[At our Fall Carnival, we also have a silent auction that holds 50-75 items. At the end of the night, the people that are still there pay for their items (but we have 3-4 cashiers, 1 for each table of items). On the bid sheets, they put their name and phone numbers, we then contact the winners that they can pick up their items at the school office. We leave a detailed list with the school office and the secretaries are nice enough to check out anyone who comes in and we collect the money on a daily basis. We give them approx. one week to come in and pick up their item, we then call them again and if they have decided they do not want the item, we then move to the next bidder.
Our Auction Coordinator does an awesome job getting donations. She starts sending out donation letters around May-June to both local and national retailers and has averaged 70-100 donations. We also have parents donate baskets who have businesses like Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, Affordable Luxuries, etc. She usually shops with the gift cards sent to her and has had things like a portable basketball hoop, DVD player with new release kid movie, and also will pay 1/2 price for items like nights at hotel that people usually pay full price for.
There's usually a great variety - tools, kids things, etc.
WOW...you make a lot of money. What kind of things do you get donated? We do a basket raffle that teachers make and do a silent action. That doesn't bring in a lot of money though.
Our school has a Silent Auction during our Harvest Festival event in October. This is our third year for this event and each year we try to revamp it to make check out and finding winners go a little smoother. What we do right now is place a bid sheet next to each item (usually donated items from retailers, parents, etc.) People bid on the items they want and the bidding closes approximately 30 minutes before the end of the Harvest Festival. The winners of the items are posted on sheets outside of the area. We are trying to find a way to speed up the check out process.
Right now we have volunteers going around the room collecting winner's items and waiting for them to check out. What do other schools do to make checkout during these types of events go smoother? It is a very successful event we make approx 3-5,000 in an evening so there are usually 50-100 winners paying for items - and we do already have more than one "check-out" person.
Any feedback you can offer would be great! Thanks!
