having fun with fundraising

I recently won a prize at an RSPCA fundraiser and decided to try earn a few more dollars for RSPCA by auctioning off my prize.

Firstly, congrats to the winner @colinnixon and thanks to @dekrazee1 @froosh @shanewilliamson @omniwolf & Kenny for bumping up the price!

Here’s my learnings:

• Auctioning stuff for charity is hard
• It takes a lot of time, correspondence, Q&A, photos etc to get people interested
• Guilting people to bid does not work
• Ebay doesn’t allow you to state that an auction is for charity unless you’re an official representative. So, I used WordPress instead. People pledged in the comments field, and the highest bidder won!
• One downside of a WordPress auction? Is wasn’t real time, and it was a little difficult to know what everyone was posting (kind of like shooting in the dark). *Curse that refresh button!*
• Probably obvious to most, but people only commit to bidding close to the end of the auction. So, when asked on twitter ‘what time does the auction close’ I stupidly said ‘Let’s say… midnight’ so we all had to wait around til bidding closed. I’m guessing I would have received more bids if it was earlier in the day.
• Whilst my midnight WordPress auction wasn’t very practical, it was a lot more fun than Ebay! It definitely had a more personal feel & I would definitely do it all again!

Thanks again to #cccsyd for a great event… and watch out – I’m already planning for next year (You think I’m joking?).

Remember, it’s never too late to donate to RSPCA! (Just add “CUPCAKES” in the ‘position’ field).