Using Drupal to run a Silent Auction

Introduction

The Prince Street Home and School Association runs an annual spring fund-raising event that includes a silent auction. Local businesses are canvassed to donate items, and on the night of the fund-raiser the items are displayed and each item has a bidding sheet where bidders can write their name, phone number, and a higher bid than the one above. At the end of the night the highest bidder wins the item.

Going Online

For the 2009 event we decided to open up online bidding for the items. We set a "we need to have information about everything we have donated" date of two weeks before the event and then used the open-source Drupal content management system to run the online bidding. What follows is a do-it-yourself guide for others that might want to do the same.