How to run an auction of promises that actually sells

An auction of promises is the format I recommend most often to organisers who tell me they have no budget for prizes. You do not need a budget. You need a community willing to pledge a day’s work, a skill or an experience, and someone who knows how to sell it in the room. Done properly, it is one of the most profitable evenings a small cause can run.

I have spent twenty years on stage at fundraising events, from village hall dinners to a Monaco gala that raised over €1,000,000 in a single evening. The mechanics of an auction of promises are humble, but the psychology is exactly the same as a black-tie charity auction. Here is how to gather the promises, build the catalogue, and sell them for far more than they look worth on paper.

What is an auction of promises?

An auction of promises is a fundraiser where people pledge services, skills, time or experiences instead of physical prizes, and guests bid to win them. Someone promises a day’s gardening, a home-cooked dinner for six, a lift to the airport, a guitar lesson, or the loan of a holiday cottage, and the highest bidder pays the charity for it.

It goes by a few names. Some call it a promise auction, some a pledge auction, but the mechanic is identical: the lot is a promise to do or provide something, redeemed after the event. Because nobody had to buy the item, the cost to the charity is close to nothing.

That is the whole appeal. A raffle needs prizes. A gala needs a venue and a dinner. An auction of promises needs only a community willing to offer what it already has: time, talent and generosity. In my experience it suits schools, sports clubs, churches and local charities better than almost anything else, because those communities are rich in willing people and short on cash.

Why is an auction of promises so cheap to run?

An auction of promises is cheap because there is almost no cost of goods. The lots are donated time and skills, so unlike a raffle or a shop-bought prize, you are not spending money to make money. Nearly every pound bid is profit.

Compare it to the alternatives. A traditional live charity auction often relies on sourced lots, and if you buy them in through a commission-based supplier, a chunk of every winning bid leaves the room. With promises, the donor gives the lot outright, so the charity keeps the full amount.

Your only real costs are the evening itself: a room, some drinks, a bid sheet or a microphone. Run it as an add-on to a quiz night or a supper you were holding anyway, and the marginal cost is close to zero. That is why I tell budget-conscious organisers to start here. The return on effort is hard to beat.

There is a Gift Aid nuance worth knowing. Winning bids on some promises can be eligible for Gift Aid in specific circumstances, which would add 25p per pound from eligible UK taxpayers, but the rules on auctions and benefits are not simple. Check the current guidance for your situation rather than assuming every bid qualifies.

How do you gather great auction promises?

You gather great auction promises by asking specific people for specific things, not by putting out a general appeal and hoping. A vague request gets vague pledges. A direct ask gets a plumber offering a day’s work and a chef offering to cook in someone’s home.

Start with your own community and work outward. The best promises usually come from three groups:

• Individual supporters. A day’s gardening, babysitting, dog walking, a home-cooked meal, a lift service, a skill they teach. Ask people what they are genuinely good at.
• Local businesses. A restaurant table, a spa treatment, a car valet, a photography session, a case of wine, a plumbing or electrical call-out. Many will give in exchange for a mention.
• People with something unusual. The loan of a holiday home, a ride in a classic car, a round of golf at a good club, an afternoon on a boat. Experiences money cannot easily buy always bid highest.

For inspiration on what pulls the strongest bids, my list of donation ideas works just as well for promises as for physical lots. When you ask, make it easy to say yes: tell the donor exactly what you need, when the promise would be redeemed, and how you will credit them.

One practitioner note. Chase a handful of genuinely aspirational promises rather than a long list of small ones. Ten strong lots that a room actually wants will out-raise forty forgettable ones, and they keep the auction moving instead of dragging.

Writing and presenting a catalogue that sells

The catalogue is where most auctions of promises quietly lose money. A promise written as “gardening, one day” raises a fraction of the same promise written to make someone picture the result. You are not listing items. You are selling outcomes.

