Dixie's Chick;130392 wrote:
for the sale of items, it works the same way, under value to fair market value is a wash, anything over FMV is tax deductable for the buyer and the recipet they recieve at the auction is plenty of proof.
I believe this is only true on items that have a defined price/value.
If you pay $100 for a $50 gift certificate, then -- yes -- the extra $50 can be deductible (provided the charity is a recognized charity).
But if the item is less definable, then the IRS actually considers the bidding war as the determinant of market value. Example: if 3 families go crazy bidding on the old $20 desk with $10 worth of painted kids handprints on it, and the winning bidder pays $500, then the IRS considers that $500 to be the fair market value of that item.
Sunny FL, congratulations on a successful event!!! You obviously worked very hard and put a lot into this gala. Thank you for coming back and letting us all know how it turned out for you.
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Thank you all for your wonderful advice! Our event was a huge success. We ended up selling 117 tickets- less than we wanted but the people that came were very generous with their bidding. We were able to use our title sponsor's credit card machine so I believe this helped with sales as well. We had the draft beer donated for free (all sales were a profit for us) and had a signature martini at the event where we received half the proceeds from the sale. This helped off set our meal cost at the Country Club and allowed us to keep more of our ticket sale money. On the auction items alone we made almost 15k. We should be close to 19k for the entire event. I think we will definitely do this again, but will make some adjustments to have more parental participation. Our principal seemed to really enjoy the event.
kcI run a fundraising company and in dealing with schools I ask them how sucessful they want thier event to be. The answer is always the same..."very sucessful".
It's simple! Being a non-profit organization you have a wealth of marketing available to you, for free! You can call your local newspapers and radio stations and get them to "tag" your event. You will appear in the events or neighborhood sections in your papers.
I suggest contacting your local and regional papers. Remember that the larger the circulation, the higher impact. The radio stations usually have a "what's going on in your neighborhood" spot. With radio stations you must realize what demographic you are going after. In other words, it may not be a great idea to contact a hip-hop station since thier listeners are younger and usually can not afford $60 tickets. You would really need a couple of weeks for it to be effective, but it does work. You will reach beyond your immediate demographic (School population) and open up your event up to, sometimes, several counties in your area.
our school could never afford anything like that but the High schools do and they have a catered meal.
1. you need to get your marketing team to hit your local business, corporations, churches and surrounding schools. many schools go to other school auctions.
2. let them know it's tax deductible
3. put a program out of the items you have collected already. this gives them a preview and entices people to come!
4. get creative with your newsletters and flyers but also be truthful...."if we don't meet our goal of 20K, many school programs will have to be cut out of our budget!"
Each week send home a flyer which includes new items added for the auction, along with a count down to the event and purchase info. for example :
4 weeks left to the Little City May Day Auction
just added : a Schilling autographed baseball
dinner for 4 at Carmines
If you don't sell as many tickets as you would like, take any gift cards you may have gotten and put them in envelopes and go table to table and sell each envelope for a specific amount $5 or $10 each. You can also go table to table with a softsided briefcase or some type of bag and ask for donations. Go every hour until the last couple of items are being bid on then auction off the bag.
