Charity auctioneer · Manchester

Manchester charity auctioneer for galas and fundraising events

By Kevin DurhamFundraising strategy & live auctions

I work across Manchester as a charity auctioneer and host, from the Midland’s ballroom to the stadium suites and the old cotton warehouses. It is a city where a good deal of what a room raises is committed to staying in Greater Manchester, and that is a genuinely useful thing to be able to say from the stage.

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

In short

A Manchester charity auctioneer plans the fundraising, runs the live auction and closes with a pledge.
The city runs its own funds: Forever Manchester has put over £67 million into local communities since 1989.
Both football clubs run substantial charities and both stadiums double as gala venues, so sporting lots are local rather than imported.
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 “Manchester 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 Manchester, 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 Manchester 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 Manchester 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 Manchester fundraising scene like?

Manchester’s fundraising calendar is unusually civic. The city runs two of its own named funds: Forever Manchester, the Greater Manchester community foundation, which has put over £67 million into local communities since 1989, and We Love MCR, whose Chair of Trustees is by convention the sitting Lord Mayor. A meaningful share of what a Manchester ballroom raises is pooled and spent inside the conurbation rather than routed to a national head office, and being able to say that honestly from the stage changes how an ask lands.

Football underpins the lot supply in a way few cities match. Both clubs run substantial charities of their own and both stadiums double as gala venues, so a signed shirt or a matchday experience is a local lot rather than an imported novelty. The media and tech cluster at MediaCity adds a second corporate seam, and the healthcare estate is a fundraising engine in its own right: a Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital gala at Victoria Warehouse raised over £267,000 in a night through a live auction, an online silent auction and a stand-for-a-grand appeal.

In Manchester the civic office and the fundraising fund are often the same table: the sitting Lord Mayor chairs We Love MCR. Money raised here is committed to staying in Greater Manchester, which is a governance fact rather than a slogan.

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

Where the galas happen

Where are charity galas held in Manchester?

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

The Midland Hotel

City centre

A grand Edwardian ballroom hotel whose largest suite takes up to 700.

Kimpton Clocktower

Oxford Street

A Victorian former insurance headquarters whose ballroom holds up to 1,000.

Old Trafford

Trafford

Manchester United’s pitch-view suites, for a sporting dinner or awards night.

Etihad Stadium

East Manchester

Manchester City’s suites, from 10 to 500 guests with a late licence.

Victoria Warehouse

Old Trafford

A 1925 cotton warehouse whose largest shed seats up to 900 for dinner.

Manchester Hall

Bridge Street

A Grade II listed former Freemasons hall with rooms from 20 to 500.

The causes

Who might you be raising for in Manchester?

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

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity

Its Champions for Children gala raised over £267,000 in a night, live auction included.

The Christie Charity

Supports the largest single-site cancer centre in Europe, treating over 60,000 patients a year.

Forever Manchester

The city’s community foundation, which has put over £67 million into local communities since 1989.

We Love MCR Charity

The city’s own charity, chaired by the sitting Lord Mayor of Manchester.

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

How does a Manchester 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 Manchester room reaches the cause.

What should you look for when you hire a Manchester 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 Manchester 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, as the Charities Act requires, 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 Manchester auctioneer

Can you host at Old Trafford or the Etihad?

Yes. Both stadiums are mainstream charity-gala venues here, and both rooms suit a sporting dinner built around a speaker and a tight live auction. I will help you shape the running order and choose the lots.

What lots work in a Manchester room?

Football is the obvious one, and here it is genuinely local rather than imported: signed shirts and matchday experiences through the clubs’ own foundations. Beyond that, the media and tech businesses around MediaCity make good corporate lots and table sponsors.

Do you cover Greater Manchester and the North West?

Yes, Manchester and across Greater Manchester, plus Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside. I work nationally, so travel is built into the fixed fee.

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 Manchester 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