Sep 4, 2018

Why mobile bidding is an improvement, not a distraction

mobile bidding

Many organizations considering the transition to mobile bidding from paper bidding ask us if fundraising technology distracts event guests from being social. They also question if this shift softens the focus on the evening’s cause, detracting from the overall quality of the event. These concerns are understandable and central to modern fundraising as organizations consider their audience and how to best apply technology at events.  

Unsurprisingly, we champion technology as an improvement to events and fundraising efforts for the following reasons: 

  1. It’s 2018, everyone is already on their phones. So, in between them texting their friends about how great the music is at your event, shoot them a text and ask if they’ve had the chance to donate! Running a school fundraiser? Chances are most of the donors in the room have kids, which means the babysitter is just a phone call or text away. 
  2. Paper bid sheets tie bidders to their items. At an auction with paper bid sheets, guests linger around the items they want to win, prohibiting others from bidding and themselves from socializing. 
  3. With mobile bidding, you can bid anywhere; by the bar, in the bathroom, or at your table. Guests can keep chatting or stay at the dinner table if they want to bid. The outbid text notification is far less disruptive than walking away all together.

Elderly guests can stay put and still participate in the auction. Many organizations are concerned about their older guests feeling left out of the auction or fear they will not be able to participate without a smartphone. If a guest does not have a personal smartphone, he/she/they can place a bid through a Bidding Assistant (a volunteer from your organization or GiveSmart staff) with an iPad. Bidding Assistants are logged into iPads as administrators, which allows them to place a bid or donation on behalf of anyone on the guest list.

Receive mobile donations

Mobile is the coolest, easiest and most convenient way to receive a donation and acquire new constituents. However, mobile is not magic, it simply makes fundraisers, marketers and event planners much more effective. Remember… Mobile is an impulse capturing device and people read mobile messages with 99% open rates!

Grow and strengthen your base

  1. Have supporters text a keyword to get connected and receive important updates and opportunities.
  2. Customize your auto reply message with a short and compelling video about your cause. This technique is most effective when interacting with people who are learning about your cause.
  3. Use a creative incentive to get people to subscribe. This can be a contest, prize or exclusive content. Ask yourself “What would motivate people to subscribe.” Put your most creative people in charge of figuring this out.
  4. Set a goal and reach it. Example: “We want to have 500 mobile subscribers this month/quarter/year.”
  5. Embed a widget on your website and add a mobile opt in field on existing forms for additional subscriptions.

Cultivate donors with regular compelling mobile content specific to your cause.

Remember… Mobile strengthens email, direct mail and social media because you can 99% guarantee that your message is read by your constituents. Mobile is the most personal device—therefore be careful not to abuse the channel with spammy messages.

Empower base to participate

  1. Have supporters text a keyword and/or click a link to access your mobile KEYWORD fundraising page to promote your cause and easily donate.
  2. Turn constituents into evangelists by empowering them to make donations from their own mobile device and share your cause easily with friends and family.
  3. This technique is most effective when you are interacting with people who are excited about your cause and want to get involved.
  4. Set a dollar raised goal and a finish date and empower constituents to work together to reach the goal.
  5. Promote your mobile fundraising page link across mobile, social and email as the quickest and easiest way to help promote and support your cause.

Remember… You can setup unlimited custom personal fundraising pages for key constituents to fundraise and promote on your behalf.

Donations go direct to your cause and are 100% secure.

Ask for immediate donations

Have supporters text a keyword followed by a donation amount.

  1. Display donations live onscreen during events to drive total donations towards the goal.
  2. Donors can fulfill their mobile pledge with a credit card using the fulfillment link in the auto-reply message.
  3. Donors can also fulfill their pledge through custom call center outreach.
  4. Donors receive text message reminders with pledge fulfillment instructions.

Promote mobile donation and fulfillment instructions across mobile, social and email as the quickest and easiest way to make secure donations.

Remember… An effective ask is key. Make your appeal for donations at the most emotional moment. Be sure to give clear mobile donation and fulfillment instructions.

In short, if you are considering the social quality of a fundraiser, mobile bidding allows guests to continue to mingle and converse without the longer interruption of leaving the physical place where a given conversation or interaction is occurring.  

If there is a live auction it’s possible that many guests won’t participate, given limited lots and higher values, but mobile bidding can leverage this formerly untapped momentum of the live auction to spur silent auction bids, increasing a charity’s fundraising totals.  

Appeal (or fund-a-need) moments benefit from mobile technology as well by allowing guests to give anonymously or outside of fixed donation levels. Aside from the benefit of catching the “long tail” of donations, mobile giving can further enhance the experience of the organization and their guests by facilitating higher levels of participation. 

Finally, it’s important to acknowledge that your guests are attending the fundraiser for the right reasons, and trust that they will pay proper attention at the appropriate moments throughout the evening. We’ve yet to hear an organization say they found mobile bidding distracting upon post-event analysis. Guests find technology a simpler and more direct avenue to give and bid, and nonprofits celebrate the headaches they’ve avoided by eliminating bid sheets and pounds of paper from their events.

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What our clients say

We needed a platform to make sales online and to track and display ads for our sponsors. GiveSmart was perfect. We ended up making close to $15,000 more than we had hoped for. Definite better ROI than we anticipated. The interface is easy to use and provides plenty of options to get help if needed.

Michelle M.

The Rotary Club of South Whidbey Island

Using GS has created ease in auction bookkeeping, payments, and generating post-event thank you/tax letters. While we were online during COVID, our interactions with our GiveSmart via phone, email, and zoom were seamless. A representative always got back to us within the day. I would recommend GiveSmart to anyone doing a large online event.

Julie G.

MicroFinancing Partners in Africa

GiveSmart is highly flexible - you can use it for [a] simple registration and check-in, to full-scale galas with complex order forms, onsite upsells, live auctions, seating management, and more.

Jamie F.

Hope Chest for Breast Cancer

GiveSmart is easy to use and ideal for virtual events and can be used for in-person events to manage the silent auction, seating charts, and check-in to the event. Being able to use the platform for unlimited events within the contract year is very useful and being able to add other users and volunteers for different levels of access is helpful as well.

Dawn L.

Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County