Remember when I told you I got a job at my children’s school as their Development Director? Yes? And I told you about Sprint, the other lady that shares the job with me. Well, right now we’re in the home stretch of our largest fund raiser of the year. It’s a silent and live auction with a dinner. So far I think we’re doing well selling tickets and getting corporate support and the auction items are starting to be donated.
Last year I asked all of you what you thought were great auction ideas. So, once again I’m counting on all of you to share your fabulous ideas with me.
As for my personal donations I will be giving a pork package and designing a Christmas tree with homemade ornaments from the students in the school’s colors (blue and gold) I think it will be really neat when I get it done. I might do the wine tastings that I did last year, but I haven’t decided if I have time for it yet or not.
Okay, spill your brilliance on me. What do want when you go to a fund raising auction? What would you buy? What would you donate? What is the big seller at your school/charity?
ATTENTION FUND RAISERS read the great ideas in the comments!!!
Keep ‘em coming! I’ll be emailing a few of you to follow up on specifics of your ideas. Thanks for the great inspiration!!!
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I attended a recent fund raiser and the baskets (especially the ones with alcohol) were a huge hit. Also a big hit were custom parties – we recently spent an arm and a leg on a few guys from a community bank who are throwing a BBQ party for 50 guests for us, and we really got a great deal. Get the popular businessmen, elected officials and community servants where you live pool together to offer something unique – fish fry, BBQ party, fishing trip, 80s dance…
I usually just make a cash donation and say, “Please don’t give me anymore stuff.”
It’s not an auction idea, but we did a fundraiser, where vases were bought at local thrift stores for a dollar or two, then pretty flowers were put in them, and they were sold for $10 each. It cost about $3 to put each of them together, and they were a huge hit. There were even ones with one rose in a vase sold for $4 and the kids liked buying those to give to Mom or their teacher.
We are having a fish fry today and the men’s club is having a citrus sale. Since we are in Georgia and somewhat closer to Florida, what works for us might not work fo you.
One of our biggest money makers at our auction last year was a reserved parking spot and four front row seats to high school graduation. The senior parents really battled for that one. The principal helped us out bay making sure there would be a little roped off section at the ceremony that spring.
Also, reserved, front row seats for our spring muscial was a big draw as well.
We also had good luck with the photographers who took team photos. They enlarged the photos and donated them, and we’d frame them. Again, the sports parents (especially with seniors) bid very generously for those.
Get local photographers involved. Most parents can’t pass up a great photo of their child.
Our church did a service auction. You could bid on housekeeping, lawn, laundry services, etc. that would be done by the youth. Of course you have to have some kids who would be willing to work.
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Ride to school on a fire engine: Ask the firefighters at the station closest to the school to donate a ride from home to the school. More than one family can even get together at one family’s home, invite the firefighters over for breakfast (maybe someone is interested in donating breakfast, too!), and take a ride to school.
“The Dream Team” 7 men volunteer make themselves for one day of hard labor (winner’s choice of project). We have had people help out on big projects such as pouring foundations, re-roofing a house, hauling trash from the back forty, etc.
Never forget one woman who bid $550 after several beers too many for an oil change.
Lake Tahoe weekend for four.
etc.
Spring Spruce Up–have a local greenhouse donate flowers/mulch/dirt and winning bidder gets their summer annuals planted and mulched in the spring with a yard clean up.
Mom and Dad’s night out. Offer dinner at a romantic setting(We have a waterfront park that we offered) for Mom and Dad PLUS babysitting services. WE made this “bigger” by offering a second night out during our city of lights celebration. A limo ride to the airport, babysitting, dinner and a fly over of the lights was offered. This went for big bucks.
Private pedicure party-One of our Mom’s worked in a salon and offered a party for the winning bidder and 5 friends for pedicures, wine/drinks and light hor’d…snacks..LOL…
Private lessons with music teacher–Our strings teacher offered 3 months/once a week free lessons to winning bidder.
Reserved seats for prom night walk in—I am not sure how things are at your local high school, but at ours, prom night is like oscar night. Each individual couple/student is announced before they enter. The whole place is lit up with spot lights, red carpet, etc. Parents start to line up or set out thier chairs 12 hours before the kids enter…Front row roped off seats, brough HUGE bucks to our auction!!!
Ghost story and s’mores–some of our kids are city kids…for Halloween we offered a ghost story, bon fire and s’more night at one of the farms of our students.
