Good Idea for Auctions.

[kritter]

I am in the process of planning an auction for my daughter's school and was wondering if anyone here has any good items that we could look to get for the auction. Thanks!!

 

[happygirl]

I am in the process of planning an auction for my daughter's school and was wondering if anyone here has any good items that we could look to get for the auction. Thanks!!

Is it a silent auction or a real auction?

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Our pta does a tricky tray or chinese auction with lots of baskets. 2 of the most popular items are basically free, so you can check with your principal & see if you can do them. 1 is principal or a day. If you win, your child gets to hang with the principal & assist in principal duties all day. The second is a designated parking spot. One spot in the lot has a sign "parking for (fill in the blank) family only." One the sign is paid for you only need to change the name each year.

Other than that, each class puts a basket together and families & community businesses donate baskets as well. We have had baskets ranging from trips to Disney & Ipads to Coach bags & 3 month gym memberships. I am class mom for my DD & I am handing in my "American Girl" basket this week.

 

[v.t.]

Night out events. Tickets to sporting events, movies, etc. paired with restaurant gift cards are popular. Most pro teams will donate tickets. We also do tickets to our high school games with a ball or helmet signed by the team. (If you have several parents with older kids this can go high.)

 

[MomtoGKC]

I worked on our school auction for a few years. Our big sellers were weekend vacations (call around to local hotels and see what they can offer - we are in FL so would try to get the Keys and Disney areas.) Disney donated passes every year, but I don't know if that is because we were in FL? Passes to local attractions like zoos, aquariums, museums. A lot of stores and tons of restaurants will donate gift certificates that almost always went for face value - Publix, Home Depot, Lowes, Whole Foods, smaller boutiques, all kinds of local restaurants. Does anybody have a vacation home they'd be willing to donate for a week for weekend? This year we had a friend donate a fishing trip for 4 on is boat. Rounds of golf, sporting event tickets (Marlins always send a bunch of stuff with the tickets), haircuts, spa services.

We sent letters out to several of the bigger companies that had donated in the past (Publix, hotels) and then split into groups and just canvassed the area for donations after that.

Our classes also did theme baskets. We would ask each family to donate about $10 and the room mom was in charge of putting together a basket on the class theme - Barbie, Disney, Trains, Fun in the Sun, Rainy Day Games, etc. We sold parking spots and front row seats for the graduation and Christmas pageant and they always went really well.

Oh, American Girl will usually donate one doll every 3-4 years. They keep track, so as long as you know when you got the last one it is pretty easy to send a letter a few years later and get another one.

Make sure you have a letter that explains the school and the event - put your non-profit information on the bottom. We attached a second page that we could fill out and the store could keep for their records if they wanted to, they usually didn't care though.

Are you doing a program at the auction? We got people to sponsor the event (parents & businesses) - they would pay a certain amount to be listed as a gold, silver or bronze sponsor/

 

[kritter]

Thanks, these are great ideas. We will have a live and silent auction.

We did get the Disney Passes and an American Girl Doll!!

 

[DISshopkeeper]

I do Party Serving work, ie: you do the food and bar and I come and work the party. Myself and another woman have donated that service a couple times and it ALWAYS gets high bids. Dinner parties, graduations... whatever!

 

[robsmom]

Local golf courses will sometimes donate a round of golf for 2 or 4.

In a work charity auction, I once bid to have a woman wrap all my christmas presents one year.

Piano Lessons/ Guitar Lessons, etc. are sometimes donated by music stores. it is a good way for them to try to get someone started.

 

[MickeyManiac]

This year I am donating a fire bowl with logs and a smores kit and a Shop Vac that I bought on Black Friday. We'll decide as the auction gets closer if they will be put in the live or silent auction.

 

[pklein09]

I worked on our school auction for a few years. Our big sellers were weekend vacations (call around to local hotels and see what they can offer - we are in FL so would try to get the Keys and Disney areas.) Disney donated passes every year, but I don't know if that is because we were in FL? Passes to local attractions like zoos, aquariums, museums. A lot of stores and tons of restaurants will donate gift certificates that almost always went for face value - Publix, Home Depot, Lowes, Whole Foods, smaller boutiques, all kinds of local restaurants. Does anybody have a vacation home they'd be willing to donate for a week for weekend? This year we had a friend donate a fishing trip for 4 on is boat. Rounds of golf, sporting event tickets (Marlins always send a bunch of stuff with the tickets), haircuts, spa services.

We sent letters out to several of the bigger companies that had donated in the past (Publix, hotels) and then split into groups and just canvassed the area for donations after that.

Our classes also did theme baskets. We would ask each family to donate about $10 and the room mom was in charge of putting together a basket on the class theme - Barbie, Disney, Trains, Fun in the Sun, Rainy Day Games, etc. We sold parking spots and front row seats for the graduation and Christmas pageant and they always went really well.

Oh, American Girl will usually donate one doll every 3-4 years. They keep track, so as long as you know when you got the last one it is pretty easy to send a letter a few years later and get another one.

Make sure you have a letter that explains the school and the event - put your non-profit information on the bottom. We attached a second page that we could fill out and the store could keep for their records if they wanted to, they usually didn't care though.

