I've found out that timeframe really doesn't matter. I can send things out 4 months ahead of time and get a lot of things up front and some things come in up until the day of the event. Just be sure to mark the date of your event so that donator can adjust their expiration dates, current event items, etc.
They are counting them all--not using business days. When they say they need 30 days notice, that's like saying "give us a month"--not 6 weeks; they mean that if your event is on July 1, you need to let them know by June 1.
That said, though--sooner is still better! For an early June fundraiser, I send out letters in the beginning of February, for the most part. Some people do say it's too early, but I just follow up whenever they say the better timeframe is.
Business Days means Monday through Friday. Although I don't think it matters anymore when you send the donation requests because it seems like most companies reject them anyway!
When companies require donation requests 60 or 90 days before your fundraiser do you go by business days or count them all.
I am working backwards figuring out the time frame for my auction (30 days, 45, 60 etc.)
When determining these dates, I automatically used only 'business days' (ie: excluding weekends and holidays).
Does anyone know if this is the 'norm'? Using business days I would need to send out requests in August for a December event or September for January. I'm fine with it just need to know if this is what should be done?
I don't want my request to be too early or too late...