Charity auction checklist: the week before, the day, and the hour before doors

By the final week, the big decisions are made. What remains is execution, and execution is a checklist game. Here is the list our kind of evening actually needs, in three passes: the week before, the day, and the last hour.

The week before

• Freeze the catalogue. Final lot list with titles, descriptions, photos, estimated values, starting bids and increments. No additions after this point; late lots create errors on the night.
• Confirm every donor in writing: their lot, how they are credited, and that they know the date.
• Confirm the venue basics: projector or TV and cable, sound system with microphone, table plan, and mobile signal or wifi in the hall.
• Decide the money flow end to end: how winners pay, who reconciles, which account it lands in. Test one payment yourself.
• Brief the team: auctioneer, presenter, two bidding helpers, one money person, one photographer. One page each: names, times, tasks.
• Print: QR cards per lot, table cards, a programme with the silent-auction closing time in bold.
• Send guests a short email: doors time, how bidding works, bring a charged phone, remote bidding link if you offer it.

On the day

• Collect physical lots and display them with their QR cards. Group them where people naturally walk: near the bar beats a distant side room.
• Set up the screen and run the actual display on it for ten minutes. Check readability from the back row in real lighting.
• Sound check the microphone from the auctioneer's actual spot.
• Walk the guest journey once yourself: enter, find a lot, scan, bid on a test lot, get the outbid message. Fix whatever snags.
• Feed the volunteers before doors. Hungry helpers fade at exactly the wrong hour.

The hour before doors

• Open the silent auction in the system, so early guests can bid the moment they scan.
• Place a charged spare phone and the wifi password at the helper desk.
• Put the reserve prices, if any, in the auctioneer's notes, not on public display.
• Agree the two timing signals with the presenter: when the live block starts, and the final ten-minute countdown for the silent close.
• Assign one person as decider for anything unexpected. On the night, a quick decision beats a perfect one.

The three most-forgotten items

In practice the same three things get missed. The projector cable adapter for whoever's laptop is presenting. A clear announced closing time for the silent auction, without which there is no closing rush. And a plan for winners to actually take lots home: bags, envelopes for vouchers, and a list of who won what at the exit. Cover those and the night rarely surprises you.

Afterwards, briefly

Before you sleep: send or schedule the payment emails, thank the volunteers in the group chat, and note the final total. Everything else can wait for Monday.

If your bidding runs on auctiontool.ai, several boxes tick themselves: QR codes are generated per lot, the screen is fed automatically, the close is enforced on time, and settlement emails with payment links go out the same night. The full setup path is described in the organiser guide.