There is a growing trend in Homer. It isn’t fund-raising. People have been doing that for years. It isn’t really auctions. Those have been around as well. It’s the combination of the two, with a little technology thrown in.
Online benefit auctions have arrived in Homer. For the past couple of years local groups have begun to experiment with the new fund-raising tool. Tom Sulczynski, owner and operator of the local technology company, Cosmic Hamlet, has set up on-line auctions for the Bunnell Street Gallery, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies and Friends of the Homer Library.
Sulczynski said that he started setting up the auctions with the gallery’s “Plate Project” last year. From that Web site he created a template that can be used for other auctions. Most recently, the Friends of the Homer Library. Sulczynski is able to set up multiple Web pages so that different groups can use his services to run auctions simultaneously.
“I end up putting in a lot of volunteer hours to make it happen,” he said. “I’d rather not even add the hours up.”
For the FHL 4th annual auction last Saturday at the Homestead Restaurant, Sulczynski set up a wireless system for bidding on 22 of the auction items. People were able to continue bidding online at the same time that people were bidding live at the restaurant.
Last year FHL allowed people to bid up until the event, but not during.
“I think every year we discuss how we’d like to make the event a little different,” said Claudia Haines, with FHL.
Haines said that the real asset for having an auction online is that people can look at the items before attending the live auction. It stimulates interest in the actual event, she said. Also, when items are posted online, they are linked to the Web site of the donor, providing advertising for the local businesses and artists that support the auction.
Although, Haines said that most people readily contributed to the auction.
“I think that’s because people really believe in the library,” she said.
Because the new library will have up-to-date technology, Haines said that it was nice to use technology for its fund-raising event.
Haines said that the auctioned items raised nearly $11,000 for the library.
Kat Haber, board president for the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, said that online auctions are working well for the center. The center closes their “Spring Fling” online benefit auction at 4 p.m. today. This is the second online auction for the center, and unlike the library, there will be no opportunity to bid at the closing event held at Stas Oyster Bar and Fish House.
“We just felt like we wanted to do a very simple event,” said Haber. “We wanted to try something different this time.”
The center’s first online auction was last fall’s annual “Marine Migration” auction, which takes place across Kachemak Bay. Because the event is limited to 60 people, Haber said that holding the auction online gave more people an opportunity to support the center.
The online auction allows people not only to bid on items, but to learn about the center through its Web site. Haber said this creates a much greater awareness of what the center does.
Haber said that the center has yet to decide how successful the online auctions are and how they will conduct them over the next few years.
“It’s still somewhat of an experiment for us as well,” she said.
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