Silent and Live Auctions

Lauren Furgason

How should I apply live and silent auction items to constituents at events? Should they be included as a registration fee, or is there another method?

Karen Diener

@Lauren Furgason:

How should I apply live and silent auction items to constituents at events? Should they be included as a registration fee, or is there another method?

Welcome to the Blackbaud community.

This is an organization policy.

I've always worked in organizations where all event fees ended up being gifts on the constituent record. This included the amount they paid for a live or silent auction item. In this scenario, the receipt amount should always be updated to reflect the tax deductible portion for the donor.

Some organizations do not like having event contributions show on the gift tab because it does not reflect true philanthropic giving. The exception would probably be a donation in lieu of attendance. The webview gift summary tiles for constituents are misleading if you do not want to include event-related gifts - there is no way to adjust that and remove them from the summary. For that reason, they add live and silent auction items to the participant record only, so that they do not appear on the gift tab.

You'll (hopefully) get additional details from others on your question. Regardless, it is an organization decision.