NEWS

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR EVENT
By Megan Yeiter

Planning a charity event? Dinner and dancing are fun and good, but the real goal is to raise money for your organization. David Goodman, of Auction Results, shares his strategy for helping attendees open their hearts – and wallets.

Stumped on how to raise more money for an upcoming event for your non-profit organization? David Goodman, founder and president of Chicago-based Auction Results, has every guest pulling out their checkbook at Chicago area charitable events.

Working hand in hand with these organizations, David built the company from the ground up, which is now one of the leading Fundraiser Benefit Auction companies in the nation. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Communications, David started working in his family’s retail liquidation business, with a focus on luxury consumer products.

David quickly realized the importance of being familiar with auction items when his family’s retail liquidation business would hire local auctioneers to liquidate leftover items. Because they didn’t understand what they were selling, the results often left a lot to be desired.  This prompted David to become an auctioneer. After attending the Missouri Auction School, David was able to get many times more the value of items during liquidation auctions by applying his deep understanding of the luxury market, which ultimately created higher sales at auction.

At the same time, David also started volunteering his skills at charity auctions for local churches, synagogues and museums that were looking to take their events to the next level, but were lacking the direction and methods for success. Using his schooling, business acumen and acquired skills to help these non-profit organizations, David was able to significantly impact the financial return at these events.  David says, “The auctions I was doing for charities were getting many times the multiple financial return than they had in the past – a light bulb went off 20 years ago that there was a real business in charity auctions and that I truly enjoyed helping others” Auction Results focus then shifted solely to benefit auctions and never looked back.  To date, Auction Results has helped to raise over $75 million for charitable causes throughout the United States.

SEEING RESULTS

Often booking events as much as one to two years in advance, David works as a key consultant by helping organizations before charity events with all aspects of the live auction.  “Part of what I do through consulting is helping the organization bring proven winning strategies to these fundraising events,” David says.

Auction Results trains and motivates client’s staff, assists in marketing and promotion, helps with guest and donor development and assists non-profit organizations in finding the right packages to be auctioned.  His consulting and ability to engage and entertain a room is the ‘secret sauce’ to David’s success. “I give them the strategies, skill sets and tools, and they put them into place and raise more money than they’ve ever raised before,” says David.

Each week David entertains anywhere from 300 to 3,000 guests at one time. Goodman says, “It’s truly a win-win situation being able to apply my love for entertaining to bring good to the world.” Getting the right people to attend, auctioning the perfect packages along with David’s knack for connecting with guests so that they want to give generously often has fundraising efforts soaring from $5,000 to $50,000 and from $100,000 to $600,000.  David recognizes that the money he raises each week truly can make a difference in peoples lives and he is delighted to work tirelessly to achieve his client’s mission critical goals.