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Galas (Elevated Events) and Auction Items

Mandy Jarvis
$organization

Hello Fellow Tessitura Users,

We are getting ready to host our second gala since coming on board with Tessitura several years ago (we don't host galas regularly) and I am trying to come up with a solid way of tracking auction items/proceeds.  I was not in charge of set up for the previous gala, and the tracking/reporting for the associated auction was seriously lacking; something that I would like to improve upon this time around.

I have search the forums here and have found a variety of solutions that different venues are using; such as using a solicitation for each item, using a premium for each item, etc.  However, none of these really generates the reporting that we will most likely need to see (i.e. winning bidder, deductible amt, non-deductible amt, total paid, etc.); basically everything that is reported on with an elevated event.  

So my question is this:  has anyone out there in the Tess Universe ever set up a gala-related auction (or a stand-alone auction for that matter) as its own elevated event?  For instance, we might have Gala 2018 elevated event as normal to track table purchases, etc., and then a separate elevated event called 'Gala 2018 Auction" - with each auction item as a level within that elevated event.

I have run this scenario briefly in Test (we are testing 14.1 at present, so this is a good time to try everything out), and it seems that all we would then need to do would be create a custom report that would allow us to report on multiple campaigns at the same time in order to run both the Gala and the Gala Auction campaigns in a single report (basically a modification of the Special Events Receipt Listing for multiple events would do).

Has anyone else done this?  Did it work?  Am I completely off-base in thinking that it might work?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Mandy 

  • $organization

    Hi Mandy,

    Through ref flag for me is that you'd have to create a lot of levels, most of which won't be reusable from year to year. I do recommend that you track auction purchases as a separate campaign, though, as those entries into your main gala campaign would activate ''attending' elevated events that will clutter your guest data. I would recommend booking the auction item info directly into the contribution you enter for the purchase; either in the contribution notes or use 3 custom fields if it's important enough, which it may be if your org does annual or more frequent auctions.

    Best

    Megan

  • $organization
    Hi Mandy
     
    I have seen contribution designations used to track auction items. They are processed in Contribution Entry and a designation is added called Auction Item #1 or Auction Item #2 and so forth. This is based upon which item # it was in the auction. The beauty of this way is that these designations can be reused for other Auctions.
     
    Either the Notes area or Custom Contribution fields are added and used to contain other details, ie what the item was etc.
     
    However, in scenarios where this has been used, the deductible and non-deductible amounts are only connected to buying entry to the Event  - the dinner component. The auction items are donated and do not have an initial cost to the organisation.
     
    Those who donated items, are processed as Gifts In Kind and either the GIK area or Custom Contribution fields are used to hold the required information.
     
    There are 10 custom fields that you can set up to be used how to wish in Contribution Entry. This information could be output using output set builder and a list. Using designations the Fund Activity Report would be good for showing the basics of who purchased the Auction Items.
     
    Cheers
    Sandra
  • $organization in reply to Megan Hall

    Hi Megan,

    Thank you for your response.  I do plan to have the auction items within their own campaign.  I will look into the custom fields.

    Mandy

  • $organization in reply to Sandra Ashby

    Hi Sandra,

    Thank you for your response.  I like the designation w/custom contribution fields idea.  I do plan to record the items' incoming details as GIK. I do think that we will need to use custom fields in order to record the FMV of each auction item so that we can correctly report those amounts to our central gift processing team on our Campus so that the tax receipts they produce will be accurate; but I will be sure to double check with our Central department before going that far down the set-up rabbit hole :).

    Thanks,

    Mandy