We did a massive mailing last year requesting donations for our Silent Auction. It was our first, and we did ok. I was a little disappointed with the responses. A lot of large companies did not even respond to say no. We did have some VERY generous people/businesses. I did tons of research on the internet-pretty much any large corporation you can think of got a letter from us. A good way to gauge who to ask is by checking out websites- under the corporate section. There is usually a section for community involvement. Sometimes, it is sort of hidden under corporate citizenship. Most companies have sometimes strict guidelines on who, what, when, where and why. For example, Old Navy, Gap & Banana Republic are all owned by Gap. You can only ask for one donation per year for the entire chain. They have 1 address specifically for donation requests and you have to ask at least 6 weeks in advance.(That is the way w/most places) Incidently-they are one of the companies that we did not even get a no from.
Country Mom is right. Asking managers/owners in person is a much better tact. It is harder to say no to a face than to simply throw a letter in the circular file. Also, local business are more likely to want the exposure in your community. Everyone knows about Disney, but Joe's Pizza Shop could probably use a little cheap publicity & the undying gratitude & repeat business of your PTO members!
I hope you understand, but I am just a little to close to this to be ready to give up my list yet! [img]smile.gif[/img] But I would be more than happy to share my limited experience. (ps- a little searching on these boards will turn up some good ideas to start with)
Good luck- its a lot of hard work, but when those envelopes & boxes start rolling in, it is SOOO worth it!
DonnaS -
We have been getting things together for a silent auction and find that visiting managers at local hot spots works great. It's a lot of foot work but works for us. We have also found that with large corporations (Home Depot, Lowes etc) it's faster to deal with the local managers than the corporate red paperwork. Good Luck and let us know how it goes!
<font size=""1"">We must overcome the notion that we must be regular...it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to do the mediocre."</font> (Uta Hagen)</font></font><br /><br> <br /><br>"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments...
