There are all sorts of platforms for nonprofits to use for virtual auctions. How do you narrow down what’s right for your nonprofit? What are the key things to consider when choosing a virtual auction platform? This article will explore how nonprofits can choose a virtual auction platform, making fundraising simplified.
Step-by-Step: How to Choose a Virtual Auction Platform for Your Nonprofit
Here are three things to consider once you begin to narrow down your search for the perfect virtual auction platform for your nonprofit:
1. Goal: What is your big goal for your virtual auction? What are you hoping to accomplish with this event? Before you even begin your search, start by remembering what you are aiming for. Examples include, amount raised, number of donors, number of new donors, or percentage of attendee engagement. Whether you are trying to build momentum for a larger event or boost your bottom line, different live auction platforms will better suit your needs.
2. Values: What does your organization and fundraising team in particular, value in a live auction software? Ease of use? Integration with your CRM? Fully customizable? Low processing fees? Narrow down what your team’s priorities are with 2-3 items that are deal breakers for you.
3. Budget: What’s your event’s budget for additional fundraising software? Does it matter to you how your donors can pay and how you’ll receive the funds? Start your search by arriving at a max budget for live auction software.
Once you have your goal, values, and budget narrowed down, you’re ready to start comparing live auction platforms! We’ll give you a headstart with our downright powerful and easy-to-use platform at ZGIVE.
ZGIVE Simplifies Auction Fundraising
At ZGIVE, we know it can be daunting; finding the right solution for a digital auction platform for your nonprofit is often a confusing process. We believe in making auctions easy, that is why we’ve designed an all-in-one, convenient, and engaging digital solution for nonprofits to host their in-person, hybrid or virtual events .
ZGIVE’s most popular virtual auction features include:
1. Digital Promo Tools
Any successful virtual auction needs a strong set of digital promo tools. With ZGIVE, you can enable your donor to hear about and attend your auction on any device, from anywhere in the world - quickly, easily, and securely. You’ll have full access to all the easy-to-use tools to spread the word about your event: Text-to-Register campaigns, Scan-to-Register QR codes, and email and social media registration links.
2. Very Easy Set-Up
Setting up your ZGIVE live auction is turnkey. You don’t need any auction experience at all. With our live auction platform, you can expect a beautiful, modern, and easy-to-navigate dashboard and homepage. To create your auction, you simply click “create an auction,” on your dashboard, fill in the important details of your event (e.g., name, date, time, bid increments, the value of items), and click submit! Adding each auction item from your dashboard is equally as simple.
3. Engaging Auction Experiences For Donors
Your attendees will have a blast using ZGIVE’s virtual auction platform. Our auction experience is fun and simple, and anyone from anywhere can participate! Before your event even kicks off, you can set the right tone by adding a welcome note and a countdown to start time.
Auction participants can join the auction and look around all of the featured items, and when they want to bid - the platform will ask for their name and credit card info. They will also be asked to cover the credit card fee in order to maximize donations for the nonprofit (most opt-in to cover the fee).
Getting that out of the way, right away, removes any obstacle from attendees bidding on multiple items without the hassle of re-entering their information. Once the event starts, they’re notified, and the fun begins! They can see who's watching, winning, and won all items in real-time. It’s so easy for donors, an auctioneer isn’t even necessary! For live auction items, attendees can click “up next!”, which makes it engaging and easy.
Campaign Management Made Easy
Once you collect auction donations, your nonprofit needs a campaign management system to easily view transactions, measure donation volume, and review success.
At ZGIVE, that’s exactly what we’ve made. Our platform will allow you to review all of your donor’s transactional data. Our dashboard makes it simple to navigate between donations, donor info, and communication. If you’d like, all of this incredible donor data can be quickly downloaded as a .csv file to transfer to your CRM. Smaller nonprofits often find that our campaign management system is sufficient to utilize as a donor database.
The Support You Need and Deserve
The thing we hear the most from our nonprofit partners is that they need a secure, user-friendly online fundraising platform that comes with support. Our 24x7 support staff are always standing by to help with questions and any issues that may come up. If you ever have a question or concern we’ll be right there to help you.
We understand this is the support nonprofits need and deserve. Your organization is changing the world! The least we can do is be there to support you along the way.