How to Set Up Your Silent Auction

In this article, we will provide you with a detailed step-by-step guide on how to easily set up your silent auction.

Silent auctions are highly recommended due to their effectiveness in engaging donors and raising more funds for your organization. One of the key advantages of using Trellis' silent auction tool is its quick and easy setup process. All you need to do is share the link with your participants after setting it up.

Set Up Your Silent Auction

1. Enable Silent Auctions

• From the Dashboard, click Edit on a fundraiser to go to your fundraiser builder.
• Navigate to your Sidebar Settings and select Silent & Live Auctions.
• Toggle on "Enable Auctions"
  • Note, this will be enabled if you selected Silent Auctions in the setup wizard when you created your fundraiser.
• Leave "Show silent auction tap to donors" disabled for now.
  • Note: If you enable this and publish your fundraiser without any silent auction items, it will automatically disable.

2. Set Up Your Auction Settings

• Click Auction Settings in the left menu to view the auction settings.
• Set your silent auction start date and time, and end date and time.

• Choose who covers the transaction fees: the purchaser or your organization.
• Choose whether you want our system to automatically send a notification to all donors when the silent auction opens.
  • Note, you can edit this email from the Messaging System.
• Enable Auction Upsells:
  • Donate Your Bid will ask bidders if they would like to make a donation if they don't win that item. Learn more. 
  • Overtime Bidding will automatically extend the bidding period by 2 minutes any time someone places a bid 2 minutes before the auction closes, or anytime within the 2-minute extension. This prevents sniping so competitive items can continue with bidding.

• Enable or disable an auction item donation form, which you can send to your network to automatically collect and build auction items.

3. Create Silent Auction Items

• Click Auction Items in the left menu to view current auction items (both silent and live).
• Click Add Item in the top right corner.

• Complete all required fields on the auction item, and hit save.

  • Offering Type: Silent or Live
    • Silent Auctions appear on your fundraiser page. Live auction items only appear in the Live Auction Preview section that you can add to your home page.
  • Listing Name: The name of your auction item

  • Listing ID: Your unique identifier for the auction item. Can be any string of numbers, letters and characters

  • Bid Details: Set the starting bid and bid increment
  • Monetary Value and Title: Set the title to appear before the item value, and then the value amount. 
    • Ex/ "Valued At: $500"

• • Item Description: The description of the item.
    • Note, this description is used in our auction print outs. 
  • Images: The images of the item.
    • You can upload multiple images. Only the first image is used in the item preview and on the auction print outs.

• • Tags/Categories: Donors can use these tags to search and filter items based on their interests.
    • Simply enter the tag or category that you want to use, and then press enter. This will automatically generate and assign the tag to your item. 
    • To delete a tag, it must be removed from all silent auction items, then it will delete automatically.
  • Buy Now Purchase Price: Sets a price that bidders can pay to buy the item outright. Leave blank to exclude this feature. 
  • Sponsors: Connect to an existing sponsor. You must first set up sponsors under Auction Sponsors in the lefthand menu.
  • Email Attachments: Include any e-gift cards or vouchers, to be sent automatically upon purchase. These attachments are exclusively sent to the winning bidder.
  • Pickup Instructions: Include any information on picking up the item. This is included in the confirmation email.

  • Additional Fees: Organizations often choose to include additional fees, either fixed or a percentage, to cover shipping fees or taxes. If there are any additional fees, a note will be visible to the donor when they place a bid.

    • It is highly recommended that additional fees are also included in the item description for full transparency.

  • Tax Receipts: Choose whether a tax receipt should be sent automatically if the winning bid is 125% of the item value. 
    • Note: Tax receipting must be enabled on your fundraiser for this feature to work.

4. Create auction sponsors (optional)

• Add your items' sponsors by selecting Auctions Sponsors and then click Add Sponsor at the top right area.
• Complete all sponsor details
• Connect the sponsor to an existing auction item.
• Click Save.

5. Get ready to launch your silent auction

• Toggle on your Show silent auction tab to donors
• Click Publish Changes 
• Now lastly, set your page status to Live if you haven't yet.

Below are other articles that you might find helpful:

1. Checklist in launching your Silent Auction using Trellis

2. How to Send an Auction Bulk Upload Request

3. How to extract your auction reports

4. How to manage my bidders during and after the auction

5. Why do I see the same bid amount from different bidders?

6. How to Generate and Download Your Auction Printouts

7. How to generate QR codes