Artwork is one of the most mishandled items when it comes to charity auctions.

Donated art comes in many shapes and sizes—from paintings, to sculptures, to crocheted items, to painted surfboards. We’ve seen far too many nonprofits fail to understand how to raise money with these types of donations. We’ve also seen countless organizations fail to handle these donations with respect.

So whether you're including a few art pieces in a general auction or running a dedicated art auction, we have expert strategies for sourcing artwork and raising more per art piece.

We’ve included some amazing examples of art auctions in this article, including:

ArtReach Charity Art Auction
New York Comic Con Charity Art Auction
Saffron Centre Gala

Should You Include Art In Your Auction?

Before we get into strategies, consider whether it’s a good idea to include art in your fundraising event in the first place. Ask yourself:

Do your donors appreciate art?

If your donor base appreciates and collects art, then art is a great asset at your auction or event. Some demographics are more artistic and enjoy collecting art, but other demographics may have different interests like the outdoors, technology, and entertainment.

Different regions also have different tastes in art (some are more traditional while some appreciate modern art), so do some light research on your local art culture.

Can you secure art at your donor’s price range?

The value of art varies widely, and you should take your donors’ budgets into account when sourcing art.

If your average donor donates $100 at a time but you’ve found pieces worth over $1,000, those pieces aren't right for them. Or if you have high-end donors who hang $10,000 pieces on their walls but you can only secure $200 pieces from hobbyists, that’s also not a good fit for your auction.

Should You Host an Art-Only Auction?

What if you want to run a charity auction dedicated entirely to art? Ask yourself these questions:

Are you an art organization?

It’s easier to pull off an auction fully dedicated to art if art is connected to your mission. You already know your entire donor base is interested in art and supporting artists.

Is your organization the right size?

If you’re not an art organization, charity art auctions work best for medium to large organizations. Many art auctions tend to be prestigious events, which can be costly for small nonprofits.

If you’re still small-scale, consider a different type of fundraiser or try auctioning different items.

Do you have the budget for a fine art auction?

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How to Request Art for Your Charity Auction

Some donors will respond to general donation requests by donating art pieces they’ve bought. But special care needs to be taken for sourcing art directly from artists.

Without a clear plan, artists won’t trust that you’ll treat their work with respect, and they won’t want to donate. Or worse, you’ll be left with an angry donor if their piece doesn’t sell for what they expected.

When requesting art, ask artists to set their own starting bids. It’s better to return a piece that doesn’t sell for their minimum starting bid than to sell it for far under its value.

Here a few additional tips for sourcing art:

Don’t tell artists that your auction is great for exposure. Auctions usually do not provide sufficient exposure and networking for artists. Instead, ask them to donate their art to support a good cause.
Be prepared to handle art delicately. When reaching out to artists, let them know how you intend to handle transport and shipping.
Look up your local laws on tax deductions for donations of art. Harriete Berman provides some guidance for U.S. art auctions.

How to Auction Art at a Charity Auction: 10 Strategies

1. Offer art that’s relevant to your mission or story.

We’ve listed this strategy first because it’s the single most effective strategy for selling artwork at auctions.

For example, if you’re a bird conservation organization, a painting of an endangered hawk is perfect for your auction. If you’re an elementary school PTA, the hawk painting might be a bit random for your donors. You’d want to offer class art projects instead—that’s highly relevant and desirable to parents.

So when you’re requesting artwork from artists or donors, ask for art that’s relevant to your mission. And don’t be afraid to turn down artwork that’s not relevant. Explain to the donor that while you appreciate the offer, you may struggle to sell it for a good price with your audience.

2. Source from artists with a name.

Unknown hobbyist artists usually don’t drive competitive bidding (unless their artwork is highly relevant!). A big factor that gives art its value and desirability is how popular the artist is.

So reach out to artists who’ve established names for themselves. You’ll use your time more effectively by offering their higher value pieces (and these artists are more likely to be able to afford to donate). Reach out locally to big-name artists near you, or search for artists on social media with decent followings who may care about your cause.

3. Partner with an art gallery or industry niche.

It’s okay if you don’t have connections to artists or don’t have a big pool of art fans—you can partner with someone who does. This could be a local art gallery, an art museum, or an industry-specific organization.

When we say “industries,” we’re talking about specific art niches like:

Movie, TV, & Hollywood art
Comic book art
Video game & RPG art
Collectible card art (Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, etc.)
Street art
Digital art

So potential industry partners could be a comic book convention, an anime convention, an official street art club, a movie museum, or a video game studio.

What’s great about partnering with another organization is that you can utilize their audience. So partnering with a convention would take advantage of the convention’s attendees, not your donor list.

Local art galleries can utilize their audience to help host an art auction.

4. Price the art correctly.

Nonprofits are notorious for underselling art at auctions, and therefore disrespecting the artists who donated. Again, it’s better to return the art to the donor than to auction it at a rudely low price.

As explained above, for art received straight from the artist, you should ask them what starting bid they’re comfortable with and what the fair market value (or estimated value) is.

When pricing art, also take into account:

Artist name. Research the name of the artist for artwork donated by art owners.
Original vs. print. A print is a printed copy of an original.
Provenance. Provenance means who owned the artwork previously. If the art was previously owned by someone famous, that increases the value.
Hobbyists vs. professionals. Generally, hobbyists will price lower than professional artists.

Consider recruiting an art evaluator for high-end artwork.

5. Preview the art before the auction.

Any charity auction should involve a preview of its items so donors can plan their purchases ahead of time.

