Auction Donation Ideas

One idea I've tried recently is a movie night idea. You could donate 4 tickets to a movie theater near you, microwave popcorn, some kinds of candy, or other things and put them all in a fun popcorn bowl to keep.

Baking cookies is a GREAT talent that not everyone has!!! How about a Cookie-of-the-Month Basket for the Auction. You could include a gift certificate good for 2-3 dozen homemade cookies, personally delivered by you each month! You can make it for 6 mos. or 9 mos., etc and even include a "menu" of what to expect each month. In addition, for a few $ you could make up a cute basket or cookie platter with a fresh batch for the Auction Table. I think it'd be a very popular item! Good luck.

One idea was a big hit, get a popcorn tub (from blockbuster) put in movie boxes of goobers and raisinettes, get 2 or 4 movies theater tickets or movie rental gift cards and wrap in cellophane. You could also throw in a age appropriate DVD.

At our school auction several people auctioned off their cooking skills so maybe that is an idea for you since you said you are a baker- one person did desserts for the year- one dessert a month for a year for the highest bidder, someone else did this with pies- one pie a month for a year and one gentleman offered one homemade pizza a month for a year!

Are there a couple of businesses that you frequent often. Ask for a Manager or Owner and tell them that you love their store and shop often. Then ask for donation whether it be large or small to contribute to a theme you have thought of. If it is in Feb maybe 2 glasses, a certificate for a bottle of wine(most schools will let you put in a certificate for pickup at your home or stores will do the cert., a box of chocolates and a floral certificate, and maybe a dining certificate(if you don't get donations WBIG1280 has cheaper certs.) If you want time and not bucks offer up plant/pet/house siiting with a fresh baked goody waiting for them on return. Offer the planning of a birthday party or event. Offer of services such as picking up dry cleaning for a period of time or ability to call on you to do an errand, like shopping for birthday gifts. Doing child Taxi service for a month or for an activity.

People who have had to resort to 2 people working don't have time, it's a great gift that people want on the cheap.

Good Luck.

Siobhan, a donation of your time would be very inexpensive! You could put together a babysitting package, maybe once per month for a year. Make a fancy certificate on your computer. Since you mentioned baking cookies, maybe you could offer a cookie of the month type donation. Two dozen cookies a month for a year. Also, you can purchase some Blockbuster gift cards and make little movie night baskets. Include a package of microwave popcorn and some boxed candy. These are very inexpensive to make and in my experience, usually sell for quite a bit. Be creative---it sounds like you are on the right track!

Hello--I made baskets for an auction on Grandparents Day. It was a big success. Popular ones were Starbucks (Starbucks donated 1# of coffee and a mug), I bought a Starbuck's gift card for 10.00 and put a little box of chocolates in it and put it in a dollar store basket & wrapped it with cello and a big wired bow. Another one was American Girl Doll outfits and hair accessories. A bottle of liquor and a few glasses (our liquor store donated the Baileys)along with a dozen supoer size choc chip cookies. Good luck!

Some parents at our school have offered the following at our school auction:

*to teach a class after school (like mosaics, or a soccer session)
*bake cookies once a month for all months that school is in session for the next school year
*offered movie night at their house, or in the school gym (including pop and popcorn) at $15 per student (other parents volunteered to help supervise)
*offered dinner + craft at school or their home (like a taco bar, ice cream bar, etc...)
*offered to plant a few of your garden containers, or help plant plants/bulbs
*offered to teach your child how to ride a bike

If you can bake cookies, do that! Everyone loves cookies!!!

M.

Dear Siobhan, What we do for my kids school and there silent auction is that people donate baskets they have made. You buy a basket and fill it with whatever you want. Make it very appealing or attractive. For example one year I did an Irish basket. Everything in it was irish. Food, movie, beverage etc. You bake so you could make a basket with cookie sheets, recipes for you favorite cookies, cookie cutters, flour, sugar, vanilla etc. I think something like that would be a great idea. I would certainly buy it. Use your imagination and make it look really nice and I think it would be a big hit. Other ideas could be a movie night basket, ladies basket with lotions etc. Good Luck and enjoy your school auction.

