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 a powerful way to engage your donors and raise more for your organization. Trellis makes it easy to set up and launch your auction quickly—all you need to do is share your fundraiser link.

This guide walks you through everything you need to configure a successful silent auction using Trellis.

Enable Silent Auctions

• From your Dashboard, click Edit on the fundraiser you’re working on

• Go to your Sidebar Settings and select Silent & Live Auctions

• Toggle on Enable Auctions

Note: If you selected "Silent Auction" during your initial setup wizard, this may already be enabled.

• Leave Show silent auction tab to donors disabled for now

Note: This will be automatically disabled again if no auction items are published

Set Up Your Auction Settings

• Click Auction Settings in the left-hand menu

• Set your auction start and end date/time

These times control when bidding opens and closes; credit cards are charged automatically when the auction ends

• Choose who covers transaction fees—the purchaser or your organization

• Enable auction notifications to let donors know when bidding opens. You can edit this email in the Messaging System

• Optional: Enable Auction Upsells

  • Donate Your Bid – Allows losing bidders to donate their bid amount

  • Overtime Bidding – Extends bidding by 2 minutes if a bid is placed within 2 minutes of closing

• Optional: Enable the auction item donation form to collect items directly from your network

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.

Add Auction Sponsors (Optional)

• Go to Auction Sponsors in the sidebar

• Click Add Sponsor and fill out their details

• Connect the sponsor to one or more auction items

• Click Save

Launch Your Silent Auction

• Toggle on Show silent auction tab to donors

• Click Publish Changes

• Set your fundraiser page status to Live

Helpful Articles

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