1. Do most of you do door prizes at your raffles? If so, how many and what $ value for items?
2. I am planning on having 2 levels of prizes. Considering $5/sheet (25 tickets on a sheet) for standard prizes and either $1 for 1 ticket or 5 for 1 ticket for larger items. What would you recommend? I am considering "large" items as those over $100 in value.
Just had our Bazaar and silent auction event last Sat. Several days later took all left over silent auction items and made a list reduced the starting bid by 50%, and offered them first to all our workers- and lots of them sold right away. We found that this is working better than what we've done in years past - when we would open bidding right before closing of auction on all items that did not get a bid. That way some very desirable items would go for just a few dollars.
This is our 27th year and we're finding that we have to be open to new ways to do things.
A question for all of you - When you have an auction or raffle and you have door prizes, do you specifically ask the donors if their item(s) can be used as a door prize? I ask some donors if their prize can be used as a raffle prize or door prize (if I think its appropriate to ask). I was a taken aback at our last event when I saw door prizes offered that I knew the donor was not asked if this was acceptable. Just wondering what everyone else thinks and how you'd handle for the future. I am considering making a list of donors who I asked if their prize can be used either way (e.g., manicures, pedicures, free pizza pie, etc.) and submitting that when I hand in the prizes I collect for the next event.
To Marie: I agree completely. If I donated to an organization and then found out they took my donation and gave it or traded it to another organization I would be annoyed, so say the least. If something is left over after an event, try to raffle a few items off at a smaller event your organization holds ...even if it's PTA meeting at least the donation is going to the organization it was intended for. Or perhaps you can use the left-over prizes at the next raffle/auction if there is not expiration date..
Just to relay a story for those who sometimes ask about trading donations that were given to another organizations: I was at a local hair salon that was donating to our school. During our conversation she mentioned that she's become more cautious about donating because she found that people were auctioning/selling her donation certificate at other events. She and other merchants had been talking to each other about this and were very unhappy that people were doing this. She said, "we make donations to specific organizations for a reason. We don't give with the purpose of other organizations also trying to sell our donation." She said, "I like to support the community, but don't appreciate that people are reselling/auctioning the donations."
Please remember this if you consider trading or re-auctioning off donations. It does impact how businesses will donate in the future, if they feel that organizations are not staying honorable too.
