Some teachers may not have the money to donate to your school causes, but they do realize that kids love attention. Special attention from a teacher with a child or small group of children is priceless. Here are a few of the prizes that teachers & staff put up for our auction.
Principal for the day
Story time - librarian met a child & 3 friends at Barnes and Noble for some special story time. After reading a short book a little book chat session.
Girls Time Out - teacher met a child & selected friends at Starbucks for an afternoon treat & chat session. Parents giggled at how "mature" they were sitting there with their hot chocolates gabbing!
Cooling Off - gym teacher met a child & selected friends at a local ice cream store for a cone & discussion on how treats are good, but in moderation
Let's Do Lunch - 3 teachers met a child & selected friends during their normal lunch for a special luncheon (subs & chips) Kids felt so special to have lunch with the teacher rather than in the lunchroom
You can go on & on with ideas. Teachers gave up more time than money, but kids and parents were thrilled with the experience. We also try and find items that a lot of families don't do whether due to time or money. Horsebackriding lessons
Classes through our local parks program
Special tour of a local amusement center to learn how everything works & the many responsibilities--(they usually throw in a free ticket or two)
Maid Service
Limosine service
DJ at a kids party (find a student looking to break into the business)
Inflatables
Pony rides or petting zoo at a birthday party
I wrote all of our hometown sports teams, I am from Chicago so we have many. I have gotten responses from all of them. I think that is a good place to start many companies like to send donations to organizations close to home. I have received autographed photos, tickets, hats, shirts.
Also, try Wheel of Fortune, build a bear, great america, or try your local tv and radio stations. I recieved products from all of them. Including passes to watch a news show live. Good luck and have fun.
Our auction is this coming Saturday - we're a middle school. We've been working for months to get ready. We combine our auction with a dinner and Murder Mystery event. The drama kids and some of the teachers do a murder mystery and those attending the auction try and solve it - there is a big prize for the winner.
Some of our biggest auction bids go to the teacher outings. Our principal will take the highest bidders out to lunch. We'll have teachers take kids bowling or to play laser tag. It's all during the day and is a great money maker. We also have families donate parties - gourmet dinners for 8 couples, pool parties for 12, etc. We asked parents to go together and donate gift baskets, etc. These are always personalized and get very high bids.
We also offer "cut to the front of the lunch line" passes, "cut to the front of parent pick up" and "front row seats at 8th grade graduation" or "front row seats at the next years' theater productions". These are free and don't cost us anything - and the bids go sky high.
You could offer "principal for a day" or "health fitness teacher for the day" or whatever your principal sees appropriate.
We also get the donations too - airline tickets, sports memorabilia, dinner gift certificates, etc. Our auction brought in over $40,000 last year and we are a middle school of about 320 kids. We hope to do more than that this year - we'll see...
Hi,
Dragonfly mom would you be willing to share a copy of the letter you sent to get your donations. I am from the Boston area as well and was just curious how your letter was worded. I am thinking about planning an auction for our school next and would be grateful for the info. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Thanks
How do you get St. Louis Cardinals. We live just an hour and a half from St. Louis and NEVER get a response from them. A school down the road gets donations every year.
Boston Bruins
Karen Foster
Temper-pedic
Green Mountain Coffee
Thomas Kinkaide
Equal Exchange
Cabot Cheese
Cybercamps
I agree with Dixie's chick that the best auction is one where the committee has embraced their creativity and mixed national with local and look for cool offerings from local folks, be they parents, businesses or community members.
Good luck everyone! Our auction is on April 27 and we have had great luck getting donations this year.
