Whether you're a true gourmand or simply a gal who enjoys a good meal, your guests will love these four benefit auction ideas incorporating a farm-to-table dining experience. Earlier this month while on the train traveling back from New York to Washington, D.C., I read Amtrak's magazine Arrive. One article covered the farm-to-table movement and listed several restaurants known for their work in this area. What is the farm-to-table movement? In essence, it's about sourcing ingredients ... Read On >
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Research-related excursions as charity auction item ideas
Last week I participated on a webinar in which we talked about charity auction item ideas and how to strategically procure them. Since then, I've had procurement on my mind! One of the participants worked for an Alzheimer's-related non-profit. She asked for suggestions on items to sell which might bring awareness to her mission, and still be of interest to her audience. Off-the-cuff, I suggested she might want to offer an item that tied to the research of Alzheimer's. Someone might be ... Read On >
Fashion Week tickets are hot charity auction items
Here's a super hot idea for your charity auction items list. Fashionistas know that Fashion Week happens twice a year -- once in the spring (usually March) to showcase fall fashions, and again in the fall (usually September), to showcase spring fashions. It's held in several cities around the world (New York, Paris, Milan, London, etc.). I've only sold tickets to New York. The tickets sell for a few thousand dollars without hotel or transportation. Why are these tickets so desirable? And how ... Read On >
A School Auction Excels at Marketing a Potato Cannon
The right unique school auction items will sell for high dollar in your gala. And a potato cannon, made by the school's beloved maintenance department, in an all-boys Catholic school ... is a perfect example of that. The cannon sold for $1000 at the school auction... twice. (Once the Auction Chair saw how well it was selling, she confirmed the maintenance team would be willing to build another one. The school doubled its revenue on that item.) Not only is this a fun idea, but what ... Read On >
Charity auction item idea: Newspaper printer’s plate
Last night I worked a charity auction for a smaller school in Maryland. While walking the silent auction area with the Chair, she pointed out an item I hadn't seen sold in prior auctions. It was a metal printer's plate from The Wall Street Journal. The plate showed the image from the newspaper's front page. (The photo attached isn't the plate I saw. I've traveled into the future and pulled this photo from a later, related post.) The Auction Chair had contacted a friend of hers who ... Read On >