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How Important Is the Fundraising Auctioneer to the Success of Your Event?

I want you to think about the term “Fundraising Auction”.

A “Fundraising Auction” is an event where items of value are gathered, and then sold in a competitive bidding situation, either in a Silent Auction format, or in a Live Auction format by a Live Auctioneer. And since typically the best items are saved for the Live Auction, arguably it is the Live Auction that should generate a significant portion of the proceeds in any Fundraising Auction.

So why do so many non-profit groups consider the Fundraising Auctioneer to be the least valuable component in a Fundraising Auction?

The Hosting Facility gets paid.
The Printer gets paid.
The Caterer gets paid.
The Liquor Store gets paid.
The DJ gets paid.
The Florist gets paid.
But the Auctioneer … the individual who is expected to raise the lion’s share of the event’s proceeds… is expected to work for Free. And is usually under-appreciated for the professional services he/she provides.

I’m not trying to underscore the value of the invitations & programs, food, booze, music, and decorations. All are important in their own way. But each of these are “Expenses”. It is the Auctioneer who is going to bring “Revenue”… and thus, the “Profits”… into any event. Which is the ultimate objective of any Fundraising Auction.

Here is a real-life example of how under-appreciated the Auctioneer can be. In two comparable events we worked last year, during the dinner portion of the event one non-profit group sat the Auctioneer (me) at a table with the DJ, the Interns, the Volunteer Staff, and other event “Help”. The 2nd non-profit group sat the Auctioneer (me) directly next to the CEO of their organization, where we chatted about how important the pending revenue would be to their organization. Which group do you think valued the services of the Fundraising Auctioneer more?

Don’t ever under-estimate the value that a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can bring to your event. The Auctioneer adds value as a pre-event consultant. And the Auctioneer can change an event from a moderate to a huge success.

A Case Study Once I was scheduled to call an Auction for a major local non-profit group. They represented a very good cause and they had a strong and dedicated following. Their event was sold out, quality Live & Silent Auction items had been solicited, and the Special Pledge Appeal had been choreographed and was ready to go. The facility was first class, the appropriate caterer was booked, and the food was ready to cook.

But quite unexpectedly, some unseasonably inclement weather forced the event’s cancellation. Despite all of the committee’s hard work, cancelling the event was the proper decision considering the circumstances.

So the Event Committee scrambled to re-schedule the event for the following weekend.

They confirmed with the Hosting Facility.
They confirmed with the Caterer.
They confirmed with the Liquor Store.
They confirmed with the DJ.
They confirmed with the Florist.
Since they already had the Mailing List of those scheduled to attend, no new invitations had to be printed as all were contacted by email or telephone. So with everything in place, the group went ahead and re-scheduled the event for the following weekend.

But guess who they failed to confirm? You got it… the Professional Auctioneer. They thought so little of the Auctioneer’s contribution that they “assumed” that the Auctioneer would be available and at their beck and call.

But the Auctioneer already had another Fundraising Auction booked for that date with another non-profit group. It was only hour away from the re-scheduled event, and things could have been easily worked out. All Group #1 had to do was start their event one hour earlier, or one hour later, than the Group #2, and the Auctioneer could have helped both groups on the same day.

But because Group #1 failed to anticipate a possible Auctioneer conflict, because they failed to confirm with the Auctioneer before re-scheduling their event, their preferred Auctioneer had to bow out and they had to scramble to locate substitute “Volunteer” Auctioneer only days before their event.

And it cost them.

Learning Points

The Live Auction is usually where the profits are made at any Fundraising Auction.
A Professional Fundraising Auctioneer can be vital to the success of any Fundraising Auction.
The better Fundraising Auctioneers usually get booked quickly.
You need to recognize the important contributions that a good Auctioneer can make to your event.
Michael Ivankovich is a Bucks County Fundraising Auctioneer based in Doylestown PA, and serves the Great Philadelphia PA area. He has been a professionally licensed and bonded Auctioneer in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years, has been named Pennsylvania’s Auctioneer of the Year, and has considerable experience in conducting Fundraising Auctions. Michael loves helping groups raise needed funds for good causes and one of his specialties is the “Special Pledge Appeal” or “Fund-A-Cause Appeal” which usually enables clients to double their revenue in a single evening.

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Different Types of Advertising

The purpose of advertising is to promote a product or service in order to increase sales and create a branding of the product so that a customer loyalty base will be established. Without effective and targeted advertising, a business cannot succeed. There are many types of advertising a business can utilize in effort to increase their sales.