My sister's program (PAL program at Clearbrook) does an auction every spring and we get everything from trips, to tickets, to homemade items, to bath products... everything. Two years ago my daughter's father and I went and won 8 Kane County Cougars tickets, a baseball signed by some Sox players, a toy for my daughter, amd tickets to a play.
Anyway, one idea I had was to take a baking sheet, a spatula, a cookie mix, and maybe a timer and make a gift basket. Or maybe collect favorite recipes from friends and family, type them up and make a cookbook and put it with some cooking apparatus (a couple of pans, cooking utensils, etc). You could do that with just about anything. A box of tea, a tea mug, and some slippers or a book in a gift basket. Some stationary, envelopes, a nice pen, and some stamps is another. A movie, some popcorn, a box of candy, and maybe a blanket in a popcorn bowl.
My Mom organizes items for the auction and her suggestion is to buy stuff on clearance and donate them. She said they always get at least retail for them and usually more. She said electronic items are usually hot items.
Good luck!

If your looking to spend $50 then why not put together a themed basket? blockbuster gift card, box of popcorn, candy, soft drinks etc big bowl from a dollar store to hold it all. you can do a great basket for about $30. and a lot of people will buy chances on it. Something I have found lately is that I am more willing to buy chances on something I can actually use as opposed to one that looks cool but is really nothing I can use. good luck

Siobhan,

I have made blankets before. They are very easy to do and don't require any sewing. What you do is find some fleece fabric. Buy about three yards of the fabric. You will need two pieces of about three yards each. L:ay the fabric on top of each other and cut slits around the edge of it. Then tie the fringe pieces that are on top of each other together. You will have a blanket that is tied on the edges which will hold it together.

Another great idea is to host a party at your house of some kind of business where you would get some FREE items in return. That way you could donate the FREE items to the auction.

I would suggest Premier Designs Jewelry. I am a distributor and with only $100 in sales my hostesses are able to get $55 in FREE jewelry. Is all the hostess would pay for is shipping ($4.00) and sales tax. I have donated a set of jewelry for an auction my sister did out in Pennsylvania and she said it went over well.

If you would like to hear more about how to host your own show for FREE jewelry or how to do a fundraiser with Premier please call me at ###-###-#### or email ____@____.com

I hope I have helped some on a couple ideas.

Take Care,

M. Dobush
###-###-####
____@____.com

Making up a basket with a theme - movie theme - homemade-tie throw blanket (very easy to put together)
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-a-Blanket
You can also include microwave popcorn packets, Jones Soda 4 pack (p/u at Target) couple boxes of theatre size candy boxes, paper popcorn bags (again, Target or a dollar store);

Or... another basket idea... wine(or non-alcoholic wine)/cheese basket w/ homemade bread sticks and box of chocolates, nice glasses-and cheap from HomeGoods or TJ Max,

Or an ice cream sundae basket w/ cool bowls, sprinkles, chocolates, small recipe book

Or a cooking/baking basket w/ a variety of cooking utensils - spoons, cookbook, dish towels, great cook book (again - HomeGoods is an awesome store for cheap stuff like this. Great prices on cookbooks and kitcheny stuff).

Gift baskets can always look like more if you work hard to get creative and frugal. Ask friends for a large basket that they no longer need or want. I see them all the time at Garage sales. You might just get lucky and find one. Or... Michaels and Hobby Lobby have these wonderful boxes w/ lids and handles. Using a 40% off coupon, they may not be that expensive but it would be nicer if you were able to spend more on the contents and less on the actual basket/box.

Good luck!

I know some people have donated home cooked meals. You could offer to cook 1 or 2 full meals & deliver it to them. I know other people have donated their time to baby sit someones kids while they go out for a dinner or a movie.

You could always fix some type of gift basket. I have done this numerous times. pick up an inexpensive "used" basket at goodwill etc. for a couple of bucks and pick a theme. pick up items that go with your theme..at Big Lots, Walmart, Target or the Dollar Store. fill it up..they also sell "basket bags" at the dollar store so that you can seal your gift basket. Just think of the types of things you like and put them together.

Birthday party basket....(Dollar store)....Muffin tin, cake mix, frosting, cupcake liners, candles, plates, goodie bags, table cloth, invites, thank you cards. balloons. A party in a basket would make a lot of parents happy! Good luck! If you go to Dollar Bills (in Montgomery or rt 59) with everything for a dollar you could easily make it for $15.oo with that much savings you could even pick out party favors to add the basket.
Have fun!

