Treat your guests to some sunshine! Host an outdoor fundraising event for summer

Hosting a fundraising event at an outdoor venue can not only take advantage of the beautiful summer weather but also provide a great environment for your guests to enjoy and get involved with your fundraising activities.

Combining an outdoor component with your event schedule can create a new way to engage guests in your live and silent auctions. Pre-dinner drinks & champers outside, for example, are a great way to introduce everyone to your event and cause. This time can also be used to introduce your guests to the fundraising auction items and inform them on how they can participate or buy a ticket for pre-auction programs such as Helping Hand Group’s $10,000 Golden Hand Paddle (read more about this here).

Our team has supported and hosted hundreds of events over the last two decades and events with an outdoor component have been unique, memorable and most importantly – successful! Pictured here is our team at the Sydney Cricket Grounds and the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. We supplied and displayed a series of fundraising auction items plus ran the Ballot Bidding (classic paper-and-pen silent auction) on behalf of the fundraising event organising team as a complement to their fundraising event.

Contact our team to discuss ideas for outdoor venues in your area that could add a special touch to your next fundraising event.

Helping Hand Group specialises in providing items for fundraising auctions including holiday packages, art, signed memorabilia and experience packages designed to help fundraising event teams maximise the effectiveness of silent and live auctions.

Helping Hand Group Launches the $10,000 Golden Hand Paddle

Jumpstart your fundraising event with up to $10,000 to encourage your guests to participate in your live auction.

Introducing Helping Hand Group’s $10,000 Golden Hand Paddle.

Helping Hand Group is excited to announce a brand new add-on service for fundraising events that improves guest participation and guarantees you up to $10,000 added to your fundraising total. Named the $10,000 Golden Hand Paddle, the program is uniquely suited for fundraising events with a live auction component. It adds an exciting, fun dynamic that encourages participation in the fundraising portion of your event. Best of all, Helping Hand Group’s expert fundraising event team can facilitate the program on your behalf — as always, free of charge!

How it works:

1. The program is a raffle. At the start of your fundraising event, 100 Golden Hand tickets are sold for $100 each.

2. The Golden Hand Pot starts to grow until all tickets are sold to amass a total of $10,000. If it is not possible to sell all 100 tickets, the Golden Hand Pot becomes the total amount collected (ie. if 50 tickets are sold, the Golden Hand Pot becomes $5,000).

3. The Golden Hand Pot then becomes a prize for one lucky Golden Hand Ticket holder that is drawn out just before the start of your live auction.

4. The winner receives the amount of the Golden Hand Pot as credit that must be used in the live auction. They will also receive a special Golden Hand Paddle that they will use in the live auction to signal their bids.

5. The Golden Hand Paddle holder will add an exciting dynamic each time they hold up the Golden Hand Paddle to bid in the auction. It will entice fun back-and-forth bidding rivalries with other participants. Your auctioneer can also have fun with it when working the crowd.

6. In the end, the $10,000 is added to Bids places in your Auction, and not paid out as cash. This can increase your fundraising total by more than $10,000, as the Golden Hand Paddle winner drives up the prices of Auction prizes they win, and also those they do not!

It is essential that your team of Golden Hand ticket sellers are gregarious, love to sell and love your mission. This will help to increase the number of tickets sold and the total amount in the Golden Hand Pot. Helping Hand Group provides an expert team of fundraising event staff to sell Golden Hand tickets for you and can also work alongside eager individuals from your team to sell as many tickets as possible and set you up for success. Best of all, the $10,000 Golden Hand Paddle program is a complimentary add-on to Helping Hand Group’s fundraising event service.

Contact Helping Hand Group today to learn more about how this program can add a $10,000 boost to your next event’s fundraising total!

Helping Hand Group’s Ballot Bidding Programme and Live Auction Support Contributes to $65,000 raised

Recently, our team was out lending a helping hand in full force at Heart on My Sleeve. The event was hosted at the fantastic Luna Park in Sydney and raised over $65,000! Our team assisted the event with Dane Wheeler as the live auctioneer along with our expert fundraising auction team and Ballot Bidding® programme.

What is Ballot Bidding®?Ballot Bidding® is the classic paper-and-pen silent auction format that lists all of your auction items. Here are some of the benefits:

Cut to the chase: Ask your guests for their maximum auction bid once and eliminate back and forth “penny bidding”. Keep them tuned in to your speakers rather than constantly checking their silent auction bids.

Maximise bids for your charity: This “blind” method encourages guests to think about possible bids from other guests and encourages them to bid at or as close to as possible to their personal maximum bid. This helps to ensure your fundraising auction raises as much as possible.

Sell multiple auction items for your charity: When available, we can facilitate selling more than one of an auction item to the top bidders. Yes, that means the amount you raise multiplies!

Let us do the work: Our team will design, print, and distribute our Ballot Bidding® forms to your guests’ seats at no cost. We seamlessly incorporate all items available at your event.

Contact us for more information about how Ballot Bidding can work for your next fundraising event.


Helping Hand Group has raised and donated over $100 million for leading charities, community groups, schools, and sporting clubs since 1997. We help fundraising events with a long list of auction items and full event assistance with our electronic silent auction system, Ballot Bidding® programme, and expert fundraising event staff to help you raise more money for your special cause.

Best of all, our services come at no cost to our clients! We provide auction items on a consignment-type basis and that means no cost to your event budget. Our friendly event staff will set up item displays at your event, manage the auctions, and take care of payments, removal, and shipping. That’s how we lend a helping hand.