We donate at least three wine tastings to charity annually. Typically wine and food for 3 couples (every single time the winners have asked to bring one or two more couples!!!). They’re really fun; I open great bottles, and try classic pairings: Champagne and Caviar, Oysters and Muscadet, Foie Gras and Sauternes, Truffles and old Nebbiolo, on and on. I’ll open old birth year wines, anniversary wines, and other treasures from the cellar. Every year, as word gets out from former attendees, the wine tasting generates higher bids. Last year, we earned $5000 for Hospice by accepting both of the highest bidders ($2500 @).
This year, an acquaintance asked me to donate to a different charity, and I sent my typical description: “Join us for a fun evening of Fine Wines. Three couples can explore wines from their favorite regions, or simply enjoy a mix from our extensive wine collection. Be prepared to taste unique, rare, vintage and classic wines perfectly paired with appetizers. Guaranteed to be a memorable evening! Value: $2000.”
The response: “Talked to the auction coordinator today. She decided that your event would be better in the silent auction at a lesser amount and a more specific description of the wines and appetizers which of course would be simpler too. She didn’t feel that most people would appreciate how expensive wine could be… $ 2000 sounded like a large amount…” I think my friend was embarrassed; I thought the auction coordinator ill-mannered and unenlightened.
The good news: while the offer was rejected, a brief description had made it into the introduction email to attendees. Someone texted me from the event wondering why it wasn’t in the actual auction. I told them it had been rejected. I had them donate $2000 to the charity, and we’ll have a fantastic tasting (this time 5 couples; it happens every time!).
Thank you for your donations to Hospice, some of us get it.
Unfortunately, many of the “auction coordinators” have no clue about the value. Hospice is a great charity to donate. I had a similar situation happen this year. My donation in 2017 raised about $25K for two lots (burgs). Donation this year was also 2 lots (again burgs), however they decided to break up the lots into more than 6, 4 in the silent auction, the silent auction flopped, and it was a total fiasco. My mistake was specifically not stating two lots for the auction.
I have done something similar for the school, public, that my son use to attend. It was not at this level of seriousness, maybe $250 and we would serve six wines (some Chablis, SB, Pinot, Cab, and so on), as well as food. Even so, we got a similar response, might be too pricey for people. We ended up doing two, one still less expensive, and the whole thing ended up wonderfully: the people who bid in each were interesting and were very into both the wine and the food.
Wow. I do this in my rinky town in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania for my daughters theater charity. Every year we get 2500 minimum for dinner for six with wine pairing. Granted the bidders are usually the same ten wealthy families but thats just assinine.
It was a nice outcome, in spite of the auction coordinator. But she may have had a point - some people think that Meiomi is fine wine and if you get some frozen burgers and pizza from Costco and pair that with a bottle of Meiomi or the Prisoner, that’s good enough.
I’ve learned that the hard way too. Right now my wife is working on doing some fund-raising for a local college. She’s done a lot of this and suggested contacting some corporations and businesses that might be willing to donate items for auction. She suggested that they start early and try to keep things under $500, based on the likely donors and participants. So she got an e-mail this morning thanking her for her offer to match every $500 donation.
We’re not going to do that. Your outcome was better Warren - this is going to be a train wreck.
Two grand is a lot of money to spend on a charity event and I can’t imagine doing it unless I had wads of free cash to toss. I think you handled this well, but maybe by offering a slim-downed version, MORE people might bid on it besides the wealthiest donors? Charity, like wealth, is nice to spread around.
That’s too bad; we all want our donations to raise the most $ possible. The auction that rejected the donation wasn’t Hospice; it was an non-denominational interfaith charity raising funds to lift homeless families out of poverty and into homes. We also donate to Hospice, our hospital foundation, and a local school each year. I’ve never had any issues with any of the others
It’s typically split amongst three to five couples, rarely paid by one individual. I’d prefer to have four big charity wine functions annually than multiple small ones. It takes a whole day to organize these, and a good week of prep, getting caviar, foie gras, oysters, truffles, stilton…
I had always been told by my mentor that auctions are opportunities for people to buy wines at deflated prices.
I have had at least 3 of these experiences - some of late - and I have ended my “career” in auction donations. Just doesn’t feel good - would rather write a check to the charity. And I already do plenty of that.
It depends on the crowd I guess. The local charity auctions near me are not big city DC/NY type events, and the wines often go for below retail or typical auction prices. I long ago stopped donating wines and switched to bidding up the deserving lots.
My favorite trick lately when I win a hotly contested silent auction is to offer to make the donation but defer the wine to the next highest bidder. The charity gets almost double the high bid and the underbidder gets a surprise win.
Great job Warren but you will be punished for your generosity. There are a lot people needing/wanting donations for various charities in this day and age. We used to ship cigars to military units in the middle east until some CA politician got a law passed that we can’t donate cigars. Booze, firearms, explosive devices, no problem. By CA law, we can only “give” away a 2% value of wine we sell retail. That covers four schools, two non-profits and two in-house events, AND, if the charity event is held at a school or church, you may not participate or be prosecuted.
On the other side, I have picked up some great wines at auctions that the attendees have no knowledge of and alligator arms can’t find money. 1999 CVV Eloge Magnum. Mine for $75. 2015 Gallica Cabernet, $65. Worse, if somebody else got those wines they would not have been appreciated.
There are some who view charity auctions as a way to obtain “deals” and not to raise money for the charity. I have seen this too may times on wine lots.
David, I did the same several times at school auctions; have a shill get the prices to a high level for a stellar wine dinner in the winners’ homes and then double the take by offering it to the second highest bidder as well.
The subsequent years at the same school no shill was needed.
An interesting fund raising amusement was watching the same bottles show up at subsequent auctions. Frequently they were the right labels from poor vintages.
For silent auction wines, label recognition is critical along with a strong opening bid and goose or two. Honk! Honk!
But surely the goal is to get the highest possible bid/donation for the charity rather than having more people bidding a lower amount? The charity is not the bidders, it’s the cause.
This was my thought too. I think what you’re trying to say, Markus, is that folks want to give and if there are good things to give for at lower amounts it brings in more donors. But you can just make a donation, too, and it’s about generating the most money possible for the charity. The charity is donee, the “bidder” is not the donee.
My other thought was that these wine auction deals always go for way, way more money when they’re a live auction and peer pressure and generosity and competitiveness all collide. I donate wine tastings to Big Brothers Big Sisters, and they saw a 5X increase in bid price simply by moving it from silent auction to live auction item.
For those who are submitting their wine/dinner to the charity, are you yourself taking a charity deduction for your “outlay”? And if so are you basing your deduction on the gavel outcome?
Not that these deductions will count with the change in US tax law, but in the past I have valued the wine I’ve donated to charity auctions before donation and based the deduction on that. Never auction sale price. (I’ve never had live auction items like a wine dinner might be.)
I’ve donated a good amount of very good wine to school auctions over the last 10+ years, and my recollection is the final auction price is always higher, sometimes considerably higher, than true auction or retail price.
I had a similar experience a few years ago after about 10 successful ones. Took some wind out of our sails but would do again for the right cause or target group.
Donations of appreciated wines are generally a bad deal for the donor. Wine is a collectible, so if you donate it to a charity and it is either (a) used by the charity in its exempt purpose but sold by the charity within 3 years of the donation or (b) not used by the charity in its exempt purpose, the charitable deduction is generally limited to your cost paid for the wine.
For example, if you donate a 1996 Lafite to be sold at a charitable fund raising auction that you bought for $150 and that is worth $1,000, your deduction is $150.
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