There are a few options for offering previews:

If you’re using auction software, publish your auction page early so donors can browse the artwork and other items. Share the link to the auction page publicly.
If you’re partnering with a gallery, ask if they can display your artists’ work for a period of time before the auction. They can post information about your auction beside each piece to let visitors know how to purchase the art.
Post your item catalog on your website or on social media for anyone to view.

6. Hire an auctioneer that knows about art.

If art is a main attraction, your auctioneer should know a thing or two about art! Any art collectors in your audience will immediately catch on if your auctioneer doesn’t know about the piece they’re auctioning off—and they won’t bid.

7. Feature live painting.

Having artists paint live is a great addition to in-person auctions and galas. Donors love to see the process behind the art they’re buying—it adds a story to the purchase!

See if any of your artists perform live paintings and ask if they’d be interested in participating in a live session for your event.

Some artists perform live paintings for events.

8. Display art properly.

Art pieces earn more when they’re displayed with care. Proper displays make the art look more attractive and increase its perceived value. For prestigious events with high-end artwork, this is especially important.

Use gallery-style lighting.
Use stands when displaying on tables.
Don’t clutter art together. Give each piece its appropriate space.
Use clean, uncluttered walls if hanging the art.
Display descriptions that include: piece name, artist name, & description.

DON’T display art by leaning it against the wall on a folding table or by hiding it behind other cluttered auction items.

Also consider asking to borrow display materials like stands from donors.

9. Use a theme.

You might pique your donors’ interest by hosting an art auction with a specific theme. Themes always catch people’s attention more than generic events.

Here are some examples of themes that could resonate with your donors:

Black art
Hispanic art
Asian art
Women artists
Sustainable art
Multimedia canvases & materials
Celebrity portraits
Car art

10. Educate your bidders on tax deductions for art.

Many donors are more motivated to bid when they know what their deductions are for taxes.

For winners of artwork, if the bidder pays $1,000 for a piece appraised at $600, they can deduct the $400 difference as a charitable contribution. It can be worth it to share that any money spent above the art’s estimated value earns tax deductions.

Check out the tax deduction rules and a checklist for U.S. auctions here.

Check out the tax deduction rules and a checklist for Canadian auctions here.

Examples of Successful Charity Art Auctions (& What They Did Right)

Take a look at these examples of successful charity art auctions and auctions that included art. (We’ve included links so you can go support the organizations as well!)

1. ArtReach (San Diego, US)

Art nonprofits should take notes from ArtReach’s annual art auction. Every year, ArtReach calls for artists to all paint their art on a certain item—they’ve had guitars one year, vinyl records for another, Vans shoes, and more.

There’s a lot that goes into their yearly success with art auctions (they’ve made over $136k across 7 art auctions):

Their mission focuses on the arts.
Their auctions focus solely on artwork.
They have highly unique art that involves unique canvases.
They include art with local motifs and local styles.
They have starting bids that reflect the art’s worth.
They don’t have an overwhelming amount of items.
They’ve featured celebrity artwork from celebrities like Jason Mraz.

Check out their auction details here.

ArtReach San Diego

2. St. Jude’s & New York Comic Con

We know you’re not at St. Jude’s level, but there’s still a valuable lesson that can be taken here.

St. Jude partners with a leader in the comics industry instead of hosting the auction themselves. New York Comic Con hosts the charity auctions at their convention and auctions artwork from artists of well-known comics. They’ve even auctioned items signed by Marvel superhero actors.

St. Jude utilizes Comic Con’s audience as well as Comic Con’s connections to comic artists to run effective art auctions. You may be able to partner with local businesses or organizations in similar art industries listed above. Even if they’re not related to your cause, they may feel inspired to work with you to help their community.

Watch the 2022 New York Comic Con charity art auction here.

New York Comic Con

3. Saffron Centre (Alberta, CA)

In 2025, Saffron Centre hosted their Igniting Hope gala and raised $16,000 by auctioning a single painting. This worked for three reasons:

They partnered with a highly acclaimed artist in the area—Giselle Denis. She can attract tens of thousands of dollars to single paintings and is an artist who can afford to donate her work.
Giselle Denis performed a live painting during the gala.
The art’s story aligns with Saffron Centre’s story. Denis’ art is all about hope, and her live painting was about hope for the women that Saffron Centre supports who have experienced sexual assaults.

Read about their gala here.

Saffron Centre @sherryannphotography

4. The Gunflint Trail Historic Society (Minnesota, US)

Here’s an example of a small general auction that included a few pieces of art.

We want to highlight this organization’s auction for including art that was highly relevant to their mission—and their donors loved it. This organization is focused on the history of the Gunflint Trail, and every art piece they auctioned depicted landscapes of the Gunflint Trail. All of the artwork sold for a good price, and one painting even sold for 700% of its estimated value with 48 bids.

Check out their online auction here and filter categories by “Art.”

5. Face to Face (Sonoma County, US)

This auction used a different strategy. Face to Face’s Art for Life auction raises funds each year through volume—they auctioned over 135 pieces of artwork in 2025. This involves a higher cost, more staff hours, and much of their art sells below its value, but they are still able to raise plenty of funds for HIV and AIDS care through this method.

Check out their online auction here.

What’s the Best Auction Software for Art Fundraisers?

Some great options for auction software include:

We recommend our platform CharityAuctions for a few reasons:

CharityAuctions lets you preview art & auction items before & during auctions.
Its live auction features are flexible for however you want to auction art at your event—including optional leaderboards and bid displays.
It offers comprehensive mobile bidding to let donors bid on art through their phones—including mobile payment.
It comes with flexible pricing options—from completely free to enterprise plans.

Learn how to choose the best auction platform for your needs.