Do you like fundraising auctions?

[barkley]

Perhaps I should not have used the word "mandatory." No one is holding a gun to my head, but the pressure is extreme. (IMO)

I am generally a highly involved "money where your mouth is" kind of parent and I've tried to fight the auction fundraiser to no avail.

sorry-when i hear 'mandatory', i think MANDATORY. this comes from having kids who at one point in time attended a school that truly had MANDATORY volunteer requirements hard written into the contract (and a substantial financial penalty if you did'nt do the hours/provide items to donate/document you contacted outside buisnesses to donate).

 

[aprilgail2]

I just made up an awesome basket for my daughters school auction-- Bath and Body works had their 90 percent off sale and I got 24 items for less than 30.00 so I made up a basket of that....then I found a turkey roaster on clearance so I bought that-stuffing mix, gravy, a turkey basket and made a turkey basket. I went to target and found their 75 percent off clearance and bought a basketload of toys and made a giant toy basket.

 

[bobcat]

You guys have given me some great ideas! I am in charge of a craft show for our music boosters and as a part of that we have a silent auction. It brings in a bit of money but is a TON of work. We are in the planning stages for next year and need to make a few changes.

 

[RUDisney]

The private school had kind of a neat thing called the "Chance Room". They took items valued at $50 and less and set them up in an empty classroom. Each item had a ticket basket beside it. Tickets were $1 each, and you bought tickets, signed your name & phone #, then you dropped the tickets in the baskets for the items you wanted to win. So a $20 Starbucks card might get 100 tickets in the basket. No way you could SELL it for $100, so you made more on the items than they were worth. Unfortunately the school was in a church, and the church decided the chance room was gambling, so that was the end of that. It was a HUGE money maker for the school, the kids LOVED it, and it was a way for everyone to participate, NOT just families with a lot of money.

Around here, they call this a Chinese Auction. I don't know why. I don't know if the person to invent it was supposed to be Chinese and since it's a raffle, I don't know why it's called an auction.

Anyway, when my kids were in elementary school, the PTA would do an auction every other year. The first year, one of the parents raised such a stink that the principal (her BIL, BTW) agreed to the auction but with the stipulation that no alcohol would be served. The mother said that it would give a bad example to the kids if they knew Mom and Dad went out and had drinks.

So, school politics can be just plain head scratching at times. No children were allowed at this function but we couldn't lubricate the parents' wallets with a cocktail or two to raise the bids. Your church would probably let Bingo be played, but not have a basket raffle. Go figure.

the favorite Auction item at my kid's High School is a prime "reserved" parking spot!

The reserved parking spot at my old HS has the child's name on it and typically sells for $7,000 - $10,000. My kids will not ever see their names on that spot.

They also raffle the first row of seats at the graduation and at the baccalaureate mass for big money.

 

[mjkacmom]

Around here, they call this a Chinese Auction. I don't know why. I don't know if the person to invent it was supposed to be Chinese and since it's a raffle, I don't know why it's called an auction.
.

LOL - it used to be called that here to when I was a kid, but I guess it turned into a more PC Tricky Tray now. I also agree that alcohol really does work in increasing the ticket sales - our TT has about 700 attendees, parents and teachers, $5 drinks.

 

[PaulaSue]

I much prefer them - as opposed to the severely overpriced catalogs that come home from the schools for fund raising..

I have bought gift cards for resturants I wanted to try but never a reason to go out of my way. Passes to a kids park , longenburger baskets, other home based business stuff I never had tried before BUT my favorite was the Scrapbooking basket and the stamping up basket of goodies. You can never have too much stuff.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The big non-tangible items in the school auctions are having your name on the sports field or the carpool circle for a year, having a reserved "first in line" carpool spot, etc. They USED to auction off the sign in front of the school for each month, and if you were the winning bidder for the month you could put a special birthday message up for your child for a couple of days. We have a photo of DS with the sign when he was 8. Then there was a big lawsuit filed against the school for discrimination and the birthday sign stopped. (That was a public school.)

The other thing that was always REALLY popular at the private school was special outings with the teachers. "Lunch with Ms. Smith", "Movie with Mr. Jones" sort of stuff. But I can see how there could be liability with that.

One charity auction I went to had 12 or 15 local artists decorate empty cigar boxes, then they put prize packages to go with each box and had people bid on those. It was fun, but the opening bids on those packages were steep.