Give every promise three things:

• A confident title. “A summer garden, sorted” beats “gardening”. “Dinner party for six, cooked in your home” beats “cooking”.
• A short, vivid description. Say what the winner gets, who is providing it, and why it is worth having. Two or three sentences is plenty.
• The practical detail. Any dates, limits or travel restrictions, so the winner and the donor both know where they stand.

Order matters too. Put a strong, broadly appealing promise early to set the tone, save one or two star lots for the peak, and cluster similar promises so guests can compare and compete. If you are printing sheets for a silent format, leave clear space for bids and make the minimum increment obvious.

Read every entry aloud before the night. If it does not make you want to bid, rewrite it. The description is doing the auctioneer’s job before the auctioneer arrives.

Should you run it live or silent?

Run it live if you want the highest total, and silent if you want reach and simplicity. The best evenings I do combine the two: a silent auction of promises running through the night for the mid-value lots, and a short live auction for the handful of star promises when the room is warmest.

A live auction of promises is where the real money is made. Bidding is public, momentum is visible, and a good auctioneer can lift two rivals from £40 to £200 in under a minute. It needs energy and pace, but it consistently out-raises a silent sheet for the same lot.

A silent auction of promises is gentler to run. Guests write bids on a sheet or a phone across the evening, and it captures people who would never raise a hand in public. It suits larger numbers of smaller promises, and it needs no microphone.

For most community events I suggest both. Let the silent auction handle volume, and give three to five promises the live treatment where an auctioneer, or a confident volunteer, can build the bidding in front of everyone.

Pricing promises and setting starting bids

Price a promise by its value to the winner, then open the bidding well below that figure to invite competition. The starting bid is a tactical choice, not a valuation. Set it too high and the lot stalls in silence. Set it a little low and two bidders will do your job for you.

A few rules I use:

• Estimate the real-world worth first. A day’s professional plumbing, a spa treatment, a case of decent wine all have a rough market value. That is your anchor, not your target.
• Open at roughly a third to a half of that value. Low enough that a first hand goes up quickly, because the first bid is the hardest to get.
• Set sensible increments. Rising by £5 on a £300 lot takes all night. Move in steps that suit the value: £10, £20, £50 as the numbers climb.
• Put a value guide in the catalogue for silent lots, so bidders have a reference and do not underpay out of uncertainty.

The mistake I see most often is a nervous committee starting the bidding near the item’s value to avoid selling it cheaply. It backfires. Nobody wants to make the first bid at full price, the lot dies, and it goes for less than a bold low start would have reached.

What auctioneer techniques make auction promises sell?

The techniques that make auction promises sell are the same ones that lift any charity auction: pace, social proof, and naming the momentum in the room out loud. A promise has no fixed price, so what a guest pays is decided almost entirely by how it is sold.

Here is what actually happens when you sell rather than read. You describe the outcome, not the object. You get the first bid fast to break the ice. You play two bidders against each other by acknowledging them by name or table. You never let a silence sit, because a stalled auction teaches the room to stop bidding. And when a lot is climbing, you say so, because a room that senses momentum bids into it.

Kevin at work: a charity auction case study

Two more techniques earn their place at a promise auction specifically. First, warm the room before the asks: a quick game of heads or tails or one of my other fundraising games gets hands moving and wallets open before the first lot. Second, when a promise closes high, thank the donor and the winner by name. Public recognition makes the next donor keener to pledge and the next bidder keener to compete.

Bidding momentum is a skill, not luck. It is the reason the same promise can raise £60 in one room and £250 in another, with nothing different but the person holding the microphone.

Where to start

Begin small and specific. Set your date, pick a night you are already gathering people if you can, and ask ten people you know for one promise each. Write each one up as a lot rather than a line item, decide which three deserve the live treatment, and set starting bids low enough to draw the first hand.

Do that, and an auction of promises will often out-earn a far more expensive event, because almost nothing you raise is eaten by costs. The only real variable is the selling.

If you want a second opinion on which promises to gather, how to sequence them, or whether to bring in an auctioneer for the star lots, I offer a free initial consultation through my auctioneer services. Tell me your target and your crowd, and we will work out how to beat it.