I think that's a great idea-- I think this list should be nation companies-- and local that are nation wide chains--- I have no problem giving out a list of companies with addresses to contact like this-- And why not work together on this type of donation-- local companies should be done on your own-- since many change year to year... I'll start putting my list together and make a new post...Hope more add to list---- please do not put send me a list or add your comments to this-- just add more companies that can help everyone out.
Again, great suggestion. FoxMom

FoxMom;142614 wrote: The 6 C's-- your right-- getting donations takes work-- giving suggestions on how to get them is a great way to start-- I post who gives, who doesn't and why the don't and that's a big one... But I agree- if you are trying to get donations, you can't expect someone just to give you their list that they worked hard to get -- take suggestions of this site and go out and look-- it doesn't take that much effort to write a letter and open a phone book--
Good luck!

I agree! It does take some legwork and you need to be aware of what your school's families will like. We got a lot of donations from local businesses and from families with connections to other companies though I tapped into more national companies this year because of the number of local silent auctions going on in the area I live in.

However, I think it doesn't hurt to ask for a list of companies (not private individuals) in list form (not a jumble of a dozen posts, for example) - I think we've probably all seen a post here and there with such a list and built our own lists from those. However, because those posts were all over the place, it was frustrating and very time-consuming. While I'm sure we all want others to put in some time and work as well and not take advantage of the work others have done, I also see no need to reinvent the wheel either, kwim? I weeded through a number of posts in different threads on this forum but I had to go through a lot of tangential posts and that took a lot of time. Also, the addresses/contacts we have for some of those nationally known companies may change from year to year and others need to be aware of that.

Maybe we can start a thread of posts with names of national companies that we've dealt with and heard from. No chatter, just lists.

I've learnt a lot through the boards here and hope I can find a way to give back as well.

The 6 C's-- your right-- getting donations takes work-- giving suggestions on how to get them is a great way to start-- I post who gives, who doesn't and why the don't and that's a big one... But I agree- if you are trying to get donations, you can't expect someone just to give you their list that they worked hard to get -- take suggestions of this site and go out and look-- it doesn't take that much effort to write a letter and open a phone book--
Good luck!

Lately I have been getting a lot of emails asking me for my list. My auction list has a lot of names and addresses of families at our school so I am not willing to send my list out of respect for their privacy. I hope you understand. These message boards are a great place to get the info you are looking for. I have posted about the donations we have received from national companies. I have spent many hours researching websites and contacting companies. No one gave me a magic list of addresses. Try every restaurant in your area. Their gift certificates always go for value or over for us. I contacted every team, theatre, museum, etc. in our city and got donations from about 90% of them. Our other biggest success was sending home a letter to the parents asking them to ask their employers and think out of the box. One dad is the editor of the local paper and he gave us a subscription. Another dad gave us 2 of his season tickets to a KU basketball game next season which will do very well since the BIG WIN!!! Go Jayhawks!! A few parents work for banks and had lots of fun things to donate. Home party moms have also been successful. they are more than willing to donate to their kids school and it is great marketing for them. Once we started asking we found that we had 15 moms who sold for different direct sales companies. The donations are out there but it does take a little effort.

If you have a well known author in your area or music artist,
go to their publicist, via their publishing company and ask for
donations. I won't tell you who we got because you would
freak out but we got a book signed by the author and illustrator.
It is a new release and we can't find anyone who has it ....the
illustrator told us he hasn't signed one. The other night it sold
for $800 and I am sure it will get $2K on EBay shortly.
Our music donation came with signed pictures, CDs and signed
shirts. Think big...really big...our auction was for literacy so we
went to the big publishing houses....the music houses are great
and we raised a boat load of money because the items were unique.

Last week we received donations from Ganz, Ty, Texas Roadhouse and Panera. All letters were sent to the corporate office.