Silent Auction Case Studies: Pistorio Foundation
THE CLIENT
The Pistorio Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, founded by Pasquale Pistorio in April 2005. It works to provide assistance to under privileged children in the field of health, nutrition, and education, by sponsoring children’s education and health and by building and improving school infrastructures. The Pistorio Foundation also supports programs for village community development.
The Pistorio Foundation has projects in five countries: Burkina Faso, Tibet (China), Thailand, Cambodia and Morocco.
THE CHALLENGE
The Pistorio Foundation Singapore Chapter held its third annual Gala Dinner on November 30th, 2010, at the Shangri-La Hotel Tower Ballroom. The “Dolce Vita” themed event was realised in partnership with the Italian Trade Commission and supported by the Italian Cultural Institute. The Organising Committee wanted to leverage the Silent Auction technology to reach their goals of raising funds at this event to support 360 under-privileged hill-tribe children in Chiang Rai, Thailand during the silent auction segment of their fund raising event.
ACTIONS
Pistorio Foundation expected about 200 guests for this event and engaged Congress Rental to provide them with the solution for the Silent Auction and Pledging segment.
Elena Pistorio, Chairman of the Organising Committee, was not sure what to expect as it was the first time they are using this fundraising technology. To give them the assurance, a producer was assigned to handle this project from the preparation stage through to the execution as a single point of contact.
As the Organising Committee had not seen pledging done previously, they were not sure if they wanted to proceed with it. To give them a better idea, Congress Rental went ahead to prepare the draft for the pledging screen for each project to show them how it would look during the presentation. After much consideration, the committee decided to give it a try as the funds were required urgently to benefit the children.
The Pistorio Foundation decided to utilize the Pledge feature to get their guests to contribute to 3 main projects, namely a long-term scholarship, a library and a computer room for a primary school in Huay Kuk, Chiang Rai.
RESULTS
Pistorio Foundation was absolutely delighted with the outcome as they reached their target for the silent auction and pledging segment for the event.
The result from the pledge was heartening as 2 of the projects exceeded the target. This was an unexpected win as this is the first time pledging was introduced for as part of their event. Pistorio Foundation was able to provide 2 children with long-term scholarship instead of 1 as initially planned.
The check-out was well managed as the summary reports were provided to the volunteers tending to the different payment modes upon closure of the auction. At the same time the guests were making the payment, invoices were provided to them, saving both time and efforts in verification of details and mailing.
VIEWS FROM OUR CLIENT
“Congress Rental was attentive to our guests’ needs and was able to provide our VIPs with their individualized smart cards at short notice when they requested to join in the excitement during the bidding.”
“Our guests reflected that it was great way to do a silent auction, as there is no need to leave their seats to bid!”
“I was very pleased with the professional service, from the pre-sales consultation, preparation through to the execution.
I am confident that I can keep the silent auction going on for longer to raise more funds, for our next event.”
Elena Pistorio, Board Member of Pistorio Foundation and Chairman of Event Organizing Committee