Software/Silent auctions
How to run a silent auction that keeps the money.
A silent auction does not need an outside company, a catalogue of marked-up lots, or reserves set to protect somebody else’s margin. Here is how to run one yourselves — and what it is worth when you do.
What a silent auction actually is
Guests bid on items over a set period — usually across a drinks reception and dinner — without an auctioneer calling it. Bids used to go on paper sheets beside each lot. Now they go on phones, which changes the economics completely.
It runs quietly alongside the evening, so it does not spend the room’s attention — which makes it one of the few fundraising mechanisms that costs you nothing in programme time.
Why most silent auctions underperform
The items are wrong for the room. Ten similar lots split the same bidders. One aspirational lot with no natural bidder sits at its opening price all night.
The starting bids are too high. A high opening price feels like protection. It is actually the single most common reason a lot gets no bids at all — nobody wants to make the first move at a number that already feels like the ceiling.
Nobody knows they are losing. On paper sheets, a guest bids once and wanders off. The competitive tension that makes a silent auction work never builds.
It closes badly. No warning, no urgency, and the last ten minutes — where most of the money is made — pass quietly.
The question of an outside company
Plenty of charities hand their silent auction to a company that supplies a catalogue of lots. It looks like free money: glossy items, nothing to source, no risk.
Look at where the money goes.
Those lots are supplied on consignment. The company invoices the charity its cost plus a margin — commonly 30–50% — out of the hammer price. On a £500 lot, the charity may keep £100–£150.
We know of one UK charity whose outside silent auction grossed £13,000 and returned £1,300 to the cause. Ten pence in the pound.
That is not fraud, and the companies doing it are not villains. It is simply what the model is: they are a business, paid out of your hammer price, and a high reserve protects their margin rather than your cause.
The alternative is to run it yourselves with donated items. There is no invoice to pay, so every pound of the hammer price stays with the charity — and smaller donated lots, run well, routinely bank more than expensive bought-in ones.
How to run one yourselves
1. Get the items right
Aim for a spread of price points, not a spread of categories. Local and personal beats generic and glossy — a table at a restaurant everyone in the room knows, a weekend at a supporter’s cottage, something made by the people the charity helps. Ask your own supporters first; you will be surprised. At one gala, paintings by schoolchildren raised £4,000.
2. Set starting bids low
Around 30–40% of the item’s real value. You are not protecting the item, you are starting a conversation. Bidders talk themselves upward far past a low opening bid and almost never past a high one.
3. Set sensible bid increments
Big enough that the price climbs, small enough that nobody is priced out in one jump. Roughly 10% of the current bid is a reliable rule.
4. Use phones, not paper
Mobile bidding does three things paper cannot: it tells people the moment they are outbid, it lets them bid from their seat during dinner, and it takes payment without a queue at the end of the night. Outbid alerts alone will move your total meaningfully.
5. Time it properly
Open bidding a few days before the event so lots already have momentum when guests arrive. Close it during the evening, not at the very end — while people are still in the room, still competitive, and still holding a phone.
6. Warn them it is closing
A five-minute warning from the stage and on every phone. The last few minutes of a well-run silent auction can carry a surprising share of its total.
7. Take payment immediately
Card-on-file at registration, or Apple Pay and Google Pay on the phone the bid was placed on. Every hour between winning and paying is a chance to lose the money.
A note on Gift Aid. A silent auction bid is a purchase, not a gift, so it almost never qualifies for Gift Aid. Where a lot has a clearly declared retail value and the bidder knowingly pays above it, the excess may qualify; for money-can’t-buy lots, none of it does. This is the reason a live pledge alongside your silent auction is worth so much: a pledge is a genuine gift, so it can carry Gift Aid and add 25%. How the whole evening gets designed →
How our platform runs it
Mobile bidding with instant outbid alerts by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Proxy bidding, anti-snipe extensions and buy-it-now. Live leaderboards and a gala screen. Card-on-file and one-tap Apple Pay or Google Pay. Scheduled opening and closing with warnings. Full reporting afterwards.
And it keeps taking bids even if the venue wifi collapses, because it runs on its own on-site server.
No commission. No cut of what your guests give.
“He was engaging and helped us to raise over £20K for our cause through our live and silent auction. He introduced games throughout the night which our guests loved.” — Alex’s Wish, fundraising ball, Nottingham
Questions
Silent auction questions, answered
How many items should a silent auction have?
Fewer than most charities think. Roughly one lot per eight to ten guests is a reasonable starting point. Too many lots split the bidding and everything sells cheaply.
What should we start the bidding at?
About 30–40% of the item’s real value. Low starting bids get more bidders in, and more bidders is what drives the final price.
Do we need silent auction software?
Not strictly — paper sheets work. But phones add outbid alerts, bidding from the table, and instant payment, and those three things typically lift the total by more than the software costs.
Should we use a silent auction company?
Only if you are comfortable with the arithmetic. Consignment lots pay the supplier first out of your hammer price. Donated lots pay the charity.
When should a silent auction close?
During the evening while guests are still in the room, with a clear warning beforehand — not after they have left.
No obligation — and never a percentage of what you raise
Let’s talk about your number.
A conversation about your event, your room, and what the night should be raising.
Book a discovery call→