Setting Up a Silent Auction - Using Groups or the Events Platform to Collect Bids

While our platform doesn't have a dedicated silent auction section, its flexibility allows for a number of workarounds using either Groups, Event Tickets or the Sign Up feature. This article outlines three methods you could use.

Method 1: Using a group to collect bids

Setting up a group and having people leave their bid in the comments can be a quick and easy way to run a silent auction. This can work well if you have a small number of items to auction.

Steps:

1. Set up: Create an open group for each item you are auctioning
2. Promote: Let parents know about the auction and get them to join the group
3. Encourage Bids: Comment in the group to let people know more about the item and to encourage bids
4. Bidding: Parents add a comment to the group with their bid

Important considerations for this method:

• Visibility of bids: everyone can see all the bids and may be notified when a new bid is placed (depending on their notification settings). 
• Multiple Items: If you have a lot of items to auction, then setting up a lot of different groups may be time consuming - parents would have to join each group separately.

Managing the event ticket auction:

• At the end of the auction, look through the comments to find the winner with the highest bid.

Method 2: Using event tickets to collect auction bids

This method uses free event tickets for each auction item with ticket questions so that people can answer the question with their bid for the item they have chosen.

Steps:

1. Create a Silent Auction Event: Set up a new event specifically for your silent auction.
2. Create a Free Ticket for Each Item to be Auctioned: Name the ticket type clearly to identify the item (e.g., "Signed Football Jersey").
3. Set a High Ticket Quantity: When creating each ticket type, set a sufficiently high number of available tickets to avoid them running out during the bidding process. You can add more tickets later if necessary.
4. Add a Bid Question: Add one ticket question asking for the bid amount. The same question will be used for each ticket. For example: "Please enter your bid amount in £ (e.g., 10)". Using numbers only at this stage may make sorting your spreadsheet easier later if you get enough bids for this to be necessary.

Important considerations for this method:

• Multiple tickets: The platform permits a single user to select multiple tickets, but to simplify the process, we recommend selecting only one ticket, per auction item, per booking. We would suggest mentioning this in the event description. People are welcome to bid a higher amount later if they like. 
• Saving Bids: Remind bidders to fill in their bid amount in the ticket question and ensure they save their answers to complete their "free ticket" order. If they don't save their bid then it won't be valid.
• Visibility of Bids: Other parents won't be able to see the bids for this type of auction.
• Visibility of Auction Items: Parents will be able to see all the auction items together so can easily bid on multiple items.

Managing the event ticket auction:

• Download Bidder Information: Once the auction concludes, you can download a list of auction bids for the event. This export will include the answers provided to the ticket question for each auction ticket selected.
• Identify Winners: Review the downloaded data to determine the highest bidder for each item.

Method 3: Using Sign-Up lists to collect bids

Another way to collect bids could be to use the Sign Up feature. This has the advantage that people can only add their name once to each auction item with the flexibility that they can go back and change their bid later.

Steps:

1. Create Sign-Up Lists for the event: For each item being auctioned, create a task without a time slot.
2. Add Spaces: The maximum number of 50 should be filled in, if it looks like you are running out then you will need to add an extra task as a part 2.
3. Add Instructions: In the event description add instructions to let people know they need to sign up to the auction and leave their bid in the comment in the sign up section.
4. Publish: Publish both the sign up list and the event.

Important considerations for this method:

• Bid Visibility: While participants can see who has signed up, only organizers can see the actual bid amounts entered as comments.
• Bid Changes: Participants can go back and edit their comment on the sign-up list if they wish to increase their bid.
• Bid Limit: Be aware of the 50-sign-up limit per task. If you expect a large number of people to bid for certain items you will need to create a second task.
• Visibility of Auction Items: Parents will be able to see all the auction items together so can easily bid on multiple items.

Managing the Sign-Up auction:

• Review Bids: As the auction progresses, you (as the organizer) can view the sign-up list for each item and see the bids left as comments. Participants can see who has signed up but only organizers can see the comments (bids).
• Identify Winners: Once the auction concludes, review the comments on each sign-up list to determine the highest bidder.

Promote the Auction

Publish the event on Classlist to notify members and promote the event how you normally would. You can remind people as often as you like by resending the invites to those that haven't responded. You can also turn on the public checkout and get a sharable link for the wider community. 

Collect Payments

• • Create a Payment Event: Set up a new community event to collect payments from the winners.
  • Add Donation Tickets: Within this payment event, use donation ticket types so people can set the payment amount themselves to the amount that they bid. 
  • Confirm Prizes: Private message the winners to let them know what they won and how much they need to pay.
  • Invite auction winners: Set up a group for just the winners and invite them to the payment event.

Recommendation

We recommend creating a test event and trying out the methods with a small group of people. This will allow you to see which approach works best for your specific needs and your audience.

If you require further assistance or have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.