The Benefits of Gaming

Benefit auctioneers are experts at creating a fun atmosphere where donors are engaged, excited, feel a sense of urgency, and ultimately are motivated to give to a good cause and have a blast doing it. If you’re a benefit auctioneer who has yet to include gamification in your strategy, take it from someone who has done it many times and reaped the benefits.

Freddie Silveria, CAS, BAS; owner of FSA Auctions, has conducted over 250 auctions, fundraising over $30 million. He partners with big names like Make-A-Wish Sacramento, Habitat for Humanity Sacramento, and many other well-known organizations to provide strategic planning consultations and create stellar events. He’s a huge proponent of using games at auctions to inject even more excitement while boosting funds for the client.

In most games, there are winners, and there are losers. However, adding value to a benefit auction includes games where every participating donor gets something. For example, Silveria has employed a game called “balloon pop,” where donors buy balloons containing prizes inside them, but only one of which includes a grand prize.

“This one is not the easiest, but it is fun and engaging,” he said, adding that it can take some planning to track.

Silveria has partnered with a jeweler who put up a $4,000 pair of earrings for the balloon pop game. Donors bought a balloon for $100, but each contained a $100 gift certificate they could redeem on an item at the jeweler’s store. Once all 100 balloons are sold, the donors pop them simultaneously, revealing the big winner.

“Many jewelers want to be part of your event,” Silveria says of his experience, adding that the cost per balloon and size of the prize can be customized based on the auction/number of donors.

One of Silveria’s “go-to” games is called “lucky card draw,” where donors buy a poker card, of which there are 52 in a deck, and can be sold for whatever is appropriate for the auction. When all the cards are sold, the donors are asked to stand. At this point, the auctioneer will ask for anyone with a specific suit, color, or number to remain standing, and everyone else sits. By the end of the game, the final four donors will be on the stage with their card, and the auctioneer will continue the elimination process until the person with the lucky card wins the grand prize. Silveria says he’s pulled in more than $10,000 using this game.

Creating a sense of urgency is crucial in all types of auctions. Still, the limited number of opportunities presented in various games creates a sense of urgency. For example, there are only 52 cards in a deck, or the balloon game is limited to 100 or fewer balloons. Another Silveria has used at auction is the "champagne and diamond" raffle, where he limits the number of champagne glasses donors can purchase. Each glass will have a number on the bottom, one of which will be assigned to a grand prize. The drink can be customized per event. For example, a benefit auction that coincides with Cinco de Mayo could use tequila shots instead of champagne.

"It's a simple game, but you're bringing value to the client," he says. For organizations struggling to find live auction items to include in their events, Silveria said utilizing games is a great way around that problem and can even solve the issue for the organization at the following year's benefit. Something he learned from Danny Hooper, a benefit auctioneer who wrote a book about benefit auctions called "Easy Money," is using a game where 3x5 inch index cards are placed at each table. Donors are asked to write down something they would like to donate, which in Silveria's experience has been everything from dinner with a famous athlete to whiskey tasting for a party of a dozen to a trip to Mexico. Silveria and his team will review the index cards and select two to use in a live auction.

Silveria says while this can generate funds out of thin air, getting the person who has offered the item to sign an agreement is essential, ensuring they will honor their gift when it sells. Furthermore, the items not auctioned can be good starting point for the organization's next auction, alleviating the worries associated with finding items to include.

“It’s absolutely gold,” Silveria says. “If you utilize this, it will do more than pay for your fee as a consultant.”

Silveria has been rather prolific in creating content related to his profession, including blogs on the NAA website and information on his website. He’s also created a YouTube channel that puts his talents as a benefit auctioneer on a pedestal, but it’s not a vanity project. Instead, these videos help him gain clients and prep his audience for future auctions. He said he offers these videos to his clients, who can send them to their list of attendees. For games he knows he will be utilizing at the auction, the videos will give the attendees information about how they are played.

“By giving them these videos,” he said, “they get more familiar with me and promote the event…it’s also a promo (for the donors)—know before you go video."

This article is based on a session from the NAA's 2022 Conference & Show. Watch it now on The Auction Institute®.