The short answer. Youth Singers of Calgary (YSC), a nonprofit performing arts organization with 500 singers, had used MobilBid at its in-person HEARTS OUT gala for three years. When the pandemic ruled out a gathering in 2021, YSC held a virtual gala, HEARTS OUT at HOME, and ran the silent auction online for 10 days before it. Overall proceeds surpassed expectations, and the silent auction alone raised as much as in previous years.
The organization
Youth Singers of Calgary gives young people in Calgary the chance to learn, explore and express themselves through music, dance and theatre. Shirley Penner founded it in 1985 with 28 junior high school students. It has grown to 500 singers, aged three and a half to adult, with 13 full- and part-time administrators and more than 30 contract artistic staff. Families and volunteers contribute upwards of 35,000 volunteer hours a year.
In 2009, YSC opened the Performing Arts Youth Centre in Calgary, a former warehouse converted into 18,000 square feet of rehearsal studios, workshops, offices, meeting rooms and a music library. Fundraising is vital to keeping all of it running.
The event: HEARTS OUT
For a decade, the HEARTS OUT gala has been YSC's major fundraising event: a formal evening of dinner and live performances, with donations, pledges and both live and silent auctions. Its proceeds are critical to the organization's finances.
The 2020 gala took place in March, days before the pandemic shut down live events. Planning for 2021 starts almost a year ahead, and in the summer of 2020 the committee decided unanimously to carry on in a virtual format. A plan for two nights, one in person and one at home, became a single virtual event as restrictions tightened: HEARTS OUT at HOME.
- Dinner at home. Two local businesses, Bonterra Trattoria and Market Basket YYC, supplied boxed meals. Guests picked them up curbside the afternoon before, with a party bag of centrepieces, favours and photo booth props.
- A live show. An almost four-hour program was streamed into homes, with welcome messages, trivia and games, live in-studio hosts, virtual performances and a live sing-along.
- A lower ticket price, which opened the event to more YSC families than ever before.
How they used MobilBid
YSC had used MobilBid for the HEARTS OUT silent auction for three years, always at in-person events and always run by volunteers. Because the volunteers already knew the platform, moving the auction online was the easier decision of the year.
- A longer auction. The silent auction opened 10 days before the gala instead of running for one evening.
- A wider audience. YSC promoted it on social media, inviting people to join by texting a code word to a dedicated phone number, so bidders didn't have to be gala guests.
- Bidding from anywhere. Bidders signed in on their phones, bid in real time and responded to outbid alerts as they arrived.
- Easy to manage. The auction coordinator uploaded items in bulk, watched bidding in real time and helped bidders with problems from the back end.
Results
HEARTS OUT at HOME was a success. In the middle of a pandemic, the overall proceeds surpassed expectations, and the silent auction proceeds alone equalled those of previous in-person years. The virtual gala also drew coverage from local news stations, raising YSC's profile with potential attendees, donors and performers.
“The (MobilBid) platform is easy to use. From uploading items in bulk to navigating throughout the auction process I can see in real time how bids are proceeding. If bidders have issues, I can quickly address them on the back end. This year we added Stripe mobile payment to collect pre-bidding credit card info to process payments immediately on closing. Having experienced that option, I will never go back to taking payment at checkout.”
Planning an online or hybrid gala?
The same auction can serve guests in the room, at home or both. Read our guide to online and hybrid auctions, see how other galas use MobilBid, or check pricing: 5.5% of silent auction sales, with a $220 minimum and a $2,500 maximum per event.
Run your next auction on MobilBid
Open a free account and build a test auction, or talk it through with us. You only pay when you run a real event: 5.5% of silent auction sales, $220 minimum, $2,500 maximum.