Wanted: higher bidders in SF

Last night my sister and I attended Discarded to Divine, a fashion show and auction fundraiser for St Vincent de Paul Society. I was tipped off that this fine event was upcoming by idealbite.com. The clothing for this show and auction was created by local designers from discarded clothing at St Vincent de Paul and other donation centers.

The runway.

The flounce on this dress moved so well when the model walked. It won best of women's day-wear.

This dress was made from women's nylons. Amazing.

The dress in this pair was made from 22 pairs of women's jeans and 100 yards of tulle. 

Overall, my sister and I had a good time participating in the silent auction (I was outbid on two dresses - darn!), sampling the wine and hors d'oevres, and then attending the fashion show and live auction. The disappointing part of the evening was the live auction bidding. After a few bid rounds it became clear that there were only about 5-6 high bidders in the room of hundreds of attendees. That said, I can't claim to be in that echelon of high bidders myself. Anyways, as we watched amazing design after amazing design bid out at below its valuation - it started to feel just tragic. Most tragic was the Jessica McClintock original that received one bid of $1K that the organizers refused to sell at that price (it was valued at $10K).

This is only the 3rd year for this fundraiser so they seem to be improving year over year. I'm no expert on fundraising or auctions but here's some thoughts I had on what might improve the live bidding:

1. Find the high rollers and figure out how to attract them to the show. It's silicon valley for goodness sake, find the tech money and get them to the show. Better yet, get their fashion hungry wives/girlfriends there with free reign of the credit cards...it's a tax write-off after all.
   
2. Require the fashions are designed in 'average person' size. Some of the most amazing designs were in sizes 2-6 for women (which fit maybe 15% of the women in the room). Gearing the designs for sizes 8-10 would have probably opened up the bidding a little wider.
   
3. It appeared that some effort was made to stack the offerings from low to high, but more effort needs to be put in to do this accurately. Bidding builds on itself so you want that yes, yes, yes, higher, higher, higher continuation. It was such a downer to see one item run up, then the next item not even make opening bid. 
4. When possible, focus on the speculative benefits of acquiring designs from the winning design school entrants. If those designers go on to become 'brand names' then that one-of-a-kind original from way back may become worth something. To some people a resale value might speak louder than 'for a good cause'. Liken it to collecting art.