How and Why to Host a Service Auction

At my church I’ve been asked to do a lot of different things.  One of the hardest and most fun was being in charge of activities for the women.  We did all kinds of activities over the few years that I was serving these ladies.  One of my favorites of all time was putting on a SERVICE AUCTION.

It takes some organization and preparation beforehand but the end result is totally worth it.  Why would you do a service auction?  To bring people together, to share talents, to serve each other.  The list goes on and on! We’ve since revised our auction and turned it into a fundraiser for camp.  But the possibilities are endless. 

Here’s the way a service auction works is:

• Have people sign up weeks before hand for services they are willing to auction.
  This can be anything from a haircut (from a hairstylist) to walking your dog, photography session or piano lessons.
  We had all kinds of services to auction off.
• When people get to the event, put surveys on their chairs to fill out.
  They got points for things like making their bed, saying “I love you” to someone that day, taking a shower before noon, etc, etc.
• Guests total up their points and then turn them in and we give them “Bishop or Service Bucks.”
  I suggest having increments of 5, 10 & 20.
• Ask a funny guy/girl to be the auctioneer- the auctioneer I think is KEY to having a great event.
• Start each service off for bidding at 5 points.
• Give each winner a card with info on it of what they won and who it was from.
• While the auction is going, have someone record all the info on a master list.

You don’t have to do this on a grand scale- there are several ways you could take the same idea and fit them to your needs.

Our auctioneer kept us laughing the whole night!

 
We also had food during the event for people snack on.

The theme that I went with when I last hosted our service auction was a carnival.  I used bright, fun colors, had checkered linens and made fabric banners to hang.  I love having a theme with events because it makes pulling everything together easy.

Have you ever been a part of a service auction?