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Golf event planners are always looking for new and creative ways to pack a wow factor into outings, especially when raising money for charity is the main objective. For many, auctions are the answer.
"I absolutely believe in auctions," says Peggy Marilley, president of Precision Meetings and Events, Alexandria, Va. "An auction is a great way to spark enthusiasm because it assembles items for people to bid on at great value while supporting a worthwhile organization."
Auctions can be presented in various forms. There's the traditional auction with an auctioneer hawking items. You can coordinate a silent auction at your outing venue or online. Or combine one of the forms of a silent auction with live bidding as well.
No matter what format you choose, it takes careful planning to make it a success. More than just assembling products and holding them up for bids, pulling off a profitable auction involves knowing your audience and acquiring items most likely to appeal to them.
Once you decide on hosting an auction, you'll need to determine whether you have the appropriate resources to pull it off or if it would be more beneficial to hire a company that specializes in auctions to handle the task. Whatever route you choose, make sure you work toward your auction being as fun-filled and exciting as possible.
To Outsource or Go It Alone?
Veterans of auction planning say if you decide to do it yourself, then forming a separate committee devoted entirely to soliciting donations for the auction is the best way to go. If you decide to go with an outside company, do some research.
Understand that there are some companies whose primary objective is to make a profit as well, and their terms may not be the best for your event goals. Other companies may simply serve as consultants to walk you through the process. Companies offering online assistance come in various forms as well.
It took trial and error for Curry and Melissa Scheirer to realize that they are better off organizing the silent auction themselves. Their annual golf outing, Allison's Tournament of Hope, honors their eight-year-old daughter's struggle with a spinal tumor and benefits the Greater Orlando Children's Miracle Network. The first year of their event in 2007 at Florida's Celebration Golf Club, they hired a local company to organize the auction and only netted $520 for their charity. For 2008, they decided to run the auction themselves and yielded $5,500 from the auction alone.
Because of the auction's success, the Scheirers doubled their overall donation to the Children's Miracle Network—from $5,000 in 2007 to $10,000 in 2008.
"There are some pros and cons on both sides of whether to hire an outside company," Curry Scheirer says. "The second time around it took more work on our part, but the outcome was well worth it."
The benefit of using a company that specializes in auctions is they do all the work, says Stephen Horne, Celebration's senior sales manager. They find the donations, they do set up, and they track and finalize the exchanges. "The benefiting organizations that make the most money on auctions generally are those that make the personal contacts to get the items themselves," Horne continues. "When they choose this route, they retain all the revenue and have no overhead."
In 2007, an auction company procured the items and handled the whole show for the Scheirers. But the fundraiser only made a profit when the final bid on an item was more than the auctioneer's minimum asking price. Of more than 50 items, only 15 items were sold in the auction. Most of the minimum bids were $500 or $600. Another drawback of their first auction was the short period of time outing participants had to view and examine the items. The auction company setup after the 8:30 a.m. tee time, so attendees were only able to checkout the items after the round and just before the afternoon banquet.
"What they offered just didn't fit our needs or our clientele," Scheirer says. He was particularly frustrated with the opening bids for most of the items. "A $600 opening bid could be most of someone's weekly salary. Our event is about family and community, and that's why it was important for us to get to basics in our second year. The success of Allison's Tournament of Hope means so much to us because it's our way of giving back."
Scheirer explains that when their daughter was diagnosed with a spinal tumor more than four years ago the family shuttled for treatments between the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Fla., and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia—both hospitals are affiliates of the Children's Miracle Network.
When they coordinated the auction themselves in 2008, the Scheirers wrote hundreds of letters and made phone calls, asking for donations from corporations and celebrities; they networked locally, and they courted contacts of Children's Miracle Network, which often acted as an ambassador for them.
Finding a Format that Fits
While the Scheirers held a silent auction, there is no agreement among event planners about which auction format is best. They say its all about the planning and execution.
