First you will need to contact your cable company or your local cable access
station to see if they are willing to host a nonprofit fund-raiser for
your group. We have used both with success.
Once you have secured the TV station and date, your organization will need to
have solicitors to go out and collect items donated by companies within your
neighborhood.
These items will be keyed into a database by a few volunteers and
given a unique item number. Many users may access this data. It is a Client/Server environment. This
means that you will need at least two computers for this fund raiser. The rest
of the computers will be rented for the event.
Prior to the event a few volunteers will organize these items into lots
containing a maximum of 10 items. These items are usually stored in big tubs or
bins. Then one person will update the database, to reflect these lots.
The day of the event you will have rented about 14 computers to manage the
data. You will also need a large number of volunteers to manage the items and
computers.
We usually have 4 people on
computers at the entrance which act as Cashiers
and Information. In addition, you will need two or three more people to take the
money and handle the charge cards. 3 or 4 people are located at the distribution
center to hand out the items, once they are paid for. (no computers at this
location).
8 computers and volunteers are located in eye sight of the stage
which take the phone bids. 4 people handle the items behind the stage. 2 people
on TV announce and read scripts about the items.
One
computer controls the entire auction. The items being auctioned, the winners and
the sponsors will be displayed to the TV audience so there is no need to call
the winners back. The auctioned item will
be displayed just above the banners and to the right of the clock.
1 computer will handle any last minute changes and print out the
scripts, donor cards and certificates.
Sales information