The following lists a number of types of advertising available to businesses:

Television and Radio

Since television was first introduced, businesses have had tremendous success using it as an advertising medium. This is due to the increase in consumers watching television. The cost of television depends on the time of day or night one advertises, the popularity of the television show (how many viewers,) and the length of the advertisement. Television advertising can reach millions of people. Radio advertising is a traditional advertising format that uses voice and jingles.

Print

This includes newspapers, magazines, fliers, brochures..etc. Placing advertisements in magazines and newspapers is an age old method of advertising. Newspapers and the magazines sell the advertising space. Prices depend on location, size, graphics, and color. Advertising success often depends on the number of subscribers. Print advertising allows a business to target a specific demographic. Fliers and brochures are a great way to advertise sales and launch special product promotion programs.

Internet Advertising

Online advertising consists of small ads, banner ads, text ads, video ads, pay-per-click advertising, and reciprocal linking to other websites. The effectiveness of online advertising depends on exposure and how many people actually view the advertisement. Internet advertising allows the advertiser to track the number of impressions an ad gets (how many people see it), and how many visits their business website receives from particular ads, making it simple to find out what kind of conversion rates the advertisers are obtaining. Online advertising does not have any time restraints and can be viewed day and night throughout the world. Businesses also have their own websites as an advertising tool. A well-designed and well-promoted website can provide a world of customers.

Out-of-Home Advertising

This can include digital signage, billboards, kiosks, tradeshows, and out-of-home advertising. This is advertising that takes place outside of a customer’s home. This form of advertising has become very popular because it provides a new way to reach targeted customers. Billboards, kiosks, and tradeshows have been extremely successful advertising tools because you can take your product or service directly to the consumer. Digital signage is a newer method of advertising that is growing in popularity. Digital signage is where monitors/plasma TVs are placed in strategic locations and display advertisements directed at their targeted customer. Digital signage can deliver messages in the form of text and digital video. Advertisers have the ability to up date content from a remote location. You can find digital signage in such places as sports arenas, retail stores, department stores, malls, schools…etc.

Regardless of the state of the economy, businesses have to keep advertising to stay successful. Because of the broad range of advertising methods now available, businesses now have the ability to reach their targeted customers at very affordable costs.

Health Reform Changes Affecting Small Business

“Don’t tax him. Don’t tax me. Tax the guy behind the tree”- attributed to Former Congressmen RostenkowskiOwners of small businesses and their workers could be severely impacted by the recently enacted health reform legislation. Some key provisions related to tax credits, new excise taxes, penalties, and some higher taxes, all of which depend on a number of factors such as number of full time employees in the business, average incomes of the employees etc. This article will provide you an overview of its significance to self employed taxpayers who have less than ten full time employees.Generally, the present Obama administration and Congress have noted that the new health reform proposals will provide better insurance for small businesses at a lower cost, which will create more jobs. However, there is also a lot of strongly negative feelings among the business community. Let me present some of the provisions so that you can judge for yourself and plan accordingly.Benefits to small businesses: Despite the negative press about the law, there really are some positive changes that will affect small businesses.
Small Business Exchanges: Small business will be able to pool their resources in state exchanges called “Shop exchanges” in order to buy insurance. Normally these exchanges apply to companies who have less than 100 employees by 2014;however, states have the option to limit access to these exchanges for companies of under 50 full time employees. Premium expectations are expected to reduce overall insurance costs by 1-4% per year for each employee, which is a very good provision under this plan.

Tax Credits for certain small employers who provide insurance. Generally, if you have fewer than 50 full-time employees, you don’t have to provide health insurance for your workers. However, if you do provide insurance, you might be eligible for a yummy tax credit, which is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your taxes.
To be eligible for this credit, you have to have less than 25 full-time employees whose annual average earnings (not counting the owner) of no more than $50,000. For companies of 10 or fewer employees, you would be eligible for a 35% tax credit (which goes up to 50% after 2013) in later years, if your average full time equivalent wages are less than $25,000 per year. This credit begins in 2010 and goes till 2014. There is a second phase of the credit that small business would get up to 2016. Thus, qualifying small businesses can get this credit for up to six years.Sandy’s elaboration: This credit sounds great, but having it apply to small businesses (of no more than 10 full-time workers) and who average under $25,000 of wages will substantially reduce its applicability to most businesses. Estimates are that this will benefit about 7% of self employed businesses.
No more lifetime caps: For most health insurance, there is a $2,000,000 lifetime cap for usage. Starting immediately, these caps are to be removed. This could allow coverage for a number of small business folks who might have exceeded the cap.

No pre-existing conditions: starting in 2014, there will not be any pre-existing conditions. Thus, even if you have a major medical problem, you will be guaranteed to get health insurance. This is a great provision that will allow coverage for those small business folks and their employees who might not have been able to get insurance coverage.

Dependent children can be kept on parent’s insurance through age 26: Normally, kids who turn age 21 have to get their own insurance and can’t be kept on their parent’s insurance. This will be changed so that dependent children who are under age 27 can be kept on the parent’s insurance. This becomes effective on March 30, 2010. I should note that although dependents under age 27 can be added to the parent’s insurance e policy, there is no requirement that an employer add them to the policy.

Small Businesses are exempt from penalties for failing to provide health insurance: Generally only companies that have 50 or more full-time employees need to provide health insurance coverage or face penalties. However, since small businesses of under 50 full-time employees don’t need to provide any coverage, they are exempt from these “Pay or Play” penalties.
Sandy’s elaboration: If you have a business with 50 more more full-time employees, you are indeed required to provide health insurance.As you can see, there are some good provisions for both the business owner and for small businesses. Thus, why the strongly, negative comments from the business community? The reason is that there are a lot of congressional “gotchas” that affect everyone.Problems with the healh reform legislation
New taxes: There are a number of new taxes and costs that will beef up the overall insurance costs for small businesses. For example, there is an income tax increase starting in 2010 of between 5%-10% for those who make over $200,000 of adjusted gross income. In addition, Medicare has been increased for everyone by.9% for all employees and for the owner who make over $200,000 of adjusted gross income and is single. Married taxpayers filing joint returns have to make of $250,000 of adjusted gross earnings in order for this.9% Medicare surcharge to kick in. This may not sound like a lot, but, for someone earning $300,000 in salary, this could result in a $900 increase in Medicare taxes for each employee in that income bracket regardless of profitability of the business! In addition, if the adjusted gross income of the worker or the owner is over $200,000 ( for single taxpayers) or over $25,,000 (for married filing joint taxpayers), there will be a 3.8% Medicare surcharge on all of their interest, dividends, rents and royalties. This will also apply to dividends from S Corporations. So much for saving costs!

New excise taxes: In order to help pay for this new law, there are some additional excise taxes on many medical devices that ordinarily aren’t purchased by most people. Thus, there will be no excise taxes on glasses, hearing aids, and contact lenses. Most other devices, however, will probably have the excise taxes apply to them. In addition, there will be additional taxes on the health insurance companies, some insurance plans and pharmaceutical companies. You might wonder how these additional taxes apply to self employed taxpayers. The reason is that these additional costs will be passed through to everyone including the self employed.

Additional 40% excise tax on Cadillac health insurance: The new law places a whopping 40% excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage, often referred to as “Cadillac” health plans. This tax applies to premiums that exceed $10,200 for single coverage and those that exceed $27,500 for family coverage. There are some increased thresholds for retired taxpayers who are age 55 and older and for those engaged in “high risk occupations.” Thus, if you want top notch expensive insurance coverage, you will pay a lot more to get it. This even assumes that an insurance company will even offer it at all.

Increased paperwork: Generally those who do provide insurance through the exchange for their workers will need to fill out some potentially new paperwork showing the name of the employee, the amount of premium paid the contribution by the employee, notification to the employee about the coverage etc.

Midsize to large companies much provide health insurance: If you have a company consisting of 50 or more full- time employees (part time will be counted on a fractional basis depending on their hours), you are required to provide medical insurance or face big penalties. However, this is required regardless of profitability. Think about this. This could result in a number of unprofitable or marginally profitable companies going broke, which could actually substantially reduce jobs. In addition, this would spur either the hiring of more part time at the cost of reducing the number of full time employees or increase the sucking sound of companies going to places like China or India. The result of all this would mean a lot less jobs.
Bottom Line: Although there are some great provisions in the new law such as waiving pre-existing conditions and lifetime benefit caps, the increased taxes and costs incurred for most small businesses will probably exceed the decrease in health premiums resulting in an overall increase in total health costs and taxes to self employed businesses. Thus, I don’t see any job creation resulting from this law. In fact, it may well cost a lot of jobs.P.S. Check out my free lesson on “How to write off all your medical expenses!” Free Lesson http://www.PocketbookProfessor.comBy Sandy Botkin CPA. Esq

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