I had a brief email conversation with Julie asking her about the tax-deductible status of the auction.  Were I less lazy I would have just read Stephen Forte's post about it, my question would have been answered, but Julie was nice enough to answer it anyway.

So, long story short, the auction money is in fact tax-deductible as a charitable donation to a US 501C3 non-profit corporation.  Use this information to sell this auction to the decision-makers in your organization.  If you’re anything like me, you have some sort of project going on, maybe a major one, and would like to get one of these .NET superstars to weigh in on your plans.  Not only that, but you’re helping a good cause.