The Rotary Club of Sooke had used a face-to-face live auction format for a number of years as the main fundraising event for the year. However, after COVID-19 was announced, we quickly realized that continuing with our auction was not going to work. We had to develop another way to raise funds.
During the Fall of 2019, we had been preparing for a Spring 2020 live auction by collecting donations from local supporters. As the impact of COVID-19 was causing restrictions in all activity around the world, we realized a live auction was not going to occur. One of our long-time members, who loved having auctions, suggested we could deliver our auction online. As we looked around, none of our members had any real experience with online auctions. So we decided to plow ahead with our auction and figure out what online was going to mean and do it on the fly.
We reviewed a few recommended online auction sites, tried to determine which services would be of most value to us at the least price. We decided 32 Auctions: https://www.32auctions.com was the site we would use. We had delayed our live auction, and as a result, we had a number of items available to the auction. We confirmed with donors that auctioning the items online would be acceptable. Everyone approved the online format.
Our online auction in the Fall of 2020 was very successful. We came very close to achieving our goal to raise $20,000. The secret to this success is having committed members who actively seek good-quality donations from many businesses and individuals. Without these members, our auction efforts to fundraise would fail. We highlighted our achievements in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVFo-PWD35Y.
Based on the success of the auction last year, we will once again partner with 32 Auctions to conduct VRAD online. This decision was based on the many positive comments received from both bidders and donors alike as to the online platform for the auction. Our club has been actively working towards offering our next online auction November 26-28, 2021. The 2021 auction is located at: https://www.32auctions.com/VRAD2021
Questions, please contact Dal Little at 1-250-642-7035.
