Great to see a dad!!!!!!!!!!!
I ran a auction last year found out we should have started 9-12 months in advance. Big co. get asked for donations constantly, they can only give so much each month. (I am from a pretty small town but sent letters to big companys anyways)
I sent out letters to all of our town!! I sent to artists, pro- sports, relators everyone. I divided my town into 6, and got 6 people to each take a section they all went to the businesses about 20 days after the letter arrived. The letter said they would be coming we had about 85 suilent items, made alot with a raffle raffle off wine! !
Oh and we made very thing pretty! Women love to buy/look at pretty things! So if a bottle of wine was donated, we would put it in a basket with silver stuffing and 2 wine glasses (from the dollar store) wrap it and add a huge silver bow!!! I am telling you the wrapping took days and my baby was unwrapping, the house was a mess, but the stuff sold better then unwrapped.
Also we had a auction bid sheet printed up at the printers-Triple copy, and the close of the auction 4 auction staff roped the area off and underlined all closing bids-- Hey people cheat! Then 1 copy stayed with the item 2 went to the cashier (staff took them to the cashier) Everyone was assigned a bidding # when ckecking in! The cashier had a box with numbered envelopes. Copy 2&3 were filed in the winning bidder envelope. Say you Were bidder # 24 when you checked out you would say #24 and the cashier would pull your envelpoe. Inside was copy 2& 3 of your winning auctions. Once paid you would take copy #2 (stamped paid) to the auction staff to get your item & the cashier would keep #3 for our records!
This worked because we had a live auction also, so the staff/cashier had time to file the winning bid sheets in the envelopes. I guess before when people took their item up to pay they would leave, change their bid! Hope this was helpful A auction is alot of work!!!!!!!!
Congratulations, and welcome to the world of fundraising! When is your silent auction? If you have enough time, mail out letters to businesses outside of your area, but within a reasonable distance. For example, tickets to theme parks are popular, and most people don't mind driving longer distances to get to them. If you have a larger town or city close by, you can ask for donations from restaurants, stores and other businesses. You can also try bowling alleys and skating rinks. It never hurts to ask any business for a donation. We've received some really neat items from some unexpected sources, including carpet remnants (big enough to cover a living room!) and a scooter. Good luck!
First I want to say that I have read alot of very useful information here and I appreciate all of it. I am feeling alittle over whelmed by my newly elected duties. My wife, god bless her, put my name in as candidate for the PTO president while I was at work. No one was going to do it since the last one did so poorly and really put a bad rep on the whole thing. So I am glad to help for the kids! Our biggest fundraiser is using Paragon but a whole lot of the other schools and groups do the same. I was trying to find something different. I have heard alot of parents tell me how they take the catalog to work and set it down by about 4 or 5 others for people to buy things. I thought something different would help it go over better. I am putting some energy into our silent auction but being from a small town am having trouble finding items. Any suggestions? Any help at all would be great! :eek:
