Looking for ideas for Silent Auction items...

[Mic_n_Min]

Our ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education)program is doing our annual Fall Craft and Gift Show in 1.5 weeks and are looking for creative silent auction items. We do receive a few jewelry pieces and many craft items from our vendors, but we're trying to come up with some other ideas. We have done children's book baskets, baskets with restaurant/fast food gift cards and I always put up a photo shoot as an item- all have done well for us. We're looking for items that would cost about $10-30.

Any ideas on what you would put into a silent auction or what you would bid on that you wouldn't just buy for yourself?

I appreciate any ideas you can offer to us!

 

[clarabelle]

Do you have a sign?
One of the local schools here auctioned off putting your child's name on the sign for their b-day.
So a friend of mine won the action and the school gets a donation and the child is delighted to have their birthday greeting on the sign.

Also, local sports events, spa certs, team logo items.
Good luck!!

 

[VirtuallyMe]

Each year our kids school does a silent auction- and each class comes up with a basket.

They pick a theme- sports, bbq, girls, boys, swimming, lego, barbie, disney, craft, gardening, candles, etc

Each kid brings in something that fits the theme and they create the "baskets"

Works well and some get really good

Our local movie theater donated a bunch of tickets- but also a bunch of tshirts for the different movies and movie posters- it was a neat basket too.

 

[EthansMom]

"Principal for a Day" makes good money at our PTO's auction. The child gets to follow the principal around for part of the day, gets called "Principal", etc...

 

[Russian-in-Kansas]

how about trial memberships to places like the Y or a racquet club? If you have stables nearby then maybe a horseback riding lesson. Local museum, zoo, skating ring admission for a family could work well too. Our businesses have donated these things before to silent auctions and people have loved them.

 

[swanmom]

Local services go well here - an hour of a plumbers or repairman's time, a session with a message therapist, a clearning service, etc. Also, time with a teacher afterschool to work with them on a interest or hobby of theirs was popular. Some teachers offered to do a nature walk, to create a CD of rare jazz music, to do a training run with a jogger, etc. Hope this helps.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I run our school's auction. We do silent auction for the gift basket, sport tickets etc....but we do a Live auction for 10 of our best items.

Principal for a Day

Assistant principal for a day

Mayor for the day (talk to your town's mayor to donate time and then dinner before/after the meeting)

ride to school in fire truck (on either the last day of school or the first our local FD will pick up the kid and siblings and take them to school)

Out of uniform passes, every Friday, the kids doesn't have to wear uniform.

Cubs v Cardinals game (get someone to donate a rivalary game, men who have liquor in them will bid HIGH)

Favorite teacher of the school offers to read the kids a bed night story. In our school our K teacher in AWESOME and the kids just love her. We have 5th and 6th grade parents win this prize.

 

[Mic_n_Min]

Wow! You guys gave some awesome ideas! Thanks for everything!

 

[java]

Here's a free one-
Front space parking for the "holiday concert" or whatever hot event there is at your school- Or front row seats- for a family of X number of guests. Then you just reserve those seats for the winner.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Here's a free one-
Front space parking for the "holiday concert" or whatever hot event there is at your school- Or front row seats- for a family of X number of guests. Then you just reserve those seats for the winner.

WOW, never thought of this one.....we do however auction off first pew for Christmas Eve mass.

At first our pastor was against, but when I went to the neighboring parish's auction, and saw that they got $1500 for it, our pastor changed his mind REAL quick.

 

[barkley]

the community theatre i served on the board for made some big money with silent auctions, and some of the biggest dollar earners were items that were more of a service than a tangible item. people would donate services that were very appealing and might be otherwise difficult to come across or hire someone else to do-

pick up truck hauling-these were good for so many hours of loading and unloading time (helping the person) as well as travel (within so many miles radius). people would buy these and use and the donor would come to their home to help them haul away stuff to the dump or goodwill, maybe go into town and pickup some large item or items (like bags of gardening supplies) that the purchaser had been meaning to do but did'nt have a vehical large enough.

painting tape-donations of so many hours (or rooms) of putting up the tape for painting. this was realy popular because the job of painting a room goes much faster if someone else does all the taping for the crown molding, baseboards, around the windows....

'team grunt'/'team honey-do'-these were 4 or 5 guys that would donate a set number of hours and come out to your house together to either do or help your dh do some of those big chores or projects that he's been putting off (or failing to sucker a friend into helping him with). these guys would help with yard work, cleaning gutters, organizing the garage, assembling play equipment...the purchaser had to provide whatever tools were needed but they had the muscle to get the job done.

some of the popular tangible items were autographed t-shirts (you could take a class group photo and have it put on a t-shirt, then have the kids all sign it with a sharpie or have all the teachers do the same with a school t-shirt), a promisary note for so many dozen of someone's well thought of cookies or a particular baked good, a promisary note for 'dinners ready'-that entails someone who is known to make a very good pot luck type item agreeing that with so much notice they will have it ready at a designated time for the purchaser to retrieve (ususaly at daycare pickup)-it could be a tray of enchiladas with side dishes, someone's fantastic homemade soup or casserole...these items were VERY popular with households where both mom and dad worked outside the home (a variation was a promisary note to 'cover' a person for a future potluck-again with advance notice, the purchaser could call and have the donor provide an item for a future school or church event).


i would think with the holidays approaching that gift certificates from places that provide pies, rolls or other items in high demand would sell realy well.

 

[Michelle67]

You've gotten some really great ideas here!

I'll toss out a few that we use at the charity auctions I volunteer for every year:

Spa/massage gift certificates, sometimes made into a basket with other "pampering" items. Something most women love and one of the first things to go by the wayside in a family budget crunch.

Usually done by a local nursery, but anyone could do it at home too. They pick a nice planter (wouldn't necessarily have to be brand new, you could ask a local potter for a donation, or find one in perfect condition in a second hand store even) and plant it with an arrangement of live house plants, making sure you have high and low coverage---tall dramatic plants as well as shorter ones.

Something that went over well and was a surprising "reuse/renew/recycle" item was hand made sweater jackets, made out of old chenille bedspreads. The lady who makes them for us buys the spreads at garage sales and thrift stores, and can turn each one into two to four sweaters depending on the size of the spread. She also finds vintage buttons here and there, and uses those on them. They are SO cute, and people love that they are "recycled." Just a thought for another time, if you have a creative seamstress in the group.

If you have local bands that are popular, maybe they would be willing to donate CDs. Our auctions are part of an all-day fundraiser, and local bands play for us (with a small cover charge that goes to our charity). They always donate CDs, and those auctioned in a group of half a dozen or so, and given away singly in the raffle.