Rose, I have been recently working on a tricky tray event and have been keeping a spreadsheet of places I've contacted similar to your donation list. I just found this website and am so appreciative for the information. Would you prefer I email you the contact information I have to add to your list or simply add it to a reply in this post?

Kohl's has a new program....you apply online and if they approve it they send 5 of their employees to work your event. They have to work 3 hours min and have 5 volunteer to get the $500 to your organization. It's really a neat program. If it looks enticing enough to the employees the GM said they usually will volunteer their time.

Our 10th Annual Trivia/Auction is March 7 and usually we list the value. I have rarely seen an item go for its actual value so I'm thinking about not having that on actual bid sheets. We did however put that in the book we made available to everyone.

A auction seminar, that I attended, said that IRS states you must inform the guests, before bidding the actual value of the donations. This way people know how much of their donation is tax deductible. I understood if someone overstates their donation write off, gets audited and can show the auction did not inform them before purchase the actual value, then the auction can be held responsible by the IRS for the individuals tax, and penalties.


This past weekend I attended a fundraising dinner that did something during their silent auction I haven't seen before. They did not list the estimated value of the baskets.
This is such a simple idea (and maybe other silent auctions do the same, but I haven't seen it in my area before) and it resulted in the bids going above what I would assume the value of the basket was (their baskets were very similar to the baskets at my event). I know at my auction, very rarely does a basket go for more than its value, typically the last bid reaches 80-90% of its value.
Does anyone else not list the estimated value? What are your thoughts on not providing it?