To fill the gap left by shrinking budgets and higher costs, more organizations are utilizing events with auctions to raise the needed funds. Successful benefit auctions don't just happen, they are a planned event by a great team of workers and resources. Sometimes starting the just after the annual event to schedule an inital meeting for next year. Don't forget the Lessons Learned meeting while the event is fresh in everyone's mind, it will show areas to improve upon as well as ideas that worked well to include next year.

Your choice of an auctioneer is critical to the overall success of your event. Your auctioneer should be experienced, capable, engaging and an audience manager because two-thirds of the income will be from the live auction. The guests at the event are the celebrities and it is up to the auctioneer to bring fun and excitement to the auction guests.

Kathy Shumate Auctions offers several levels of involvement in your event planning: