of worthy causes and professional benefit auctioneers.”
There are more than 15,000 fundraising auctions across America each year, and only one site that’s making it easy for everyone to find them.
Whether you’re an auctioneer who specializes in fundraising, or a nonprofit with a public event, or even a philanthropic community member who just loves the excitement and fun of auctions, we welcome you to the
Charity Auction Calendar
Where America Finds A Fundraiser
Bringing Nonprofits and Fundraising Auctioneers Together
If we haven’t yet met, I’m Jenelle. Most people know me as GALA GAL. I’ve been connecting fundraising professionals to helpful info since I began doing benefit auctions in 2002. What started with 3 how-to books for auctioneers back in 2006 led to the 3-day BOOTCAMP for Benefit Auctioneers class, so I could force folks to actually sit down and implement their good ideas! Somehow, I’ve been bringing auctioneers and their charity clients closer for more than 10 years.
But I always felt like I was supposed to be doing more.
Last summer, my matchmaking took another step forward when I published 41 other benefit auctioneers in a book for our nonprofit clients (photo, above). But creating a national Charity Auction Calendar has been my dream since 2007, and I am thrilled beyond words to finally simplify the online connection process and put smart, talented auctioneers in front of the charities who need them. – Jenelle Taylor, founder, CharityAuctionCalendar.com, America’s Official Benefit Auction Match Maker
Q: Why did you create the Charity Auction Calendar?
The Calendar fills a three-way need, because charities often struggle to find the right auctioneer, and auctioneers who specialize in fundraising are always trying to find more events they can help.
Moreover, individual supporters gave a whopping $223 BILLION to charities in 2012.
Those are 3 awesome groups of people who share the same goal – to help good causes raise money for their programs– but there’s never been one easy place to find each other.
So the Charity Auction Calendar is the spot where all these folks can meet up.
I call it “Auction Match Maker” ~ it’s like a dating service, for fundraising!
Q: But aren’t there are a lot of sites that list events?
There ARE a lot of sites that list events. Too many. So many, in fact, that you never know which one to check, which one is up to date or which one is woefully out of date. Even when you can find events online, often it’s a jumble of every possible kind of event: seminars and tastings, art shows and openings, fun runs and festivals.
If what you’d really like to find are the auctions – to support, attend, help, or plan around – you have to weed through all the listings, on all the sites. I know from firsthand experience – over 12 years working as a fundraising auctioneer in Florida- trying to find which events have auctions has been a challenge.
The Charity Auction Calendar solves that problem. One site. Only auctions. All across America.
Q: So, how many benefit auctions are there across America each year?
Good question! Did you know that there at 1.8 million IRS-registered nonprofits and congregations in the United States, and more than 366,000 of those groups report more than $100,000 in annual revenue? Of course, not all of those 366,000 groups do an event with a silent or live auction, but many, many of them do.
How many?
Well, that’s the ambitious goal we’re determined to find out!
The fact is, nobody knows, and while there’s lots of data about charity fundraising out there, those sites don’t specifically track auctions. As a professional fundraiser, when you can see which groups are already doing silent or live auctions, finding folks who might want to hire you just got a whole lot faster and easier.
Think about it, if just 5% of those 366,000 nonprofits at the $100,000+ level held an annual auction, that’s 18,300 events every year!
Worried that such auctions might be too small? Well, there are more than 108,000 nonprofits that report over $1,000,000 in annual revenue.
The benefit auction industry is huge. Gargantuan. And we’re on a mission to show you just how many auction opportunities are out there. Welcome to the Charity Auction Calendar, Where America Finds A Fundraiser℠.
Q: What’s the back story of the Charity Auction Calendar?
I started doing auctions as a career in 2001, and before that I was a teacher, so that means I’ve been hustling to create my next auction for 13 years now, and teaching others for almost as long! 2004 was the first year I officially taught another auctioneer how to find good benefit auction clients, and in 2006 I wrote a book for auctioneers detailed those strategies (BUILD: The 7 Steps to Start or Grow Your Benefit Auction Business). Since 2008 I’ve showed hundreds of my BOOTCAMP class attendees how to find existing benefit auctions online – and yet I hear almost daily, “I just can’t seem to find enough auctions.” So you see, I’ve been trying to solve this problem for 10 years now! The idea for the Charity Auction Calendar (then called “Auction MatchMaker” came to me in May of 2007. At the 2007 National Auctioneers Association Conference in San Diego, I even promoted it as “coming soon”!
The 2007 brainstorm, later the Charity Auction Calendar
It turned out to be a little bit harder than I’d expected
The software built that year got put on the back burner, and restarts in 2009 and 2011 got me a little bit closer. In 2013, after an investment of time and resources, consulting with experts, waiting for the technology to catch up, incubating, testing, and developing, the planets aligned in the Charity Universe! Over the past twelve months, we’ve added a bunch more team members in preparation for opening the Charity Auction Calendar in multiple cities across America. With the help of a great web designer and project manager, along with an extensive research team, we’re unveiling the silent and live auction events in 50 cities by the end of 2014, and adding up to 50 more metro areas in 2015! Finally, after 7 years of development, the Charity Auction Calendar is Where America Finds A Fundraiser℠!
Florida Benefit Auctioneer Jenelle Taylor has been planning a national inventory of silent and live auction events since 2007. In 2014, we’re opening up access in at least 50 major metro areas, so you can easily search for upcoming auctions, add an online profile, or even get e-mail alerts in your Inbox up to 14 days before your competitors. In 2015, we’ll expand access to 100 U.S. markets on our quest to catalog every silent and live auction charitable fundraising event in America!
