Top-flight gifts attract more cash for causes.DURING his 21 years as an executive at American Airlines American Airlines Major U.S. airline. American was created through a merger of several smaller U.S. airlines and incorporated in 1934. It continued to buy the routes of other airlines, becoming an international carrier in the 1970s; its routes include South America, the and Qantas, Scott Merrin got a lot of letters from non-profit organizations A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes. looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. complimentary tickets complimentary ticket n → billet m de faveur complimentary ticket n → biglietto d'omaggio that could be auctioned for fundraising. The letters often weren't addressed to a specific person; and Merrin had the impression that the nonprofits didn't know how to go about approaching airlines. So six years ago he founded Silent Partners Inc. The key, he decided, would be to get big-ticket items--travel and tourism packages, sports memorabilia The term sports memorabilia usually refers to anything that can be directly connected to a sports event or personality. These items are generally gathered by fans of the particular sport, athlete or team that the item signifies or by collectors who find value in the rarity , spa weekends, golf foursomes A Foursomes match is a type of golf match.It takes place between two teams of two golfers. The golfers on the same team take alternate shots throughout the match, with the same ball. Each hole is won by the team that completes the hole in the fewest shots. at country clubs--to attract big-bucks donors to silent auctions. The company has grown from five employees last year to 11 this year and he hopes to double its revenues through online auctions. "We have a database of companies that will donate money to non-profit organizations. Most non-profits will host a black-tie event, but often times they're unable to procure items that will sell at a silent auction. The problem is non-profits usually only procure local items, which often times do not attract donors. "Our forte is to help non-profits make more money for their cause and we are able to do this by securing airline tickets and hotel stays all over the world that people are willing to spend top-dollar on. We procure unusual items that sell. We help them write letters to obtain quality donations and explain what their cause is all about. We help them write a better letter. "The donors are looking for a certain criteria. When I was in the airline business, I was looking for high-end clients who were hosting events for affluent crowds, celebrities, corporate sponsors or honorees of note. This type of criteria would twist my arm to donate to an event. "Donors are looking for exposure. If a donor feels that they'll attract exposure, then they are more likely to donate to non-profit organizations. We have a worldwide database of hotel stays and airfare. For example, stays in Greece are what grab a donors' attention. "Our projected sales for 2004 are about $4 million. In 2003 our revenue was $1.7 million. We charge our clients a minimum of $12,000 to do a complete auction solution. In this package we develop a donor request letter, create auction donation forms, pick up the auction items, catalog all the items, create the bid sheets, create an auction catalog An auction catalog is a catalog that lists items to be sold at an auction. Auction catalogs for rare and expensive items, such as art, jewelry, postage stamps, and antique furniture, are of interest in and of themselves, for they will frequently include detailed descriptions of the and set up and display all items. "An online auction is $6,000 plus 30 percent of the gross sales Gross Sales A measure of overall sales that isn't adjusted for customer discounts or returns, calculated simply by adding all sales invoices, and not including operating expenses, cost of goods sold, payment of taxes, or any other charge. . We recently launched our new online division using eBay and the response has been tremendous." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion