School Auction Blog

I am in a group called Washington Junior Holstein Association. We are raising money to go to Convention in Wisconsin where we will participate in Quiz bowl, Dairy Jepardy, Speach, and Scrapbook contests. We have already done a Soup and Pie Social and an Auction.

We still need about $10,000 to send all team members to competion. Any ideas?

WOW! What a cool opportunity!

I’ve been heavily involved with nonprofit fund raising for years….so here are some ideas I have that could be relatively low in cost for your cause…

1) Consider a mail campaign – depending on how many mailing addresses you have, you never know how many people might respond to your cause and just write you a check! This works amazingly well for several organizations that are short on time AND resources.

2) Consider running an online auction – this is an AWESOME way to get to the people whose mailing addresses you don’t have (ie you’ve got their EMAILS)…your email base can feel like they’re using their expendable income on great stuff AND its going to their community at the same time!
I’ve included a link of one of the online auction companies that I’ve worked with…cMarket. They also have another website, BiddingforGood.com, that opens your auction up to all their members so that people who you don’t even know can donate to your cause and bid on your items!

3) Instead of having a garage sale at your home, try having a "garage" sale on eBay! Think of it as a virtual way to get rid of some stuff AND make a little more money…(make sure you include the cost of shipping those items online or else you’ll end up losing money!).

4) Have a fundraising event – give people in your community something to look forward to, and host a gala….you can sell tickets, have an auction, raffle prizes, etc that will give your church something to look forward to AND a perfect opportunity to donate to something they care about.

5) One last tid bit – consider selling sponsorships for your event…this can help off set some of your cost INCREDIBLY. You’d be surprised how many local businesses want to be a part of your cause-minded event! You can ask for anywhere around $500 per sponsor, and if you put your auction online, you can ask for even more than that because they’ll be getting just that much more exposure through your website and event emails!

Best of luck with all of this!

I go to a tiny all girls boarding school in the middle of no where. this coming year im going to be president of the 11s class. a big part of what i do, is help raise money for my class to pay for our banquet(we pick a theme and we buy cups, plates, decorations and stuff like that) and to pay for our class trip. i was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to raise money? we have parents weekends where parents of the students come up for a weekend and check out the school and stuff. usually the classes sell snacks and stuff or auction of baskets. also the seniors have a senior auction and he can buy a senior for a day and he can dress they up and make them do stuff for you lol if rlly funny and the go for a lot. anyway i am really hoping for any idea that you guys might have. i kinda want to move away from asking parents for money be i feel that we do that alot. i hope to here your ideas!! thanks

you could do t-shirts or go around to local resturants and ask to speak to a manager and tell him you are doing a discount card to help raise money and if he would like to get on the back of it for a small fee. then turn around and sell the cards that offer savings at local resturants and local places. i sell both of these item plus more if you need anything

I am organizing a fundraising event for a performing arts group and the theme is a night on broadway. I am looking for shops and or private collectors who have broadway memorabilia to ask for donations or reduced cost merchandise for a fundraising auction. I have tried to contact stores in the USA but am not getting any response. I have researched for Australian shops which may sell these kinds of things but no luck so far. If anyone has any information regading where I can get original broadway memorabilia like photos, posters, playbills, programmes, signed posters etc I would be extremely grateful.

try ebay

i really need help in trying to find companies who are willing to donate a item for a auction of promise or prizes that could be use in a raffle or bingo.
i also need to find companies who would like to sponsor our football teams kits and maybe even donate money to buy new equipment for the club.
so if you can help in any way please contact me.thank you

Just start knocking on doors and making phone calls. One tip is to focus on locally owned businesses. Very often in large chain stores or multibranch companies the manager has little control over the money or over donations and trying to get anything out of them is a hassle.

What are some fundraising ideas that do not involve door to door sales or bothering the family with order forms. examples like, popcorn day for the kids, or white elephant bingo, or gift basket auctions. thanks alot for any input

Congratulations on being an involved parent!

Ideas:

1) One school in our area does a "new to you" sale each year. All the items are donated and they raise about 30k!

The biggest problem with this is it requires a LOT of volunteerism!

I think our school could do it by selling spaces in the playground for $20.00 and letting families/crafters/vendors come sell their own stuff. This way there is NO real work for the school…other than advertising and clean up. All vendors would be responsible for the removal of their own items at the end of the day…contact the goodwill to have a truck there at the end of the day for anyone that doesnt want to cart off their unsellables.

2) Field day!

Have some cheesy carnival games (throw the toilet paper thru the toilet seat, pie toss at the principal, find the candy in the bucket of corn kernals) and hotdog cart.

3) Contact a restaurant (like Friendly’s or Perkin’s) They will have a "family night" where your school can come and a portion (10- 25%) of their sales to your school.

4) Box tops for education

5) Money Market (many of the stores…like home depot..grocery stores) if you buy gift cards thru the school instead of thru them will give you 10-25%.

6) Bowling

Have a fun bowling day at one of the local alleys. See if you can get a reduced rate for booking so many lanes and use the extra as profit. Hold contests during the games.

7) Balloon-day

In advance the kids can order/pay for balloons to be delivered to their friends. Parents can order/pay for balloons to be delivered to their children. The cost of the balloons to purchase and fill would be pennies…but they could sell for .75-1.00 each. (or flowers/cookies/etc)

see if one of your movie theaters..(second run or a big complex) would donate an off hours special viewing of a movie and donate the proceeds to the school…or the proceeds of the snack bar!

9) AUCTION

One of the schools in our area has an annual auction. Its a dinner JUST for the parents at the school. They pay to come (contact the high school or community college to see if the culinary students will donate some of their talents) Have some older students in the school available to be servers.

Enlist the art teacher and go to the goodwill (or ask parents to rummage thru their basements for items) Find a desk or chair.. old picture frames..etc) Have the students in each class decorate the items…(kindergarten parents are the best ones to target because they aren’t jaded yet..hehehe) decorate with fingerprints..handprints…etc.

Other auction ideas:

A parking pass! A special parking spot for parents that pick up their kids that let them go to the front of the line..closest spot to their kids dorr and lets them drive right up pick up/drop off and get out of dodge!!!! (One parent paid $200.00 for this!!)

Older students can make jewelry, purses, ornaments.

Many local museums will donate memberships as will karate schools, dance classes, art schools..etc…

10) Contact your local chamber of commerce, kiwanis, rotary, masons, business counil, moms club, mops club, etc…to see if your school can be the benefactor of one of their fundraisers!!!

11) SILLY PRINCIPAL!

Have the principal offer to do something ridiculous! (Ride a donkey thru the lunchroom, shave his beard, dress up like a leprechan, make a hundred snow angels, eat a watermellon without using her hands..whatever)

In each class room have a giant jar.. the kids can bring in their pennies to vote for which ridiculous thing the principal will do….the winning class gets to choose…or..set a goal..if the kids reach $1000.00 the principal will do the silly thing.

good luck!