Hi all! My school is having its first silent auction april8 2005. I am new to this fundraising thing and would love any tips or lists that people are willing to pass on. Our school is located in New Castle County Delaware.
Thanks so much
kathy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
My experience is that it is very unusual to get a "no" in a letter. Usually they just don't reply (and avoid your phone calls!). Sometimes the "yes" replies just send in the donation. Most letters require a telephone followup of some sort.
We started in August and have mailed out close to 200 letters. To date, we have received 15 NO responses and 35 YES reponses. With the YES responses, they sent the item that they were donating, with the exception of the ones where you had to provide additional information(ie: American Girl, Circuit City).
We are not discouraged, because we have not gone to any local businesses in person yet and we have over 40 items for our tricky tray.
I sent out several letters about 6 weeks ago and have had a few replies. My question is this,Do the businesses reply with a yes or no in letters. I have about 20 out there that I have not heard from. I have never sent out request letters before and decided to try it this year. Thanks for any help.