Are you doing a program at the auction? We got people to sponsor the event (parents & businesses) - they would pay a certain amount to be listed as a gold, silver or bronze sponsor/

Where do you write for the Disney passes and the American Girl doll? I've been involved with the auction at my son's school for the past 4 years, and we're always looking for new items. We located near Princeton, NJ and the market is saturated with private schools all doing the same thing. Getting local merchants to donate is hard unless you personally know the merchant.

Thanks!

 

[kritter]

Thanks, any other ideas??

Would love to get some sports items signed by a famous player, etc....

 

[MichiganKris]

My daughter's school always did a class project and a class basket. The baskets were themed for each class as others have said like Barbie, Lego, Movie Night, Spa, DIY etc. The class projects that have brought in the most money were decorated pieces of pottery. We have a store in town that works with the school and will bring in large bowls, plates, or cake platters to each class and help the kids decorate them. Then they take them back and glaze and fire them in time for the auction. The pottery place charged $20 or $25 for each piece and we put starting bids on them of about $35 or $40 and they usually brought in close to $100 each by the time the bidding was over.

 

[kittycatalina65]

Where do you write for the Disney passes and the American Girl doll? I've been involved with the auction at my son's school for the past 4 years, and we're always looking for new items. We located near Princeton, NJ and the market is saturated with private schools all doing the same thing. Getting local merchants to donate is hard unless you personally know the merchant.

Thanks!

Not the OP, but after reading this I went online and printed a form from the AG website. They require the form, a cover letter or letterhead, and a copy of the tax exempt certificate.

I'm enjoying all the ideas so far! Hopefully I can round up some cool stuff for our auction too!

 

[pklein09]

Not the OP, but after reading this I went online and printed a form from the AG website. They require the form, a cover letter or letterhead, and a copy of the tax exempt certificate.

I'm enjoying all the ideas so far! Hopefully I can round up some cool stuff for our auction too!

Yes, I went poking around their site, too, and found the info. My son's school is an all boys school, but the age range is correct. The boys do have sisters...

 

[marycaym]

Our pta does a tricky tray or chinese auction with lots of baskets. 2 of the most popular items are basically free, so you can check with your principal & see if you can do them. 1 is principal or a day. If you win, your child gets to hang with the principal & assist in principal duties all day. The second is a designated parking spot. One spot in the lot has a sign "parking for (fill in the blank) family only." One the sign is paid for you only need to change the name each year.
QUOTE]

Similar to this, our biggest selling tricky tray items are the "free items" as long as you can get buy in from principal/superintendant (we are 3 local grade schools that all feed into 1 HS and everyone pretty much supports events at all 3 schools):
- front row at graduation or seats of winners choice (can be used for Pre-K, K, 6th, HS)
- front row for spring concert (again all grades)
- designated parking spot for year at our HS (they are numbered so no need for sign)
- front row for christmas concert (again all grades)
- pass to leave school for a lunch date with a parent
- designated seats for HS basketball games (boys & girls)
- designated seats for HS football games (this was huge as they were seats on the field; in fact the booster club now sells tickets for this and uses it as their own fundraiser)
- cooking class (we worked with the foods teacher on this) makes 1 meal a quarter for a family
- younger football team gets chance to work out and play with HS football team (can work for all sports)
- designated spot at HS for 4th of july fireworks

There is alot you can do within the community that does not require alot of $$ and can bring in alot of money. I have seen some schools that have had to use garbage cans to collect tricky tray tickets (like front row for HS graduation) because it has been such a hot ticket.

Good Luck!

 

[BSil]

I usually get approached to offer services (work in technology), so I am asked for trainings, or repair, or virus cleaning or some type of thing. People will usually bid well to have a get out of jail free card in their pocket for when their computer crashes. Check with your tech department and see if they will donate their expertise.

We raffeled off whipped cream pies to the face of staff members during one of the pep rallies, just let the other staff members know they can bid too...then sit back and collect money.

How about school spirit apparel? Most schools have school spirit days, and wear the school colors/logos. Maybe a local embroidery shop, screen printer, or sports store can do them for you for cost, or maybe free if they can add their sponsorship logo to the item.

Free admission season passes to all sporting events? Maybe the Athletic Director could pull off something like that.

Maybe raffle off a small plot of the school property where winners can plat their favorite shrub/flower etc. That not only makes it look nicer, but makes you some money too.

I was thinking of approaching one of the local gas stations (not a big chain), and seeing if they would do a deal where we raffle off a card that gives you gas for a discount (say .50 off anytime). It earns the small shop some recognition, and maybe more business from families because they donated something.

Ton of good ideas in this thread...I have enjoyed all of them. Thanks for posting.

 

[pklein09]

Thanks, any other ideas??

Would love to get some sports items signed by a famous player, etc....

There are 2 places I can think of where they sell items like this on a consignment basis. We've be able to list a baseball signed by Obama, Snoopy cell signed by Charles Schultz, a Dali piece of art, a Chagall piece of art, and signed Luciano Pavarotti album are things that I can think of off the top of my head. I don't want to list the names, but PM me and I'll let you know. If you're doing an online auction, they typically will hold the piece and ship directly. If you're having a live event and want to display the item, they'll ship it to you right before the event. If you sell it, great. If you don't sell it, you ship it back to them. Depending on them item, we will start the bidding at least $100 more than our cost.