Our school has not had a silent auction in many years, and this is the first year I have been a part of it. Because we are in a low income district (more than 80% of our families fall below the poverty line), we do not have any kind of entrance fee or expensive sit down meal.

Our auction is planned for February, 2013, and I have a few questions for those who are experienced in this.

1.) When should we start sending our letters out? I have seen some places need several months notice, but I don't want to send out requests so soon that gift certificates or event tickets will have expired by the time we need them!

2.) Do you always include your tax exempt number in your letters or only when asked?

3.) Is it better, in general, to mail letters, to email or to visit in person? If we visit in person, we still need to take a copy of our request letter to give to the manager, correct?

4.) When preparing donation request letters, is it better to request a particular item or to ask for a donation and let them send what they can? Is it in bad taste to ask for a monetary donation from places that we can't actually auction their wares? (like locally owned liquor stores, etc...) If we receive monetary donations, I would like to purchase some bigger ticket items (bicycles, ipod, etc...) to auction off.

Sorry for all the questions...I hope someone will take the time to help out an auction newbie!