With the advent of the popular cables series ‘Clean Sweep’ and other de-clutter shows, people are finally letting go of the stuff they don’t need, including even high-end items and collectibles. Most of these are donated to charity - why shouldn’t that be your organization?  Perhaps the folks in your town would be willing to donate their own attic treasures for a “Green Fundraising Event”; effectively reusing these items in a clean, green way!

Silent auctions are a great way to promote a fundraiser. Many donors have a set amount they come to the auction with, and you can set up the auction where the highest bid wins the item, with the remainder of the bids coming in as donations to your cause.
There are a few ways you can go about holding a silent green auction. You can host the event yourself, ask a local auction house if they’d donate the time and place for an auction, or commission an online auction house to hold the event for you.

If you chose to hold the event yourself, you’d need to seek out a location to host it, send out invitations, put out flyers, run an ad and arrange for all the items to be housed, photographed and cataloged. Then you’ll need to make sure you have a sign in book where the bidders can place their bid. This can be an expense, but by getting as much material, time and space donated as possible you can host your own silent auction which enables you to suggest a minimum price for items.

Choosing to allow a local auction house to cater the event will be less stressful and free your hands up to do other things for your green fundraiser. You might still need to advertise the time and date or put out flyers, but the stress of photographing, cataloging and housing the auction items will fall on the auction house.

Deciding to host an online silent auction will relieve all the stress of getting everything together. You supply photographs of all items, and they will take care of everything for you. An online auction house offers donor visibility, higher fundraiser goals and much more, and most only take a small percentage of the top for fundraising events. This is the greenest way to run an auction, as it makes for less material and transportation costs - a simple storage unit can be rented for a week or two, photographs taken, and shipping done right after the event.

A silent auction can help raise funds in an environmentally conscious way, and best of all the kids can pitch in too - helping shine up old items and even taking photographs for the auction. This is a terrific way to spend a few weeks this summer, and can kick start your fundraising efforts for fall activities.