In my role as CEO i get a steady stream of information from folks and clients. Here is what we are seeing:

-Committees are having a harder time getting the bigger items. Avg. number of auction items is running steady but catalog value is down a bit

-More folks are killing the gala and running the auction online. Auction is where 75% of the profit from a gala is anyway so folks are telling their donors to spend the ticket money on the auction which is mostly profit.

-Heavy bidders are pulling back approx 9% while the smaller bidders are holding steady.

-A number of folks continue to post great results. We’ve seen a bunch of folks raising $40k, $30k, $50k. The trick is to offer up a compelling merchandising mix and promote the heck out of your auction.

So that’s the early word as we monitor impact from the economy. Its not pretty but its not ugly either.

But you are making a big leap if you think you’ll raise the same amount as last year without doing something different.

~Jon Carson, CEO