Why I Love What I Do – A Fundraising Auctioneer's Perspective
As a professional fundraising auctioneer, I feel very fortunate and honored to help people every day. Whether it’s consulting with a client on best practices for their upcoming event or actually calling a live auction and exciting and inspiring donors to give more than possible, being a fundraising auctioneer is a calling that I find very fulfilling. When I make a visit to an organization and directly meet and interview those they serve, I create a lasting connection that not only sticks with me for a long time, but also helps me to become a true ambassador for their cause. This is really what makes a great fundraising auctioneer, that desire to become an ambassador for the cause.
By being an ambassador for the cause, I educate and inspire donors and their friends to understand the impact that their dollars have on those served. Whether it’s helping kids with cancer, animals at a local shelter or one of the thousands of other amazing causes out there today, being an ambassador is a huge honor that many individuals never get to experience. Unfortunately donors these days are so busy in their lives and their businesses that the Fundraising Auction Event is sometimes their only opportunity to learn about how they can directly make a change in the world. Sure many groups have great websites and post regular social media updates, but many times this information goes un-noticed by most of the donors. This is where the Fundraising Auctioneer/Ambassador is so crucial to the success of an event. We get to weave the story using our personal experiences and the research we conduct to excite, educate and inspire donors to feel that they are making a difference with their dollars. That is why donors give; to know they are making a difference in the world today by helping the causes they love so much.
The feeling of making a difference and having a direct impact on one individual’s life with the possibility of helping thousands more, is what sticks with a donor days, weeks, and even months after an event. When a post from their favorite organization comes up on their Facebook wall or an email about a story of a life that has been touched lands in their inbox, many times the donor thinks back to that night and the brain releases those feel good chemicals all over again strengthening the connection. Sometimes this flood of feelings will then inspire that donor to give a little bit more. When that “Save the Date” card comes in the mail 9 months after the event, that feeling of making a difference will make them put the event on their calendar as a “Do Not Miss” event and then inspire them to call their friends to fill a table so they can share in that feeling.
By helping to create this feeling in hundreds of individuals on any given evening, at any given event for an amazing organization that is doing the hard work to change the world, is why I love what I do. There are not many individuals in the world that can draw and hold a crowd’s attention, educate as well as excite, entertain as well as inspire donors to give more than they have ever thought possible. By helping all of the remarkable groups that I am honored to serve help do just that, I am able to do what I love to do.