O/T How To Organize a White Elephant fundraising sale

[bababear_50]

Hi
I am my school's United Way rep and I am hoping to hold a white elephant sale to
raise funds. Last year I organized a luncheon which ended up costing me out of pocket money.
If you've ever held one of these sales what ideas can you tell me about that made it successful?
Any ideas are appreciated.
Thanks
Hugs Mel

 

[moniqueand2]

What about setting up the items with a bid sheet in front of each? Let people stroll around and bid on a few items, chat, have a glass of pop. Or combine with a bake sale.

 

[RitaE]

Is this a "White Elephant" sale like a fancy garage sale or is it some sort of higher quality basket or craft thing?

Our Church tried a huge sale in the parking lot one year, I think that might have been the Katrina donations year, and it morphed into everybody clean the trash out of your basement kind of thing. Disaster. We had to get a couple of dumpsters to throw stuff out. I've never seen so many bags of ancient clothes. An executive from the Salvation Army came by and she said it happens all the time where people donate items that are simply unusable and they have to be sorted and trashed. So my suggestion there is to stress USABLE items in your donation request literature. The next year we did it more like a Swap meet where people were assigned parking spaces in the Church lot and they could set up their own little table and display their wares. That went better but we're heading into Fall so outside might not be a good thing. You say it is for a school, maybe there is a gym or something? Last time we set up a table for the Sunday School classes and we asked each kid to donate one book they'd outgrown and to write their name and why they liked the book somewhere on the inside cover and we sold them for 10cents and 25cents. They didn't make a fortune but the kids loved being involved like that. I'd recommend a distinct eating and mingling area too, with maybe concessions of some sort?

I'd still recommend you get some items like donated gift baskets or get some local crafts people in. With stuff like that then you can advertise it as a Holiday Shopping event too. Also, we're usually able to get some stuff like autographed sports memorabilia etc from local celebrities to auction off. Those types of things do really well.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I feel for you--these type of events are a lot of work and often cost more than you make. I know the one time I did it for a school and it was successful was by getting each class to make something fairly nice--like a ceramic stepping stone or other neat keepsake item. The parents of that class usually try hard to outbid the others because they want the amazing gift their child's class made.
Another thing that worked well was a local artist who draws people's homes. She takes a photo then sketches the home and frames it. Those were high bids.

As far as white elephant gifts, I'm not sure how you can ask for those without getting a bunch of junk?

Good luck!

 

[zoemurr]

What age kids are these? Our elementary school has a fun one that doesn't cost any money. Each teacher donates something. Sometimes it's a gift card, but usually it's an experience. "You and 3 friends play basketball with the principal" "Spend an afternoon crafting with the art teacher" etc. There were 50-60 things to bid on and $1 a ticket. The kids loved it and it made quite a bit of money.

I'm not sure what you mean by "White Elephant" but our HS has a very large garage sale every year and makes thousands. That is a huge team effort as you need many people to collect, sort, price and work. The senior class has to work at least 3 hours each as some of that money goes into their scholarship fund.

 

[FreeTime]

I organized one and did the following so we wouldn't get stuck with the junk.

Instead if having all proceeds go to to organization, we charged people to rent a space to sell their stuff for $25. Those that were selling business type stuff (thirty-one, Avon, Tupperware) had to pay $25 also but only received a small table space. The only rule as that food was not permitted to be sold. We then had a concession stand also.

For the price of the rental space they received advertising on Craig's list, the yard sale permit the city requires, advertising in the paper.

Some groups made so much they ask gave us 10% of their sales.

 

[bababear_50]

Hi gang
Thanks for everyone's helpful hints and ideas.
Well I struck out on this one because the staff's (co-workers) support was o%, so I am going
to have to be looking for other ideas.
Off to rethink this one.
Hugs Mel

 

[TwoMisfits]

If this is a workplace event, maybe you can get a bar/restaurant to sponsor a happy hour for you - they'll donate X amount of money ($1-2 or 10-20% of the check) for all orders they receive during their happy hour. So, you can't lose money...

 

[bababear_50]

Yes this is a workplace event (which is in a school),most staff do not socialize outside of work.
I think I am going to go with "Cupcake Bake Sale" I will ask each staff member to bake 1-2 doz
cupcakes and we will sell them to the kids at Lunch recess.

Hugs
Mel

 

[RitaE]

This is probably an overly intrusive question but I'm wondering if you co-workers are kind of hesitant to be contributing to a Fundraiser for the United Way at a school.
I just personally expect that when schools fundraise, the money is for the school.

I'm also not sure where you work but home baked items being sold at school to the kids here is a huge no. Sealed packaged goods from licensed kitchens with ingredient lists only and that kind of thing.

 

[bababear_50]

This is probably an overly intrusive question but I'm wondering if you co-workers are kind of hesitant to be contributing to a Fundraiser for the United Way at a school.
I just personally expect that when schools fundraise, the money is for the school.

I'm also not sure where you work but home baked items being sold at school to the kids here is a huge no. Sealed packaged goods from licensed kitchens with ingredient lists only and that kind of thing.

Hi
The United Way is our "Board" wide fundraiser , however it is optional for people to contribute.
Our Board also offers staff the option of having money taken off each pay as a way of raising funds.
Yes many people do not support the United Way as their choice of a charity, which can make this endeavour even more difficult for me. Personally I frequently contribute to a local food bank which ALOT of our students use.
Our Board has a food policy and I will have to get the Principal and Parent council's permission before organizing this. I do think the staff will be willing to contribute the cupcakes.(Peanut Free). We have a "Culinary Club" at our school so it may be an option to have them bake all of the cupcakes.
I guess if the answer is no then I am back to square one.

Maybe a "staff" only pancake breakfast.

Hugs Mel

 

[TwoMisfits]

I guess you can't split the proceeds between the school and the United Way...but if you could, a school "cookbook" might be an idea. Best teacher recipes, best student recipes, best cafeteria worker recipes, voted best class recipe section (per grade - each class comes up with their best idea - maybe best idea for a class party), etc...you could pre-sell them and then only print what you sold (if you couldn't get a printer to donate the printings), so you wouldn't lose money...you could go as wide or as narrow as you want to make it (only ask teachers to submit vs asking everyone), and be as creative as you want...