Dessert Dash: A Delicious Way to Raise Money That Everyone Will Love

A sweet treat AND raising money for a good cause? That sounds like a winning combination to us! Event organizers and attendees agree: Dessert Dash auctions are fun, competitive, and great at raising money for your organization.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What a Dessert Dash is and how you can use it to raise money
• How to plan your Dessert Dash event
• How to take your Dessert Dash to the next level
• How Auctria can help your Dessert Dash be a success!

What is a Dessert Dash?
If you’ve never competed in a Dessert Dash before, you’re missing out! Each table of guests will receive a bid sheet with their table number on it. Each person at the table will add a bid and then there should be a spot for the total amount at the bottom.

When your guests first sit at their tables, let them know that the bid sheet is for bidding on a dessert from the display table! The table with the highest total bid will go first. Give them time to discuss amongst themselves to make a plan for which desserts they’ll try to grab, who their dasher will be, and how much they’d each like to bid.

Once all the bids are totaled and given to the auctioneer, they’ll announce the table with the highest bid. That table’s dasher will sprint to the dessert table to claim their prize! When they’re part of the way there, the auctioneer will announce the 2nd place table, and so on. This creates a really fun, competitive environment as everyone races to grab the dessert their table wants most!

“…some of our events, we are making between 5,000 all the way up to $25,000 for Dessert Dash.” - Gazala Uradnik of GFS Events

One of the best parts about a Dessert Dash is that it’s easy to add on to another event. If you’re having a celebratory year-end gala, this is a great way to end the night. If you’ve hosted a more traditional auction, this can be a fun way for everyone to win one last treat! The collaborative nature also encourages guests to get to know each other, which may encourage them to show up to more of your events to see each other. In general, it flows particularly well at events with seated dinners: this gives attendees time to discuss while they eat and then they can enjoy their desserts at the end. However, it can be worked into many different events, you might just need to get creative with the timeline to ensure everyone is ready to dash for their dessert!

What to Consider When Planning an Event Fundraiser

No matter what kind of event you’re planning, there are some general tips to keep in mind:

• Start sooner rather than later! There’s lots of great tools out there to help you plan a successful event (like Auctria!) and it’s always better to start early so you can handle any unexpected complications and properly generate excitement for your event.
• As the date for your event approaches, sell sponsorships & tickets through your website. This allows you to easily track inventory and alert potential attendees when tickets are running low.
• Clear communication is key! Don’t make it difficult for attendees to find where to buy tickets, or event details. Make sure they know how to bid as soon as they arrive at your event. Have lots of volunteers floating around who have been trained to answer common questions so that they can help attendees throughout the event.

The more people, or the better yet the tight people that attend the event fundraiser the better results you will have AT THE fundraiser.

What to Consider When Planning a Dessert Dash

However, there are a few considerations you might want to take into account when planning a Dessert Dash, specifically.

• As with any event where food is present, you’ll want to make sure each item is clearly labelled with the appropriate allergens. Remember, there are 9 major allergens: milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, wheat (gluten), tree nuts, shellfish, fish, and sesame. While shellfish and fish may be uncommon at a Dessert Dash, the others are quite common!
• Along with clearly labelling allergens, you might want to consider providing dessert options that accommodate specific needs, like being vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, etc.
• You’ll want to display those desserts to get your attendee’s mouths watering!
• Make sure they’re displayed prominently in your event space so everyone can look at the desserts and decide what they may want to bid on later.
• Have an engaging auctioneer and emcee! For a Dessert Dash, a good auctioneer can add excitement and up the competitive spirit with a little play-by-play commentary.
• Since guests will literally be dashing to the table to choose their dessert, keep that in mind when choosing your event space. A theater space won’t work for this activity, a large, open room where tables can be properly spaced out is key.
• Tables will be bidding as a group, so they’ll need to be able to split their desserts! It’s best to either have staff on hand to divide the dessert (and potentially serve it, if it’s to be eaten at the event) or the dessert should be easy to divide (and the tables should be provided a container to take it home in).

Take the Dessert Dash to the Next Level

Maybe you already do Dessert Dashes and want a way to spice it up—it’s important to keep things fresh for your attendees! There’s a few ways you can keep a Dessert Dash fresh and fun, or tailor it to your specific audience:

• It’s always recommended to contact local bakeries for your desserts to build community ties, but you might be able to tie your organization’s mission into the sourcing. For instance, if your organization supports children or students, perhaps you could partner with local Home Ec classes or after-school clubs to provide the desserts.
• Shake up the prizes! Swap desserts for wine and beer baskets, gift baskets from local businesses, etc.
• Don’t have a dessert for everyone. Sneaky, we know, however if you let people know up front that only the top 5 bidding tables will get desserts or something similar, it might drive higher bids.

“This is really, really great for ‘how do we raise an extra $5,000? sometimes even more.” - Auctioneer Sean Weiner

How Auctria Can Help!

Auctria has many tools to help you run your event smoothly. Use Auctria to create an event website with a custom URL using your own org and event name and then add the details about your Dessert Dash. This is a great place to showcase the names of the bakers who provided your desserts!

Want to ditch the paper bids? Set it up as a donation item on the website and place QR codes on the tables! Plus, the Tables feature that pairs with your ticket sales tracker can automatically generate your Dessert Dash tables from the dashboard. Auctria makes it easy to print paper bid sheets, create online bids, record and accept donations, and provide accurate bid totals. No fuss or stress required!

Check out Auctria's Features page to see all the customizations you can make to help your event be a success.

Check out this Oktoberfest Auctriaclient that went with a dessert approach, to great success. Bingo featured numerous thrilling games and raffles, including Dessert Bingo. The Dessert auction was a sweet success. The club created a fun bidding war where sugar cravings battled it out for the sweetest victory!

Ready to Plan Your Dessert Dash?

We hope that this helps you and your team get started when considering how to add a little competitive fun to your next fundraising event! After all, nothing gets donations flowing like a little competitive spirit to get people amped up, and it’s all the sweeter for the dessert they’ll get to enjoy after.
Want to see how other organizations are using Auctria to power their fundraisers? See what others are doing on the Auctria Public Auction and Fundraising Events page! This page features live updates with currently active events so you can see exactly how other nonprofits are running their events.