Charity auctioneer · Glasgow

Glasgow charity auctioneer for galas and fundraising events

By Kevin DurhamFundraising strategy & live auctions

I work across Glasgow as a charity auctioneer and host, from the grand Victorian rooms of the Merchant City to the stadium suites and hotel ballrooms. Scotland’s biggest city runs a serious gala calendar, and a lot of it turns on the sporting dinner, which is a format I love.

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A live charity auction in full flow, the room bidding against each other.

In short

A Glasgow charity auctioneer plans the fundraising, runs the live auction and closes with a pledge. It is a strategy job, not lot-reading.
Glasgow is Scotland’s events capital, with the country’s biggest banqueting spaces and a deep pool of corporate sponsors.
The city’s signature is the sporting dinner: a speaker, a warm room, and a live auction that does the heavy lifting.
The live pledge earns the most. A pledge I ran at Jigsaw Trust raised £30,600 beyond the auction.
A fixed fee agreed in advance, never a percentage, with the auction software included.

Search “Glasgow charity auctioneer” and you will find a lot of pages that could be about anywhere. This one is not. I am Kevin Durham, a charity auctioneer of twenty years with over £10 million raised, and below is how I work in Glasgow, where the galas actually happen, and the causes you might be raising for.

Kevin Durham

Charity auctioneer & event host

20years£10m+raised60–80events/yr

Check availability 07596 851647

What does a Glasgow charity auctioneer actually do?

Reading the lots out is the last five per cent of it. The job is fundraising, and most of it happens before the night: choosing and sequencing a short list of strong lots rather than a catalogue of weak ones, building a live pledge into the running order, and making sure the room is warm and quiet at the moment the money is asked for. On the night I work the floor with a wireless microphone, not a podium, because the total follows the energy and the energy is in the room, not on the stage.

A volunteer host reads a catalogue. A professional runs a plan. That difference is the whole case for hiring one, and in Glasgow it usually pays for the fee several times over.

The difference a professional makes

Why does a professional out-raise a volunteer host?

£14kWhat Jigsaw Trust expected from their live auction

£27kWhat the live auction actually raised on the night

£30.6kRaised by a live pledge they had not even planned

0%Of your total taken as commission. A fixed fee, agreed up front

Those are real figures from a gala I called for Jigsaw Trust. The auction nearly doubled the target, and then the live pledge, run at the room’s emotional peak, brought in more than the auction did. That is the pattern almost every night follows, and it is why the live pledge matters more than the lots. A room raises more when someone has planned the ask, held the pace and kept the energy up. None of that is in a catalogue.

I never take a percentage of what you raise, which is the model most for-profit auction companies run on. My fee is agreed before the event, and the goal is a total that makes it look small.

What is the Glasgow fundraising scene like?

Glasgow is Scotland’s commercial and events capital, and it shows in the venues. The city has the country’s largest banqueting spaces and a deep bench of corporate sponsors, which means a gala here can be built at real scale. The grand Victorian rooms, the City Chambers, Kelvingrove, the old courthouse that is now the Corinthian, carry a merchant-city legacy of giving that a black-tie night sits naturally inside.

The other thing about Glasgow is its devotion to sport, and that shapes the fundraising. The city’s biggest charity nights are often built around a sporting speaker and a live auction rather than a formal ball, and they raise serious money: a Scotch whisky auction for the Beatson Cancer Charity brought in over £370,000, and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity’s annual ball has cleared £200,000 in a night. Note that Scottish charities answer to OSCR, the Scottish regulator, not the Charity Commission, though Gift Aid works exactly the same north of the border.

Glasgow’s signature is the sporting dinner, and one of its grandest auction rooms, the Corinthian, is a former courthouse. Raise a paddle where they once passed sentence.

A professional charity auctioneer working the floor during a live auction.

Where the galas happen

Where are charity galas held in Glasgow?

A few of the rooms in and around Glasgow that suit a black-tie fundraising night. These are the kinds of venue I work in, not a list of events I have run.

SEC (Scottish Event Campus)

Finnieston

Scotland’s largest banqueting venue, for a gala dinner at real scale.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery

West End

A dramatic set-piece dinner under the organ and chandeliers of Scotland’s most-visited attraction.

Glasgow City Chambers

George Square

Civic-prestige dinners in a marble banqueting hall opened by Queen Victoria.

The Corinthian Club

Merchant City

Opulent balls across a former judiciary courthouse, under a great domed hall.

Òran Mór

West End

An atmospheric auction in a converted church with a painted ceiling.

voco Grand Central

City centre

A grand-ballroom gala above Glasgow Central Station.

The causes

Who might you be raising for in Glasgow?

A gala only works when the room believes in the cause. These are established Glasgow charities that run fundraising nights, and the kind of work a strong auction and pledge pays for.

The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice

Glasgow’s adult hospice in Bellahouston Park, funded by a full events calendar.

Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity

Supports the Royal Hospital for Children; its annual ball has raised over £200,000 in a night.

Beatson Cancer Charity

Supports cancer patients at the Beatson; a whisky-industry auction raised it over £370,000.

Kilbryde Hospice

Serves South Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow, funded by its annual ball and community events.

The live pledge under way, the moment the biggest money of the night comes in.

How does a Glasgow auctioneer raise more on the night?

The shape of a big night is fairly consistent. Warm the room early, often with a quick game like heads or tails, so the first time people reach for their wallets is painless. Let dinner breathe. Run a tight live auction of genuinely strong lots. Then, at the warmest point of the evening, run a live pledge straight into the cause, with Gift Aid adding 25p to every eligible pound.

Everything is planned to a running order, and everyone bidding, in the room or on a phone, competes in the same lot at the same price through the auction software that comes with the booking. Charitable giving in the UK runs to roughly £14 billion a year; the job is to make sure a fair share of the goodwill already in your Glasgow room reaches the cause.

What should you look for when you hire a Glasgow auctioneer?

A fixed fee, not a percentage of what you raise
Fundraising strategy before the night, not just a host on the day
A live pledge built into the running order
Real figures and references from past events
A written fundraising agreement, in line with the fundraising codes
Bidding software that treats room and online bids equally

How much does a Glasgow charity auctioneer cost?

A fixed fee, agreed before the event and never a percentage of what you raise. The fee reflects the planning as much as the night, and it should be made back many times over by a properly run auction and pledge. A written fundraising agreement comes as standard, in line with Scottish fundraising rules and OSCR guidance, and the auction software is included in the booking rather than sold on the side. You can read more on my fees page.

Questions

Common questions about hiring a Glasgow auctioneer

Do you run sporting dinners as well as balls?

Yes, and Glasgow is the city for them. A sporting dinner lives or dies on the auction and the room’s energy, which is exactly where I add the most. I will help you shape the night around a speaker and a short list of strong lots.

Do you cover the west of Scotland?

Yes, Glasgow and out across the west, from Lanarkshire to Ayrshire and up towards Loch Lomond. I work nationally, so travel is built into the fixed fee.

Are Scottish charity events any different?

The fundraising is the same craft, but Scottish charities are regulated by OSCR rather than the Charity Commission, and I work to the Scottish fundraising rules. Gift Aid still adds 25p to every eligible pound, exactly as it does elsewhere in the UK.

Sources and further reading

Venue capacities and charity figures are drawn from each organisation’s own pages and were correct when this page was written. Please confirm details with the venue or charity directly before you book.

No obligation

Bring this to your Glasgow event

Tell me about the evening, your room and your target, and I will give you an honest view of what a professional auctioneer and a live pledge could add.

Get in touch 07596 851647