We have a huge vocational program at our high school. We got everyone in our deal with a winter/spring tune up from our small engines class for the winners tractors/lawnmowers. Free tuneup, oil change and tire rotation from our mechanics class, our culinary class offers a selection of snacks, fruit plate, cookies and hot hor d..snacks for 25 people. We even had our childcare class offer 20 hours of babysitting. Our special ed kids have a doughnut shop and donated a dozen doughnuts, once a month for 3 months…
I am stealing the PIE a month for a year..this will go over huge at our auction..we did the cookies a month for the holidays..never thought about the pies…
More ideas from our dinner/auction last year–pancake breakfast for 4 at the fire house and tour by a fireman, front row reserved tickets to the school’s variety show. I love these creative ideas that are “priceless” and not-sold-in-stores!
I keep coming back here to check in on the new comments. There are some great ideas! The front row seats at graduation is just one of them I love!
A dinner party cooked by you (or anyone who can cook) for the winner. You set the number of guests.
I don’t have any ides. But I wanted to say, Good luck!!!
Our school has a dinner auction every other year. Each class donates something to the auction.
Teachers come up with great ideas such as gardening baskets, cooking baskets, book baskets etc. The kids each bring something for the basket and of course, want they want their parents or grandparents to buy their basket. A few teachers or parents are quilters so the kids each make a square. one group last year made a class cookbook. It was really cute with the kid’s pictures.
Personally, I love the weekends or weeks at vacation homes or catered dinners.
My sister organizes a very successful fundraiser each December at her son’s school. They sell cookie platters. $3 each. It’s actually a plate of cookies…I think 2 dozen. They are pre-sold. Mom’s volunteer to bake cookies…several different kinds and the plates are put together with 3 of each type of cookie. It’s a hit, especially during the holidays. Some grocery store donate the items to bake the cookies.
Good luck!
To go along with the pie a month idea above is bread a month…do you know anyone who bakes bread, especially with fresh ground wheat?
I love Anne’s “Dream Team” idea!! I’d spend a bunch on that!! We had people donate antiques for an auction to benefit our historical museum. We had Red Wing crocks, an old oak hutch, a victrola, old china, old chamber pots, etc. We made a killing and the auctioneer donated his services.
So many great ideas! The only thing I’ve seen work really well that hasn’t been mentioned is something we’ve done called Fund-a-Need.
Our live auction (for sale of the most expensive and exciting items) is always the last event of the evening. After the excitement is over, the auctioneer gives a speech to the effect of, “I know that you all came planning to spend some money but not all of you won the things you bid on. Here’s a way you can still spend some that money.” The he talks about the need that we’ll be funding that year – in years past we’ve bought new desks, a library remodel, new computers, a bus – and everyone gets a chance to donate. It’s really just asking for cash, but because the request is attached to a specific, tangible need, people are always willing to dig deep.
Good luck!
For our silent auction and dinner, we had a variety of people donating goods, including jewelry. But the biggest draws were the donated services: housecleaning for 8 hours, haircuts, newspaper delivery for 6 months, and spay/neuter services from a local veterinarian. That last one was fought over and raised the most money!
Bird feeding themed baskets donated by local businesses always go over big here. Bird seed, bird feeder, bird book etc. Good luck!
Our big dinner/silent/live auction event is always a lot of fun and we try to get the faculty and staff involved- we are a catholic school so we have had things like our parish pastor offer a gamily game night with pizza at the rectory, He’s also volunteered to cook dinner at his house for a family. Our teachers have been extremely generous with their time, talent and treasure- we’ve have things like- Brownies& barnes & Noble- (a trip to the store and a treat)
personal pizza lunch, bowling party with teacher, reserved seating at christmas eve mass, private tutoring with the principal, Jeans passes (we wear uniforms) the possibilities are endless…I love dishing about fundraisers- anytime you want to chat- let me know!
also- this year instead of our formal event- we did a casual themed- trivia and tailgating night- it was a lot of fun. We did a 50/50 raffle called “Heads & Tails” that’s an interactive game- we made about $500 in less than 10 minutes…if you’d like details- email me.
One more thing we always do- are art projects by class that are auctioned off- this year our theme was
Keep Out Kids in their Seats…we had several different kinds of seats/chairs/benches that were painted and decorated by the kids..totally adorable and fun! It gets everyone involved.
Thanks for the forum!
Have you ever heard of “Flocking”? My niece just participated in this fundraiser and had a blast! The basics: People paid to have the youth group put pink flamingos in someone else’s yard! A little more humorous than waking up to a yard full of plastic forks, or, even more old school, TP everywhere. A mom drove a van-load of teenagers dressed in dark clothing, and under the cover of darkness, the kids would sneak in and stake the flamingos in a front yard. What a hoot! She said they made a bunch of money! I’m just thinking this could be hilariously seasonal…imagine waking up to a yard full of pink flamingos with bunny ears on Easter morning! And the promo video could really rock with “We Will, We Will Flock You!!” (yes, I know, it’s obvious that I spend a lot of time with teenagers…)
I don’t know how well this could be adapted to an auction, but it’s a great idea!
A well made, hand quilted quilt always does well here in TN.