The poor economy is not just wreaking havoc on your organization’s ability to raise money, it is also affecting your ability to secure items for your auction catalog. Local merchants and normally reliable patrons and donors are suddenly pulling back. A recent study showed that almost 40% of the patrons and merchants surveyed are planning to donate less this year to the organizations they have been supporting in the past.

At the same time more and more ‘cause oriented’ organizations are springing up, looking for ways to raise money because the economy has squeezed their normal donor base and they need to expand their fundraising just to survive.

An online auction helps your organization in several critical ways with respect to procuring auction catalog items from local merchants and donors.

Here are some of the immediate benefits:

1. Exposure — A live physical auction limits the donor item to the people attending the gala. There’s only one winner. However by putting that same donated item online it is exposed to a much larger audience over a much longer period of time.

2. A new customer – With no effort or expense the local merchant has a new, and highly qualified customer. Depending on the item donated, the winning bidder is now motivated to tell friends and family about the item which may drive additional traffic to the merchant.

3. Potentially new customers – Every patron who bid on the item but did not win is in fact a potential new customer. They all were interested enough to bid and their profiles and valuable marketing data to share with the merchant.

In these difficult times the best way to win over local merchants who are hesitant to help, is to position your organization as a marketing partner. A fundraiser should be viewed by a local merchant or donor patron as another ‘channel of distribution’ for their products.