Without question, some of the best items are always items people cannot go to a store and buy.
So get a group of folks together and brain storm this concept. Look at your school community and see what might be right at your fingertips!
Here are some examples from other schools:
-
“Handymen for the day”4-5 men friends get together and offer their time and expertise as an auction item
-
“Cooks for the Day” You could do this same concept with a group for cooking for the day! Cook and freeze! 4-5 women or men get together and go to someone’s house and cook for the family for a week in one day! How nice.
-
Dinner or Lunch or any kind of outing with a NOTABLE person – from your school or someone someone knows from your school... i.e. a celebrity, a politician, a local hero, a giant business man or women. Don’t be modest or overlook a great possibility.
-
Exposure, Experience & Contacts…Intern/Visits Connect with your school’s parents/grandparents and create mini “intern” programs to auction off. They could be ½ day, a full day or a week in the summer. These are great opportunities for your students. Ideas: a day with a veterinarian, in a news room, with an artist, shadowing an athlete, on capital hill, with a lobbyist, in any office or place of work. This is easier to do than you think!
-
Raffle off 1 or 2 close-in parking spots to students at your school for the year.
-
The Wine Cellar, At your first gala committee meeting ask everyone to bring a bottle of wine. Have them write a gift tag message on the bottle – i.e., “this is our favorite wine for friends”. Package the wines into a nice display.
-
Sign-up Parties -- Hold an ice skating party at a public out door rink; a pool party at some one’s home; a golf outing for 10; a ride on a boat; a cocktail party for 50 or an outdoor movie party in a backyard. Charge each attendee a modest fee that is still in excess of the costs of the party. The revenue raised can go to your fundraising -- the community building element of this idea will pay dividends for years.
-
Roof Top Office Party for 12 people to Watch the DC Fireworks. Make it a signup party.
-
Pay a seamstress to make a school blanket or throw from school tee-shirts, memorabilia, or uniforms and auction it off. Do one or two only so it is unique and of value. Date it. Can make one for anyone in the school and one for a senior or last year student like an 8th grader.
Other General Thoughts to help fundraise:
-
An advance on-line auction seems to work well and is profitable for schools that have set this up. You have certain items available on-line in advance only and cut it off the day before the event. This allows people who don’t attend the auction to still make purchases.
-
If the Shoe Fits- Christmas House Tours. If your school community has great or interesting homes, this can be a terrific money maker and lots of fun. For example, charge. $10.00 - $15.00 to visit 6 homes (or gardens in the spring). The homes do not all have to be located together. Make it a “progressive” tour, with a raffle or food item at each home. People are use to driving in our area.
