Miffed about my donation of DVC for a fundraising auction

[headoflife]

I am in the north suburbs of Chicago. What synagogue do you go to? I want to make sure I go to their auctions! Seriously, my congregation would love a donation that generous, and I would hope they would market it better than that. If they had any questions about the specifics of the donation or its value, I think they would ask. I know when we do a silent auction for our school the value of the item is listed on the bidding sheet. Was that true in your case? I guess at this point the best you can do is rent your points and donate that to the temple, but I don't blame you for being miffed.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Enjoy your extra vacation!

Bobbi

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

This is my concern. I'd like to donate a bit of my DVC this year (every other year I have some "extra"). But I would only do it if I had control over how it was marketed. Done poorly someone might bid $100 and win with it.

 

[Dancind]

I donated five nights in an OKW (40 points) studio to my daughter's dance team as a fundraiser. They sold raffle tickets and raised about $2500. The OKW stay was the grand prize, but there was also a Sony Wega TV and a Kincaid framed print. The drawing was Feb. 14, and I still haven't heard from the winners. I said it was good through 2007, so I still may hear. If not, it was a good fundraiser and didn't cost me a thing!

 

[cherylp3]

It definitely sounds like it was not marketed correctly.

 

[lizziepooh]

I can understand your disappointment. Sounds like the event was run by people who had very little knowledge of Disney and their accommodations.
Several silent auction fund raisers that I have attended have had a minimum bid on certain items, which I would request if I were to donate points for a Disney stay. A local resort donated a 3 night stay. They had a big picture of the resort along with information about the resort on a posterboard near where you placed your bid. I think the pictures really drew attention and helped sell the donated stay.

 

[Dean]

I've donated a couple of times. I'm always willing to bid on it myself if the value doesn't reach the point I'm comfortable with. Do remember that this is not tax deductible.

 

[Shawn]

We just wrapped our annual auction at our Catholic school this month, and vacation packages are always included in the live auction section.

I think the organizers were confused with what you were offering. However, it could have been worse. If it were advertised as a a Walt Disney World Get-Away package, the bidder would have assumed that the price included park admission, and not just the lodging, and they could have been very upset to find out otherwise.

It does sound like this could have been presented better, and if it could have been packaged with at least some frequent flyer tickets, it should have been offered in the live auction section, with it being made clear that the buyer would still have to buy park tickets.

Another factor could have been the distance. Are you in Chicago? A getaway to Florida is perhaps too much travel for it to bid well. I noticed this in our auctions. There were several 4 day and 7 day resort getaways in Oregon (where I live), and they all went for more money than the 7 day trip to Cabo San Lucas! I think the 7 days in Cabo went for only $650, whereas the Oregon resorts went for more. A lot of the auction attendees are considering where they can drive their family without the added expense of air travel. I myself bid on and won 7 days in a nice cabin on a river in Oregon for $1,000, but I passed on the Cabo trip because the cost to get our family of 6 to Cabo I felt would have been too prohibitive.

If you do this again (and it would be a great thing to do), try and find
someone (or several someones) with perhaps Southwest Airlines rapid rewards tickets saved up, and package them together.

As you said, the good news is you have your points back to be enjoyed by someone who really appreciates them..

-Shawn

 

[iankh]

I am in the north suburbs of Chicago. What synagogue do you go to? I want to make sure I go to their auctions! Seriously, my congregation would love a donation that generous, and I would hope they would market it better than that. If they had any questions about the specifics of the donation or its value, I think they would ask. I know when we do a silent auction for our school the value of the item is listed on the bidding sheet. Was that true in your case? I guess at this point the best you can do is rent your points and donate that to the temple, but I don't blame you for being miffed.

I live on the northside and my synagogue is in a suburb just to the immediate north of Chicago, it shall however go unnamed.

To their credit, the organizers raised quite a bit of money, I just don't think it was marketed well. but those are the breaks. Then again, I think people thought it was strange that I own at DVC anyway. So, I don't think the organizers "got it."

 

[DebIreland]

Oh my goodness. That is frustrating. I helped organise a pub quiz here for a very good cause last year and rounded up some wonderful prizes from sponsors - top of the line perfume and make up sets (very expensive products) lots of great wine, sporting goods, a couple of very expensive weekend breaks, dvd players etc. but the people running the quiz on the night made a total dog's dinner of it. It was heartbreaking.

The original plan was to have a few nights spread out because of all the prizes we had and have raffles and even auctions on the nights. They ended up having one night with no auctions or raffle tickets and just gave away prizes to the quiz winners for no reason at all - it seems anyone who had one right answer was getting a 50 euro bottle of wine, things like that.

People paid 15 euro (about 18 dollars) to enter the quiz and the proceeds on the night were about 1700 euro and they gave away over 3500 euro worth of prizes which had taken me 6 months to gather up and coax from the sponsors. I was not able to attend the night which is why I got involved in the organising stage rather than the night itself. I could not believe they just gave away the prizes, no raffle tickets, no challenge, no auction, nothing, just started giving away stuff cause it was 'free'. It was an absolute disgrace and the way I look at it they took food out of starving childrens' hands (it was for Sudan) by being too lazy to run it properly.

I made a big fuss of it and tried to get them to see reason (I wasn't alone, others were furious too) but they just put in in the past and wanted to move along to the 'next' fundraiser. Yeah, like I'd even think of helping them again. I put my efforts elsewhere now. Oh did I mention out of the 1700 they needed to pay costs so they ended up sending 900 to the Red Cross. That COULD have been closer to 6 or 7 thousand.

Always be careful with fundraisers. It can be so frustrating.