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Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 10:50 am

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Should Auctions for Charity Still Use Printed Invitations?

When I've got time, I like to pop over to some of my favorite writers covering the non-profit and technology space. I can always learn something.

Heather Mansfield of DIOSA Communications conducted eleven surveys using the Twitter application TwtPoll and she posted the results online, calling it "11 TwtPoll Results Nonprofits Can Use to Plan 2010 Communications Strategies." http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/11-twtpoll-results-nonprofits-can-use-to-help-plan-2010-communications-strategies/

One of the questions — well really, one of the responses - caught my eye. For ease of reading, I've posted the entire question and the responses below:

4) ATTN Donors: Do you prefer to give $$$ to your favorite organizations via: [http://twtpoll.com/f3em80]:

71% The organization's website

13% Check/snail mail

11% An online giving portfolio service (like Change.org)

5% A social networking site (like Facebook)

What grabbed me was that 71% — not just a majority, but a whopping majority — said they prefer to give through the Website online. Now of course, this is just a quick survey on Twitter. I don't know how many respondents there were. And because it was a Twitter-based survey, I can - with reasonably accuracy, I believe — assume that the people who responded are comfortable using the Internet in general and online tools more specifically. (And this demographic may not be the same demographic as those people giving at charity auctions.) But upon seeing that 71% number, it did get me to thinking about its application to my niche of fundraising auctions.

I'm wondering whether guests to a charity auction would actually prefer registering for the event online at the organization's website instead of mailing in their invitation and check. Generally I recommend that clients always have an online invitation available to complement their printed materials. Corporate donors often find the online version of registration most useful.

But to date, I've still advocated that groups need a printed invitation. It is my opinion that the formal printed invitation has not yet been made obsolete by the "evite.Guests often have expectations about the invitation based on the ticket price. Many will still expect to receive their printed, attractive invitation in the mail, especially if the event demands a more expensive ticket price. (Even I prefer the printed version, and I'm a bit of a techy.)

But this quick poll on Twitter is an interesting data point. Whether it's the canary in the coal mine foreshadowing a certain death of traditional mail fundraising — or printed invitations — is yet to be seen. But certainly as tech-savvy (or simply tech-comfortable) donors age, the electronic version of the charity auction invitation will be used more often, thereby saving planners of charity auctions the costs of printing and mailing invitations. Those tend to be two of the traditionally more expensive areas of an auction budget, so reducing those costs is a good combination, indeed.

About the Author

Award-winning fundraising auctioneer Sherry Truhlar, CMP, BAS runs Red Apple Auctions, a firm specializing in teaching non-profits the techniques proven to grow auction profitability. She offers a number of FREE
auction ideas
on her website, including the popular Auction Item Guide, a meaty compilation of
best-selling auction items
. Sign-up for the Guide at Red Apple Auctions.

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