The Handbid Puzzle is easy to setup if you have a Handbid account. If you don't, well what are you waiting for? Contact us today and let's get you going!
To create a puzzle, you need to first have the following pieces of information:
- A PROJECT. You need a project you can present to your donors. The project should represent a new "reality" for your organization. A new building, a new piece of equipment, a problem solved, a project funded.
- A GOAL. How much money do you need to raise to fund your project? You will use your goal to set the number of pieces.
- A TARGET DONATION. This target will help determine the size of your Puzzle. All Handbid Puzzle pieces must cost the same, so determine what you think is a fair ask of your donors. $500? $100? Note that the Maximum Puzzle size is 100 pieces, so if your goal is $10,000 your Puzzle piece price must be $100 to have 100 pieces.
- BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS. You need to show before and after photos. If you don't have anything tangible or logical to show as an after photo, your after photo could certainly just be a "Thank You" photo.
- ITEM DETAILS. You will need a description, fine print, instructions (what you see in the photo just above the "Puzzle View / List View / Description" navigation), and a Thank you (which is shown to the purchaser when they have made their donation.
When you have all of that information, then you can set up the Puzzle:
Go to the Item Creator in Handbid and select "Puzzle" as the item type
Next, you need to complete the New item form to set up your Puzzle. Please complete the following Tabs
Item Info
- Name your Puzzle (we suggest you make the name describe your project goal (e.g Build a Well or Cure a Disease)).
- Set your goal. You will do this by determining the number of pieces you want (rows x. columns) and your Puzzle piece price. Make sure you have all of this set before you create your puzzle. You won't be able to change it after.
- Complete the remaining fields as you see fit.
- Item Code (any alphanumeric code can work here. This is for your use)
- Value Received (if there is a quid-pro-quo donation)
- Category (for this item to appear on the mobile apps, you must select a category)
- Tax Against and Tax Rate
- Status (the item will be created in a pending state and will be opened either when you open your auction or when you change this status to OPEN after creating it)
Description
- Put in a Description in the Description field that describes your project and the overall purpose and goal. Be as descriptive as you like, you have an 8,000 character limit.
- Fine Print. This is where you can put in any disclaimers or technical details about their donation (e.g. all proceeds go to xxx or x% of all contributions will go to pay administrative feeds, etc.) Anything you feel you need to disclose, you can put it here.
- Instructions. These instructions print on the Puzzle page just above the Puzzle. This is where you can give some brief instructions to the purchaser on what they need to do. For example: "Purchase a piece below to deliver 1,000 gallons of water to a village in Africa", etc.
- Thank You Response. This is the custom message that will appear to anyone who purchases a Puzzle piece.
Photos
The last tab is where you will put in your BEFORE and AFTER photos. As you add your photos, Handbid will try to render a preview for you of how it will look.
What type of photos look best?
This is where you need to put in a bit of thought. It will all depend on the type of Puzzle you create. If you create a puzzle that is 10w x 8h, then a landscape-oriented photo (e.g. an 8x10 or 768px x 1024px) will render the best.
Here is a recipe that should get you decent results:
- Use photos where the ratio of height to width is not more than 2. For example, if you have a photo that is 1200 pixels wide, then make sure it is at least 600 pixels high.
- Photos that are close to a 1:1 ratio (square) will tend to do the best. Otherwise stick with common photo format ratios for your best results: 4x6, 5x7, 8x10.
- Landscape photos will appear a bit better than portrait (e.g. 5h x 7w will be better than 7h x 5w).
- If you have a landscape photo and need to crop it down. You can use the crop tools inside of the image upload utility to crop your photo. The default (and only) ratio available right now for Puzzles is 4:3 which is the most common landscape format on the internet: 1024x768, 800x600, etc.)
Do not get too concerned about what the preview looks like as that image has to be fit into the preview pane when creating your item. Your photo will render to more realistic dimensions when you view it on the web.
When you are done adding your BEFORE and AFTER photos (and have completed the data in the other tabs), you can hit "CREATE" to create the puzzle.
Be Patient! If you created a puzzle with a lot of pieces, it can take a minute or two for the puzzle to be created (Handbid is creating each puzzle piece). Once the puzzle is created, the window will close and the puzzle will appear in your item list.
There is also a filter on the left menu just below APPEALS where you can jump to see the Puzzles.
My Puzzle is created, so now how do I see it?
We bet you are eager to see the puzzle on the web. The best way to do this is to put your auction in Preview mode (if you are still in setup mode). Then go to the top-right menu in the manager and click on "Auction Website". This will open up a new tab and take you to the web landing page for your auction on the Handbid Events site.
On this page, you will now see a new Puzzle menu option that will take users directly to your Puzzle page.
If you have auction items in this event, your Puzzle will also be visible to users from the Browse Items view on the Events site (see below)
So are you ready to build your Puzzle? Go for it and reach out to us if you have any issues getting it all set up!