I donate to my daughters school auctions all the time. I sell Lia Sophia jewelry and would be willing to sell you pieces at my discounted price, which is 70% off. You could easily get a beautiful piece or multiple pieces. I would not charge you anything additional. I am also a teacher and I appreciate all parents who are involved and want to help at events like auctions. If you are interested, email me at ____@____.com
M.

draw upon your talents. Are you a good cook? Could you give away a cooking lesson or something you can make. Maybe a certificate for a catered lunch or dinner. Other thoughts are a room cleaning, detailing a car, closet organization. What do people tell you that you are so good at. Maybe you could put together a scrapbook package or a bucket of items that might not cost much and call it a College Care package with a roll or ziplock bag of quarters for doing laundry. Or a group of stationery items and call it a Writer's Block. Good luck.

You might be surprised at how much cookies might bring. A couple of years I put several pie-a-month gift certificates in an auction and they did well. So, mmm a busy family might be willing to pay for oh a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies each month. :-)

Siobhan,

So why not donate some nice tins of homemade cookies or a cookie-baking lesson, or a dessert at your home? I know a lot of people don't bake and would certainly appreciate one (or all) of those things!

Best,
R.

What about a cookie of the month club coupon? You deliver 1-2 dozen cookies to them each month.

Siobhan, i was in the same situation when my children were little. We did not have much money but I wanted to donate something. I donated four hours of cleaning time for someone's home and my more creative idea was packing a child's lunch for two weeks. I was going to have the family tell me what the child liked to eat and I would pack the lunch and bring it to the child. It was auctioned off but the person never collected. A.

Sounds like you are good at baking cookies, lots of people would pay good money for some homemade cookies..maybe you can make serveal dozen batches of your favorite kinds to auction off! I'm sure it would be under your budget, and some people will really appreciate it, I would..my grandma isn't around to make her aweseome cookies anymore!

Two great ideas that they had for our auction was a goodie of the month club where you bake 1 treat a month for a family and deliver it.

The other idea was scrapbooking. If you are a scrapbooker, you could volunteer to complete a certain number of pages.

Then of course there's the airline tickets, ticket to pro sports events and time at your vacation home you can donate! :-)

You could offer to bake a dessert each month for a year for the winner.

There are some really great ideas here. But whatever you decide to do, research local stores to purchase the products. Then talk to the manager/owner and explain what your donation is for and ask if they would be willing to match your purchase price in donated goods. If they say no, find another place. You would be surprised how many businesses would be willing to help out the local schools. You can then attach a postcard to the donation to acknowledge that business.

A friend of mine just donated a home-cooked meal to an auction. The people who one the auction came over to his house and he served them a fabulous home cooked meal. Good luck!

We wrote a book on traveling with kids - a fun, how-to-guide. My friend is putting together a travel package for her school auction with little wrapped plane gifts, a blank travel journal, activity sheets, and a copy of our book. I'd be willing to experiment with sending free promotional copies to Moms who promise that they are using the book for a package at their school auction - maybe it could go with frequent flyer points or even a "stay at this cabin for 2 nights" adventure or just a simple package like my friend is putting together.

I'm not totally sure how to facilitate this without exposing my e-mail address to the world. You could leave me a comment on our book site. I don't even need to approve it but I will see it and can e-mail you back. Or send me a note on twitter (familyonloose) or Goodreads.

I love the idea of supporting school fundraisers and getting book exposure and promoting fun family travel all in one! Thx for considering. Book site is http://www.familyontheloose.com/read-the-book-2/

Offer what you like to do - baking cookies! I was in the same situation some years ago so I offered the "Cookie of the Month" club. I did this for three people. Each month I would bake and they would receive 2 dozen cookies. (so I made 6 dozen cookies each month) As the winners lived close to me, I would deliver the cookies to their home on the first of the month. It was fun for me to be able to offer something for the auction and the people seemed to enjoy the cookies too. (BTW, I still bake for the one lady who bid at the auction) Good luck and have fun

Dear Siobhan,

My kids school is having an auction and I can't even afford the $50. So I have asked my friends and family to help volunteer there time or products. For example my one friend is making a gift cert for 10 hours of free spanish lessons. My sister is giving a gift cert for a free massage. I am giving a free day of daycare. My other friend is making a blanket to have actioned off. Every little item is helpful. So maybe see if your neighbors would help you out. Do you know someone that plows, mows, etc. Maybe you know of a business that would help donate. But baking is also great, I never thought of that. Maybe do a little basket full of stuff for $50.

This may be more pertinent to christmas time, but I was part of an auction where someone was auctioning off gift wrapping. Not the paper but to actually go to the persons house and wrap all of their gifts for them. They supply the paper and the tape and have all the gifts ready to have wrapped.......