Community Auction

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Evaluate, debate, and prioritize a set of proposals by allocating a limited symbolic budget across competing community ideas.

Use it when: Use during participatory budgeting, strategic planning, or community review sessions when a group must narrow down multiple project proposals into clear priorities.

Skip it when: Skip when projects already have mandatory legal, technical, or executive constraints that override group prioritization, or when participants lack enough basic context on the proposals to evaluate them fairly.

Group arrangement: 5 pitch teams of 2 to 4 people; any extra participants act as independent investors without pitching; all participants invest during bidding rounds

Timing: Source specifies 90 to 120 minutes depending on proposal count; structured here for a 90-minute session handling 5 proposals.

Materials and tools

• Printed proposal templates (1 per pitch team)
• Tokens, play chips, or sticky dots (20 identical units per participant)
• 5 collection trays (1 per proposal)
• 1 large whiteboard or wall chart to log bids
• Dry-erase markers
• 1 digital countdown timer
• Second facilitator or designated tech helper (for hybrid delivery)

Before participants arrive

1. Substantial setup required outside the clock.
2. Form 5 pitch teams of 2 to 4 participants prior to the session by inviting project leads to sign up or assigning volunteers to 5 key focus areas.
3. Send the Proposal Brief Template to these 5 teams at least 3 days in advance with instructions to complete all four sections before arrival.
4. Assign any remaining participants (up to 4 people) directly to the investor pool.
5. Draw an auction ledger on the whiteboard listing Proposal Name, Pitch Team, Target Budget, and Recorded Bids.
6. Place 1 labeled collection tray for each proposal beneath the ledger.
7. Count 20 tokens per participant into individual envelopes.
8. Verify before starting that each pitch team has brought its completed proposal brief.

Say this to open

Welcome to the Community Auction. Today we are prioritizing our community project ideas by investing symbolic resources. Each of you has an envelope with 20 tokens representing our community fund. Teams will give a strict three-minute pitch for their initiative. After all pitches, we will hold a five-minute bidding window for each project where you can invest tokens, discuss reasons, or hold funds for later. Our goal is to see which ideas earn collective backing and understand why.

How to run it

1. Orient and distribute funds 10 minutes

   Deliver the opening script. Hand each participant an envelope containing 20 tokens. State the ground rules: investors may place any amount from 0 to 20 tokens on a single project, but once spent, tokens cannot be retrieved. Clarify that team members may invest in their own or other projects. Independent investors follow identical investment rules. Direct pitch teams to keep their completed proposal templates ready for the pitch stage.

2. Deliver project pitches 25 minutes

   Call teams forward in sequence to run 5 project pitches. Give each team exactly 3 minutes to present their objective, community impact, and required resources using the countdown timer. Allow 2 minutes after each pitch for clarifying questions only. Do not take bids during this step.

3. Open bidding and negotiation 25 minutes

   Open the auction floor for 5 minutes per project across 5 consecutive rounds. For each project, participants place physical tokens into the project's designated tray or attach sticky dots to its ledger column. Facilitate brief comments on why participants invest or withhold funds. Record the round total on the board ledger before moving to the next project.

4. Review auction ledger 15 minutes

   Tally final token totals for each project on the main ledger. Announce the rank order of projects based on total investment received. Give participants 5 minutes of silent observation to review where resources landed and note unexpected distributions.

5. Debrief collective priorities 15 minutes

   Lead a whole-room debrief on resource patterns. Take 3 to 4 spoken responses for each chosen debrief question: 'What specific criteria drove your highest token investments?', 'Which proposals struggled to attract resources, and what would make them viable?', and 'How should the patterns on this board inform our real decisions or budgets moving forward?' Close on time.

Debrief questions

• What specific criteria drove your highest token investments?
• Which proposals struggled to attract resources, and what would make them viable?
• How should the patterns on this board inform our real decisions or budgets moving forward?

Finished output: A completed public ledger ranking 5 presented proposals by total symbolic tokens invested, along with documented reasons for investor choices.

Remote

Create a shared digital whiteboard or spreadsheet with 5 project cards and individual bidding columns. Assign each participant a designated row with 20 digital stamp icons or numerical points. Pitch teams present via screen share, and participants log bids in their personal column during timed 5-minute bidding rounds.

Hybrid

In-person teams present at the front of the room while the facilitator screen-shares their proposal brief. In-person attendees place tokens in project trays or on the physical board while remote participants enter bids in a synchronized digital spreadsheet. A designated hybrid co-facilitator updates the physical board with remote entries in real time so all participants see unified totals.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may choose to invest silently by placing tokens without speaking or explaining their choice.
• Any participant who does not want to pitch may serve solely as an investor or ledger recorder.

If the session gets stuck

Investors hoard all their tokens until the final project and run out of time to spend.

Remind the group at the third round that unspent tokens expire when the auction closes and carry no value after the session.

A team lobbies aggressively and pressures quiet participants into giving up their tokens.

Enforce a silent bidding window of 60 seconds at the start of each round before opening verbal discussion so participants can allocate tokens according to their own judgment.

Terms used here

• Symbolic Money: Play tokens, chips, or points used to simulate a scarce budget without involving real funds.
• Ledger: The visible chart or board where all investments and bid totals are publicly tracked.