Banquets & Award Dinners for Universities & Alumni Associations

Your advancement office or athletic department runs polished events. You need auction items that match the energy of a banquet or award dinner, fit into a tight program, and bring in bids without adding extra work for your lean staff. Alumni donors respond to bucket-list sports, team travel, and rivalry weekends, and you want a supplier who handles the details after the gavel drops.

Bucket-list sports and travel sell at alumni and donor events. Packages tied to the Masters, bowl games, or rivalry weekends fit the interests of an older donor base. Because banquets and award dinners often run on tight schedules, each experience is presented as a concise auction item. A single package can sell more than once when the bidding is competitive, multiplying the night's impact. Golf outings and athletic fundraisers also pair well with these travel experiences, giving your audience something to bid on that extends beyond a signed jersey or dinner voucher.

Advancement offices and athletic departments are professional fundraising teams. You run polished events and expect the same from every vendor. Alumni donors tend to be older with more to spend, so the items need to feel aspirational without being complicated. What matters most is process: winner details are submitted after the event, travel certificates arrive in three to five business days, and an in-house travel team handles every booking. That keeps a lean advancement staff from getting buried in post-event logistics.

You browse over 140 experiences and reserve what you like at no cost. You pay only for the items that sell, keeping 100 percent over the listed cost. A recommended starting bid of 15 to 20 percent above cost means profit from the first bid. If an item does not sell, you owe nothing. The number of experiences depends on your audience size and the flow of your program. Items can be added even the day of the event, so last-minute ideas are never a problem.

Start by picking the experiences that match your crowd. You get a one-page PDF display and a marketing email for each item. Run your auction as usual. After the event, send the winner details and pay only for what sold. Giveback XP's travel team then contacts each winning donor, arranges the trip, and handles every question. Donors have up to two years to travel for non-event experiences, or until the event date for time-specific packages like the Kentucky Derby.

Your banquet or dinner wraps up with new revenue and no extra load on your staff. Winners walk away with a trip and a team ready to book it. You might still wonder what sells best at an alumni event or how to get big items for a gala; the questions below have their own full answers.

Common questions about banquets & award dinners for universities & alumni associations