Nonsequitur, we started this two years ago as part of our Spring Carnival. It’s a lot of work and frustrating at times, but each year gets easier. We have learned that communication is key to relieving some of the stress of pulling this event together. We start by discussing it at the PTA meeting so that new parents will understand how the event works. As the event leader for this fundraiser, I address the teachers at one of their staff meeting, answering any questions they have. This is especially helpful for the new teachers.

We use the money from the silent auction and spring carnival to provide small teacher grants for the next school year, so we don’t have many problems getting the teachers involved. We are have one of the teachers volunteer as a teacher liaison for this event and that teacher rallies the other teachers around this event. It also helps that the principal is very much a part of this as well.

I have a sign-up sheet posted in the teacher lounge with themes for the baskets and each teacher signs their name next to the theme they have chosen for their class. If a teacher doesn’t pick one by the deadline, the committee picks one for them.

I developed a package for the spring carnival/silent auction that been very helpful for the teachers, parents and the committee. Each year I just change the dates and update the information a little. The package works like this:
* A letter to the teachers thanking them for their support and providing procedures for the event (deadlines, collection, etc.)
* A large manila envelope for each teacher for collecting forms and money envelopes. It has a form glued on one side with the teacher’s name, grade, and theme for the class basket. They check a box to let us know if they will shop for their class basket or if they want the committee to do the shopping.
* An envelope for each student to take home which contains:
- A form letter to the parents that the student complete in class that tells the theme and what items the class wants for its basket. On the other side is a letter from the PTA about the event.
- A form explaining that they can donate an item for the basket or money that will be combined with money from the other class parents to but items for the theme basket. We suggest $1-$5 in the letter, so parents know they can contribute what they can afford. (We are a variety of family income levels in our school and this way parents will feel comfortable giving just a dollar.) The parents return the form telling us in advance what their contribution will be. We include an envelope that the parents use to send the money to school.
- A letter asking for volunteers. On the other side is the Volunteer Form for the event.
- A letter about the flea market. On the other side is the Flea Market Vendor Registration Form.
- A letter asking for donations of items that can be also be auctioned off. On the other side is the Donor Form.

A team does a phone blitz one night at the school. We call each parent to remind him or her about the items for the class basket. Sometimes kids forget to give their parents the information package and sometimes the parents forget the deadline is coming up.

The parents drop off or send by the child their item or money donation. The teachers collect the items and envelopes. Valuable items and all money are locked up in the “vault” in the main office. Some of the teachers want to shop for their basket; otherwise, a team does the shopping. A team puts the baskets together on the designated night. If there are not enough items for a class basket, we will combine two classes. We know how much our parents will bid so if we have too many items for one basket, we will split the items into two or more baskets. We set minimum bids for each basket (generally a few dollars lower than the value of the basket).

The silent auction is also a class competition. The classes that have the top 3 selling baskets get either a cupcake and ice cream party, an ice party, or a goody bag party. We give the teachers of these classes a small bouquet of flowers. We don’t announce the winners; we surprise the classes. It’s fun for the kids and teacher.

Nonsequitur, I hope this long-winded post was helpful. If you want to see some of the letters and forms, let me know. Hang is there. It really does get easier.

kmamom:
I would be interested to know what the minor problem was with class moms organizing/wrapping the baskets.

We do that at our school for our Winter Wonderland. The tricky tray is just one room of our Winter Wonderland. We have been doing class baskets for 5 years now and the moms all seem to enjoy this facet of being a class mom. It is the "fun" part to them. Initally, there was a problem with one mom, but she got over it when she saw that no one else was having a problem with it (plus she was not there at the homerooms moms tea when an info sheet was distributed and was clueless it seemed). Over the years it has become a class "pride" issue with lots of baskets, containers, whatever coming in wrapped up really nice. (who can outdo the other..)

The first year we did our "class basket" themes, myself and my co chair initated it and had no idea what to expect! OMG it was a good idea I was not having Thanksgiving at my house that year. I was so inundated with donations, we literally had to clear a path to get to the door. The wrapping and assembling at that point was going to be done by us and we were, clueless, at how much work it would be ....Took us 10 hours to get it all done. From that year forward we had the class moms handle the baskets and wrapping and bring them in on setup day! That said, it did save the chairs a lot of time.

Everyone loves the tricky tray room. (We even had to move it to a bigger location - 30+ class baskets and business donations and large prizes are not good in the front hall foyer anymore)

Our experience with Basket Raffles is that they make great money, but they seem to be a real hassle for the teachers... Don't understand it, but there it is...

nonsequitur--I haven't been around for awhile--I thought you were turning in your PTO superpowers . I'm VERY happy to see you're still here!!!!

We're doing this project for our Tricky Tray, as corporate sponsors have been a bit slow in response. At first we were going to have the class moms handle it, but there was a minor issue there (don't ask ), so now this is how we're going to handle it:

-letter to teachers with flyer to parents attached, explaining what we're up to. Each class will be assigned two themes to vote on. If neither are to their liking we'll try to accomodate them.

-letter to parents is to the point, and will give class's theme AND states that participating is NOT mandatory, but GREATLY appreciated. We'll give some examples of items they could use to help them. We toyed with the idea of assigning items as well, but opted not to. We'd rather have doubles than risk alienating people. Believe me, in this town people LOVE looking for ways to make trouble! We were going to ask for $5 or item of that amount relating to the theme, but realized the money handling could get sticky, so we went with items.

-there's a due date, and we're providing collection box. If they (the teacher or class mom) want to wrap the basket that's ALWAYS appreciated, but we're not counting on getting that lucky, as teacher participation in our school is, shall we say, less than stellar.

I gotta tell you, in our area auctions would NOT do well. People want a bargain, and while they'll spend $100 on raffle tickets for specific items at a Tricky Tray, they'd NEVER bid more than say, 10 or 20 bucks for an item. It's just the psychology here. Spending $100 on raffle tickets with the chance of winning say 3-20 prizes, as opposed to spending $75 on one basket. Have you guys thought about doing a Tricky Tray rather than an auction? They're definitely not EASY to organize, but I think the potential to make money could be greater.We plan on having flyers, posters in grocery stores and adverstising in the local papers (for free in the "things to do" section).

There's actually a Tricky Tray website for those of us in NJ ( www.trickytray.com I think), that lists when, where and what they have as prizes.

On buying the baskets--what we have been doing is going to the dollar store and buy laundry baskets, then fill those. They're cheap, and it's easier to see that stuff that is inside. They look better than decorated boxes (did that one year) and are cheaper than other fancy baskets (did that, too).

We assign two classrooms the same theme, so that if one classroom comes up short, we mix it with another ones to even out the baskets a little. One school I know tried having similar themes by grade level; that worked well, too. We do our baskets as raffles, though, not auctions, so that makes a little bit of a difference.

We use our baskets/prize donations as bingo prizes at our fall festival. We have about 200 bingo cards, and some games ($1 and $2 per game) we run out of cards. That's $200-400 per game guys! We are getting more cards this year.

Christine