Wow, "tireless volunteer", your karate studio was mighty generous! I have an idea and a few suggestions. For the letter, why do you have to say that it was sold or not sold? I have a generic letter that thanks them for their donation. I don't tell them (though maybe I should be??) what their donation sold for. Can you do this for them?
Did you have this as one item? Could you split it up for next year so it has a cheaper starting point? What we did with the few items that didn't get bids was we put them in the office with a slightly lower "buy it now" price. Everything sold within a week. Good luck!
@tireless volunteer:
You're correct about the receipt and sending it to everyone despite not selling. Not everything sells, and I've seen several organizations do a post-event silent auction via email. You don't have to say that they didn't sell, as the reasons you have them could be varied (last-minute, didn't sell, donated back, etc.) Simply ask for email replies of bids until a certain day/time, at which you notify the winner. People tend to bid higher if they really want something, not knowing the "competition," and this opens up the bidding audience and may yield a good amount when multiple items are offered to your entire email list.
In the future you may suggest to the karate studio that they donate a smaller package if you think it is more suitable for your audience. Or, you can also let them know that you don't need more than 1-2 of the same package unless they say you can use the additional ones for other events.
I have a question that I don't think I've seen come across yet. We've had our auction and I am just working on sending out our Thank You's with Receipt for taxes to all of our donors. The auction software we use compiles all the letters and adds the donation value, so it's a no-brainer to do. BUT my question is - What if they sent an item and no one bid on it? I'm assuming they still get a receipt as they did donate the item and it's not their fault it didn't get purchased (or it is because it's not a great item - depends on how you want to look at it) My bigger concern is we have a karate studio who donated a large quantity of lessons that were not bid on (their total donation value would be $3000) How do you handle that?!?!?!?
Raffle ticket prices depends on your audience and what type of prizes you have. If it is a relay, you can maybe charge more than $1 each? But you have to have really good prizes. If you have mostly $25 to $50 value items, $1 is good.
We did $1 a piece, or $7 for 5 tickets, or 15 for $10 last year to encourage people to spend more. The economy was worse then. It worked and the ticket cups were overflowing. We are probably going to change it to $1 a piece, or $6 for 5, then 14 for $10.
Since no one ha responded to my first post, i would like to ask again, Although this site is as it seems for schools only, i am doing a Relay For Life Event in June here on Long Island NY and I am running the Chinese Auction, I am working like a dog requesting Donations and i have gotten a lot of yes and a ton of no's. My question is how should I price the tickets? I was thinking 6 for $5 and 15 for $10. Please tell me all of your ideas and what you think.
Here is my list of Yes's
Cabot Cheese $25 gift box of assorted cheese-will be coming in mail
Stampin Up- will be worth up to $300- will be coming in mail
NY Jets Autographed Poster of Nick Mangold- Coming in mail
I Tunes $25
Marios Pizza- Free Pie local
Bens Deli $25 local
Deer Park Bowl-up to 4 people 1 free game of bowling & shoe rental-local
South Levittown Lanes-3 gift certificates up to 4 guests 2 free games of bowling-local
AMF- 2 hours of bowling,shoe rental pizza & soda- Any AMF bowling center
Vincents Clam Bar-$50 Gift certificate
Adventureland- 2 Complimentary Pop tickets-Local
Red Box- 25 Single Coupons for 1 free rental
Ruths Chris Steak House- $50
Mcdonalds-2 Dinner for 4 Complimentary medium extra value meals
Brands Cycle- 2 $25 Gift Cards
On the Border- 4 free bowls of Queso's & 4 free desserts
NY Yankees- 2 Tickets to any 2014 Game
No's
Dicks Sporting goods
crayola
Macys
Pampered chef
Coach
Nivea
Lia sophia
Red Bull
Chuck e cheese
REI
Sears
KMart
Champs
Jelly Belly
cvs
Valero
Shutterfly
Gillette
Lego
Toys R us
Hersheys Ice Cream
Dennys
Wendys
Petco
Michaels
Burts Bees
Ace hardware
Chilis
Kimberly Clark
Ancestry.com
Kelloggs
family Dollar
crate and barrell
kraft
7-11
tootsie roll
post cereal
erin condren
sc johnson
dylans candy bar
pottery barn kids
mars chocolate
mrs butterworth
hefty
charlotte russe
pantene
vo5
godiva chocolate
the body shop
sun
shoe dazzle
chicken soup for the soul
good year
clairol
p& g
Toms of maine
ortega
aveda
finish line
mrs fields
omaha steaks
Ruby Tuesday
Shake Shack
Lindt Chocolate
Swatch
Books a million
radio shack
zulily
As you see im trying everything and sorry my list is a mile long and isnt in order.
Donation match is a great site. We have received donations from them that are a big hit. I understand not everyone gets a yes from companies or people on there. The only issue I had last summer was many did not give a response to even decline, even after the event passed the requests were pending. It's on the company though, for not reviewing them.
P.S. Coach just gave us a no. You have to have an employee submit you or request it for you basically.