Precision Meetings and Events' Marilley swears by the live auction format. But she agrees that you have to know your audience and what is most likely to appeal to them. For the last four years she has organized a live auction for the foundation of the Destination Marketing Association International, an international group of event planners and hospitality and convention professionals. Auction profits have increased every year.
The auctioneer Marilley uses is not a professional caller, but Steve Moore, the chief executive officer of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Some people would say you are better off with a professional auctioneer, but I don't necessarily believe that. Steve is well known in the industry, he's lively, funny, engaging and he knows how to gently put pressure on people at the right times to get bids," Marilley says.
But Horne cautions: "The down side of live auctions is they can take a long time. After an afternoon of playing golf, the last thing most golfers want to do is sit through a long live auction, waiting on a favored item to come up for bid. Some form of a silent auction is better because people are on their own time. They have a chance to view the items before and after golfing and can bid right then on what they want. They don't have to wait and you don't have to worry about loosing their attention."
Marilley also offers an online component to her auctions so people can bid on items prior to the event. At the live auction, she offers an auction catalog and bidding begins where the silent auction bids left off.
Keeping your audience engaged also has a lot to do with the auction items you present. Some of the best auction items for golf events, according to Marianne Lines, managing director of Fore Auctions in Houston, include signed golf memorabilia, exotic or unusual vacation packages and outings and hard-to-get tickets to sports events, such as the top PGA tournaments, the Super Bowl or World Series.
Lines' company will organize any auction format, but she too believes that live auctions bring excitement and anticipation to golf events. She agrees that at live auctions the number of items should be kept to a minimum, about eight to 12, so you can keep bidders engaged.
"People tend to feed off each other at live auctions," she says. "That's why securing auction items that appeal to your target audience is key."
Speaking of feeding—chef Devine Levine, a certified executive chef at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., often offers up his award-winning services for auctions. He said offering to cook a seven-course meal for a party up to 24 people not only helps a charity, but he also recognizes it as an opportunity to promote the club and the culinary talent of his staff.
The highest bid so far for his services during a golf outing was $8,000. Levine said event planners should not hesitate to ask the chefs at their outing venues to donate their services. He said clubs may be willing to write it off and the item presents no overhead for an event planner. A chef's package can become even more valuable if the club is willing to throw in space to hold the dinner or some rounds of golf.
Taking it Online
Many golf event planners are looking more at online auction opportunities, and the growing number of companies offering such services indicates there's something to it. Many believe that online auctions provide groups with soliciting leverage to attract sponsors and to get items donated. Marilley, Lines and Topper Smith, president of TournEvents [full disclosure: Golf Event partners with TournEvents to offer planners free online planning tools], all offer online auction services. Smith's company provides free online space to help golf event planners manage their auctions.
"People are becoming more and more comfortable with buying things online," says Smith. He says the longer items are online, the more charities tend to rake in bigger profits. He has been watching the trend the past few years. "We provide the free space and the functionality, but the planners have to do the work themselves," Smith adds.
He says TournEvents wants to help golf events be more successful: "We saw how some charity tournaments were being charged by people running auctions and decided we want to help people maximize their profits."
"Online auctions broaden the window of opportunity," according to Lines, explaining how planners can begin putting auction items online months before their golf outing. She and the others believe that months-long online exposure for donors/sponsors beats any one-day event signage. Plus, there's no extra advertising cost.
The 2009 Allison's Tournament of Hope is scheduled for June 20. But the Scheirers started planning their auction in December, hoping to link their course action with some Internet action by adding an online component.
"We want to open up our auction to people who aren't even participating in the tournament," Scheirer says. "We believe that having at least a four or five-month exposure period for our items will entice more people to bid even when they visit other sites that our site is linked with," such as the Children's Miracle Network, Celebration Golf Club and the sites of sponsors.
"Golf auctions are about creating a win-win situation for everyone," says TournEvents' Smith. "The best auctions are well thought out and make the best use of all presentable options."
Yalinda Moore is a freelance writer in Cleveland. She last wrote "No Time to Plan; Act Fast" in the fall 2008 issue. | 
