Results/Jigsaw Trust
Briefed for £14,000. The night raised £57,600.
And the part everyone remembers is that the pledge out-raised the auction, in a room with no bought-in lots at all.
The Jigsaw Trust gala
The auction alone doubled the brief.
£27,000 from the lots, before the pledge had even started.
The brief
Kevin was brought in to aim for £14,000 from the live auction. That was the number the evening was being measured against.
What actually happened
The live auction alone raised £27,000 — nearly double the entire brief, before anything else in the evening had been counted.
Then the live pledge, run immediately afterwards while paddles were still in hands and the room was at its warmest, brought in a further £30,600. More than the auction that preceded it.
Paintings by children from the Jigsaw School raised another £4,000. A raffle and a silent auction made up the rest.
There was not one bought-in consignment lot in the room. Every pound of the hammer price stayed with the charity, because there was no supplier invoice to pay out of it.
The pledge out-raised the auction. That is not luck. That is the mix.
Why it worked
The pledge was placed correctly. A live auction only lets a handful of people give. Ten lots means ten winners, however big the room. Everyone else reaches the end of the auction having given nothing, not for want of willingness but because there was nothing left to win. The pledge, run straight afterwards in tiers, let all of them give at their own level.
The lots did not need to be expensive. Children’s paintings raised £4,000. No supplier could have sold that lot, and no catalogue would have included it, but it was the one thing in the room that only this charity could offer.
Nothing was left to the night. The mix, the order and the ask were decided months beforehand.
No obligation, and never a percentage of what you raise
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