SchoolAuction.net Reviews & Product Details

I have been running school silent auctions for over 10 years and have used a variety of tools to do so. This is by far the best product we've ever used. From guest management to ease of checkout to donor item entry, everything is a breeze. The customer service is outstanding....questions and concerns are answered promptly and every "emergency" situation has been well thought out and solutions provided. Thank you, SchoolAuction.net for an amazing product that exceeded our expectations! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing! You're missing out if you don't purchase today. I promise, you won't regret it! This tool is useful in so many ways for so many different kinds of events and initiatives! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about SchoolAuction.net is their incredible customer service. I’ve used the platform for three years for our biggest fundraising event, and while parts of the system can take some getting used to, their support team is always responsive, patient, and kind — even when I’m peppering them with a million questions. They make me look good, and that’s no small thing during a high-pressure event! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike about SchoolAuction.net is that there are some backend tasks I can’t do myself — like removing a seat from a ticket order — and I have to reach out to customer service for help. Thankfully, their team is amazing, but it would be nice to have more control over those edits. Also, while it’s great that you can carry over data from previous years, I wish there were a way to easily hide non-returning guests or items — it can get cluttered quickly, and being able to filter out what you don’t need would make a big difference. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We've been using SchoolAuction since 2017 and we love it! SchoolAuction is an online platform that was created to be self-taught and user-friendly. There is a help widget on every page with access to support documents and videos. On the auction side: It's easy to track items, make lots, print bid sheets & signs, send donor thank yous, etc. It has everything you need, including the option of hosting online auctions and mobile bidding. On the ticket sales side: It's easy to set up sponsor packets, create linked accounts (with one bidder number), track unassigned tickets, etc. Guests vault a credit card during the self-check-in process. During the event, all sales are tracked with bidder numbers; at the end of the event, everyone who made a purchase is sent a self-check-out payment link so they can settle their account using their phone. It makes things so easy! I'll be forever grateful to this software for saving us from the nightmare check-out lines we used to have at the end of an event. Since cards are vaulted, processing payments after the event for anyone who didn't do it themselves is also easy. The landing page is simple for our guests to navigate, and the catalog page allows them to get a sneak peek of the auction items. I also appreciate that they have other platform names which are more appropriate if you aren't a school. Our platform is called Tofino, but it's the same product. Another fantastic feature is that they allow access to all your databases of past events. I have found this to be extremely helpful. Every year I find myself looking back at one thing or another. You can also migrate your data from one year to the next, so you don't have to start from scratch when creating a new event. After the event, there are reports which can be generated to see all sales. We use it for our main gala as well as several online fundraisers. Every year they seem to add new things that improve the product. This year they added an AI feature to help write auction item descriptions! That's my favorite new feature. It can be hard to come up with creative ways to describe items over and over. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I don't really have any complaints. Our first year it was a little slow going getting things set up because you have learn as you go and tech support is done strictly via email (unless you pay for one of the premium tiers). Now we've been using it for years so there aren't too many surprises. Every once in a while we have an issue and it can be frustrating trying to get your point across when it's all done via email. However, they respond quickly and stick with it until a resolution is found. The head of the organization is very accessible and makes himself available for training sessions and troubleshooting. The night of your event, they provide a phone number for on-call support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Donors can submit donation items online and they go straight to the catalog after review. We can quickly email receipts. We can attach gift certificates automatically to email receipts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It would be helpful to have richer email features for contacting potential donors - more options for adding custom variables, adding different invitation to donate emails for different businesses. The catalog search on the bidder side could be better. Ticketing is tricky when capacity is tight - we need to switch off couples tickets and manually link attendees after ticket purchase. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Setting up the auction was simple, and the reporting tools were great. It generated presentations and the silent auction cards exactly how we wanted them. It was also easy to close out any outstanding payments needed and also see all financial information from the event. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It was a little confusing for our customers on their accounts, especially when a family wanted to share a bid number or have separate ones. We were able to figure those out case by case, but it was hard to get customers to get it done on their own. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The price is right and online auction looks great and is user friendly. It's nice that returning users already have an account, so people that have been at the school for years can login and get bidding. I really like the platform and ease of use. I love that I can see historical data and that my event can be migrated over every year, no re-inventing the wheel for the same annual online auction each year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Customer support varies. Sometimes you get wonderful help, and other times someone sends you a link to look up your answer, when in auction season is not super helpful. One downside of SchoolAuction.net is that you cannot see max high bids. With Greater Giving we were able to see this information, which would help in Development to know the capacity of a donor at that moment in time. It is also very unfortunate that it does not talk to Raisers Edge and we have to manually input our data from School Auction into Raisers Edge, which is time-consuming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The user interface is streamlined while still giving all the needed options for customization. Also, their live and recorded training makes implementation very easy. I especially liked how the system printed paddle numbers with QR code for self-checkout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is nothing I dislike about the system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The usefulness of the website, the seamless function the night of, and the customer service Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only thing we would as is the ability to drag and drop photos straight into each item in the catalogue (adding photos one by one to 200 items takes a long time,)

I would also love if there was an option to type in from the catalogue screen as if it were an excel sheet - being able to update the descriptions and other information without having to go into each individual item Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

the program is flexible with paper and online auctions. The texting feature has made it more accessible to guests. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We used the online auction feature at a recent event. some users had difficulty bidding in the online auction and gave up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The training webinars they offered 3 times/week Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Not near as intuitive as it could be. Too many steps to accomplish basic tasks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.