How to Make Item Procurement Easy with OneCause
Auctions can be an exciting and rewarding way to raise money for your cause, but gathering the right items can often feel like a challenge. Between the endless calls, tracking down item donations, and organizing auction packages, the procurement process can become time-consuming and overwhelming.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way! OneCause offers innovative solutions to streamline the procurement process, saving you time and making it easier for your team to secure the best items for your next auction.
Let’s explore how OneCause simplifies your item procurement—from start to finish, all in one place.
Centralize Your Procurement Process
The OneCause Fundraising Platform centralizes the entire item procurement process, giving your team full visibility and control every step of the way. Whether you’re collecting donated items or adding items to your event site, your team has full visibility into your auction items.
Having this system in place eliminates any confusion in handling written lists, scattered notes, and possible miscommunication. From procurement to your auction setup, all your data is stored in one spot for easy access and future use.
Streamline Item Donations
Collecting auction items doesn’t have to be a hassle. With OneCause, your supporters can quickly and easily complete a form to donate potential auction items. These appear immediately in your fundraising software.
In addition to collecting basic information, donors can upload other details, including:
- Whether a company is donating an item
- The donor name they wish to be publicly displayed
- A description of the item being donated
- Images that could be used in the auction
- If the item will be dropped off or picked up
Once submitted, the donation details automatically update in your auction, saving you time and ensuring nothing is missed. The platform also helps you track item donations in real-time, so you’re always up to date on which items have been donated and which items are still needed.
Streamlining your item donations is an effortless way to gather your auction items while making sure your supporters feel appreciated for their contributions.
Track and Manage Items
When it comes to making auction item requests, nonprofits often reach out to long-time supporters and potential sponsors. However, keeping track of each item donation and its status updates can become a balancing act.
The OneCause item procurement tool makes it easy to track and manage every item as it moves through the process by providing you with status updates. As volunteers enter items, you’ll be able to see their status in real time. You’ll know exactly where each donation stands, with items organized by the following categories:
- Newly Submitted: Just added and ready to be reviewed.
- Needs Requested: Donations still pending your ask.
- Requested: Items you’ve asked for and are awaiting a response.
- Committed: Donors have confirmed their item donation.
- Awaiting Pick-Up: Items waiting to be collected.
- In-Transit: Items on their way to you.
- Received: Donations that have arrived.
- Declined: Donations that won’t be added to your auction. Time to find a replacement or make another request!
A streamlined process also helps prevent duplicate donations or purchasing excess items to save your organization time and resources. With visibility to manage your items, adjust your strategy as needed to keep any auction preparations on track.
Enter Items Your Way
There’s no one right way to enter auction items into the OneCause Fundraising Platform. Since each nonprofit approaches this task differently, OneCause offers multiple ways to build and manage your auction.
For example, if you prefer to build your auction in a spreadsheet and then upload that data, we got you covered! This approach also saves time and ensures all items are accurately displayed within the platform.
Whichever path you choose, know that OneCause empowers you to streamline your efforts, making it easier to build the perfect auction.
Filter Items to Stay Organized
As your auction grows, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. However, with OneCause, staying organized is an effortless task!
Our easy-to-use, built-in filters help you see exactly which items are ready to go and which ones need a little more love. Start with a general filter to see certain items and then narrow it down by specific details to focus on which items need your attention. For example, items with missing information can be further filtered by:
- Missing images
- Missing descriptions
- $0 value
- No donor listed
No more last-minute scrambling to get everything ready – with OneCause, it’s easy to keep your item procurement running smoothly.
Access Auction Items Anywhere
OneCause is 100% mobile-optimized for you to manage item procurement from anywhere. Whether you’re meeting with donors or coordinating logistics, you’ll always have access to your tools from any device.
- Out meeting with donors? Take a photos from your phone and upload them with their corresponding item instantly.
- Picking up item donations? Update the status in real-time from your iPad as you go.
- On your laptop? View and edit item details for your auction.
Procuring items on the go is a game changer. No matter where you are, keep the momentum going and make your next auction the easiest one yet.
Save Time with AI
OneCause offers AI-generated descriptions to help you save up to 8 hours in building your auction while still engaging potential bidders. Stronger descriptions attract more people, drive more engagement, and elevate your revenue!
The auction description generator takes the guesswork out of crafting detailed and enticing descriptions for each of your items. By simply inputting the item name, category, and any additional details you feel are relevant, the AI tool generates descriptions tailored to each item.
While AI does much of the heavy lifting, your organization still has the power to edit, rewrite, or delete the copy before publishing. The AI tools simply make the planning process easier and quicker for you.
Maximize Other AI Tools
To make the most of your efforts, the OneCause Fundraising Platform includes even more AI-powered tools to elevate your auction. When an auction item is viewed, our Recommended Lots feature serves up similar auction items in which the bidder would likely be interested. Suggested Sort, another example of AI, learns the bidding behavior of individual guests and reorders their view of the auction, bringing those items most likely to interest them to the very top. In each instance, AI helps drive more auction engagement and event proceeds.
And when planning your charity auction event, the Event Readiness feature reviews real-time information that you’ve entered into the platform and then provides you with a roadmap of tasks and milestones to stay on track.
Both tasks and milestones are prioritized by the following event details:
- Site promotion date
- Ticket sales date
- Raffles date
- Auction date
- Event date
Any time key dates change, the software will instantly adjust your tasks and milestones to keep everything aligned with your auction timeline.
Finally, our AI Guide is also available 24/7 to provide real-time, contextual help for your auction. Beyond our award-winning support team, it can serve an unlimited number of organizations simultaneously. Whether you have questions about item entry or need assistance on optimizing your auction, the AI Guide is always there to assist you.
Wrapping Up
From gathering donations to organizing and tracking items, OneCause makes it easy for you to focus on your mission. Our fundraising software equips you with powerful tools, mobile access, and AI-powered features to help your team stay organized and make your next auction a success!
Check out more auction-related resources.
