attract a unique audience, and welcome new supporters to your cause. With Auctria’s pre-built templates, you can launch a tournament quickly — just grab and go!
Plus, tournaments create a fun, competitive spirit around giving, where philanthropy thrives as people come together, rallying for a cause while having a blast! Auctria even has templates that are designed JUST for golf and pickleball!
Tickets are included in all Auctria licenses; there is no separate module to pay for or add on.
Learn more about tickets in Auctria.
3. Additional Events: Turn Any Gathering into a Fundraiser
Fundraising doesn’t have to be a standalone event — why not add giving opportunities to events where your audience is already engaged? Host a singular focused event and make it shine.
Add fundraising to well-attended events like school award ceremonies, concerts, or toy drives — where attendees are already gathered and enjoying the moment — by setting up easy, passive donation options like QR codes, text-to-donate, or a raffle.
Creative Fundraising Ideas
- Pie & Cake Auctions – Have supporters bid on delicious homemade desserts.
- Game-Worn Jerseys & Keepsakes – Sell memorabilia from local teams or schools.
- VIP Upgrades – Offer exclusive seating or backstage access at existing events.
With a little planning, any event can become a successful fundraiser!
Unique Events
View our gallery of unique events hosted in Auctria.
4. Online Fundraisers: Expand Your Reach & Maximize Impact
Holding your auction online removes geographic barriers, inviting supporters to give from anywhere, anytime. After all, fundraising brings people together, turning shared passion into powerful support!
With Auctria, you can host online auctions, accept secure item donations through a special website page, and use max bidding with bid extensions to keep the excitement going. Every great campaign needs a great website — tell your story on your Auctria event and make giving easy!
Auctria offers a streamlined approach to peer-to-peer-lite fundraising, making it easy to expand your reach. Empower supporters to become ambassadors for your cause, encouraging their peers to donate. Enhance engagement by adding a donation tracker or thermometer to their online page, making tracking pledges and celebrating progress simple.
Want to make the donation page scannable? Print a display page with a QR code to take them directly to the page. The faster someone can access the donation page, the faster they can donate!
5. Giving Days & Appeals: Drive Focused Donations
Donation-only events are a powerful way to rally support, whether for a local giving day or a national initiative like Giving Tuesday. These focused campaigns highlight your mission and allow you to showcase a specific need, making it easy for donors to connect with your cause.
To maximize impact, tie each donation level to a tangible outcome. When donors see how their contributions make a difference — feeding families, providing essential supplies, or funding critical programs — they’re more likely to give and engage at higher levels.
With Auctria, setting up a Giving Tuesday campaign is simple — just three clicks, and your site is ready to go! More than just another ask, your giving day becomes a movement that inspires action and drives real change.
Auctria makes it easy to keep donors engaged and maximize fundraising all year long. Ready to elevate your next event? Explore Auctria today!