Thank you so much for thinking of Tastefully Simple as you plan your fundraising event,
In accordance with our giving guidelines, all our donations are made within a 50-mile radius of Alexandria, MN.
Contact: Linda Baltes @ tastefullysimple
Hope this helps those of you in the vicinity.

This site is so awesome! This is my 3rd year chairing my daughter's school dinner auction. To STL mom--I am just south of St. Louis and would love to share some contact info if you would be willing. My e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thanks to everyone for your posts-we have gotten a lot of donations from the leads posted. Our bike from strider should be coming this week!

I got a confirmation on 11/2/10 that we will get a donation from Keurig. Our event is April 2nd so I hope they will send the coffemaker by mid March.
Hopefully I don't have to contact them again and they will send the donation before our Tricky Tray event.

I was contacted by RockAuto.com to see if I wanted some promo material from them to offer at our car show. They're also sending some gift certificates. I had never heard of them until I listed our show on a website and she emailed me! They're an online auto parts store.
I haven't looked to find how to make a request directly from the website since I didnt have to but I would think it's under faq.

rockauto.com/

Thank you everyone for your ideas!

Here are a few national companies not yet listed that that I have had success with. Please remember to include your Tax ID#.

Dairy Queen - www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/community/

Joes Crab Shack - www.joescrabshack.com/about/Donation.aspx

Chipotle - www.chipotle.com/en-US/company/philanthropy.aspx

Mrs. Fields - ww2.mrsfields.com/contact/

Gander Mountain - www.gandermountain.com/customer_service/donations.shtml

Brooks Brothers - brooksbrotherscorporate.requestitem.com/


The bank that our PTA does business with (Wells Fargo) generously donated savings bonds. We had to talk to the bank manager for this.

Target Stores - You must go in person and submit for a donation. Each store has a specific amount of gift cards every month. I go every month to 3-4 different stores, with a letter asking for a donation and have been lucky enough to get 1 gift card each year.

Found that children's books written by authors in your state is a very hot area. Some local authors are more than happy to assist you with copies of books. Also sometimes "well known" authors are in the area on book signings and doing some 'extra' work by going to the book signing will go far. We have Laura Numeroff coming to our city and we will be going to purchase some books for her to sign and auction off at the auction.

I also hit up local artist (who want to become "known") as well as local moms' who have websites for their at-home businesses. Have had some success. We also solicited donations from school vendors such as the picture takers, computer class vendor, gymnastics, etc (we are a 501c3 early childhood education center).

Our auction is in St. Louis, but here's the national companies that we went after and were successful with:

YES -
Silver Dollar City - Admission Tickets
Baldknobbers - $100
Cheesecake Factory - $50
Dick's Sporting Goods - $25
STL Cardinals, River City Rascals, Gateway Grizzlies - Tickets
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters - Coffee Maker
Happy Joe's Pizza - $20
Holiday World Splashin' Safari - Admission Tickets
Jan Brett - Signed poster
PinkCalyx - $25
Daddy Label - Gift Certificate
Notre Dame - Signed Picture of Football coach
Pro Football HOF - 2 Admission Tickets
Ronocco Coffee - Coffee Basket
Sesame Street Workshop - Signed Photo of Big Bird and Feather
Local and Regional Universities - Logo and Promo materials
Stampin Up - $300-$400 products
Disney World - 4/1 day hopper passes
Westin Hotel - Free Weekend night
Your True Nature - Firefly tshirt
White Castle - Carve Case

**We also go many local theatres, designers, restuarants, museums, spas, golf courses, camera shop, coffee houses, chocolate bar parties for 10, upscale bowling alley parties for 10, condo weekend and places. We sent out over 400 donation requests. Some of our best packages are the "priceless" ones such as:

- Mounted Patrol Visit to School for visit with all children, but the winner's child is the "Police Officer Greeter" and gets to sit on police horse
- Local police department's air support is landing the police helicopter at school for visit with all children, but winner's child will get chance to sit in the helicopter
- Firefighter for the Day; winner's family gets firehouse tour, lunch with firefighters and ride in the bucket on the hook and ladder truck!

At about 4 weeks out we follow up with places that we have not received a response back on; we also give parents / board members solicitation letter and donation form so that they can solicit donations from places that they frequent.

We put together weekend getaway packages to destinations that are within 4 hours of St. Louis that will also be huge revenue makers.

Good luck and this website/ forum was very helpful for me; I spent hours researching on here as well as on the internet.

Bridget