I totally agree about trading donated items. It is the same as if I donated $ to a cause and they gave it to another cause without my consent. I agreed to donate to X charity, not Y charity. I know that people don't think there is any harm in it, but I think that if a company catches wind that their donations are being used for charities that they did not agree to support, that they will come up with stricter guidelines in the future, thus making it more difficult for us all. I am in California. I don't apply to attractions in Idaho, because I don't think they would go well with the attendees at our event (although it is beautiful there). So I am confused as to why you would even apply for items that you know are not appropriate for your audience, and then trade them to someone else. Not trying to start conflict, just seems odd.

We are a church group and have held a Holiday Bazaar the Sat. before Thanksgivng the past 26 years. We started having "silent auction" four years ago and have found that we have earned more each year from the auction, and it is very popular with those who attend .. We usually start the bids at approx. one half the total value, and .we have had occasions when some items in the auction did get a bid. In the past we have opened the bidding on these items in the last 15 minutes of the auction to whatever anyone wants to bid.That worked well until this year when we had a $350.00 valued item go for about one tenth of the value. We have decided we will not do this in the future, but rather hold on to these items to see if there is interest within our group. We usually have close to 200 items in the auction, and it's hard to keep up with all that's happening with the bidding.

There is another group who holds an "silent auction" each year in the spring and they have offered to buy our left over items at a small cost, but our group has voted not to go this route. We feel that it would be unfair to our sponsors who make donations for our "silent auction" to sell those items to another group.

We have also found by putting small items together in a "basket" we use less space, and also do not have as many items that do not get acceptable bids.

I personally have benefitted so much from this site over the past four years. WE have 8 individuals who work on getting donations for the "sielnt auction", and I have been able to come up with over half of them--with a lot of credit to informaiton I have gleamed from this site.

I wholeheartedly agree with Fundraiser Mom. I would never dream of "trading" donations. Businesses had the courtesy to donate to a SPECIFIC cause. It is inappropriate to pass on their donation to someone else and it spoils it for everyone else. If I were a business and I found out that my donation was passed onto someone else whose cause or organization I did not approve, I may be stricter giving donations to anyone in the future.

Fundraiser Mom: I agree with you that trades are not appropriate or very ethical since the business has donated to a specific cause based on their specific parameter. If you have something that you don't think will auction, it's still worth putting it on your auction. If it doesn't sell, do it as an after-auction "fire sale" or as a raffle item. You never know who is going to want it or to get in on the behalf of someone else they know. Also, since it is a donation, it's not like your school is out of pocket--it's free to you. So if it doesn't sell, it doesn't sell.

I see a number of people offering to trade their donations. Wondering if this is common? i don't' think I'd be comfortable doing that bc donors are donating to a specific cause, fundraiser, geographic area, etc. Hope that's not being too controversial…just putting it out there for candid discussion.