When I opened my personal email this morning, I was rather surprised to see one with the subject line GIFT AUCTION SOS. I deleted it straightaway because I did not recognize the sender and, let's face it, that's a fishy phishy sounding subject line. About three seconds later it occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't have deleted it out of hand: Neatnik's school sponsors an annual gift auction. It will take place next month. I quickly opened my Deleted Items folder and restored the message to my Inbox. Am I ever glad that I did. It was from one of Neatnik's school's PTA officers.
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Many of our eighth grade graduates decide to attend either one of the several local Catholic high schools or their local public high school. A sizeable number of students, however, opt to take the entrance examination for one of our county's five career high schools. Over twenty percent of our eighth graders are accepted and attend these magnet-type schools.Yes, our students are well-prepared for secondary education and we manage to do it while at the same time (a) being the only parochial school in the area which still offers discounted tuition for second and third children in the same family; and (b) having some of the highest standardized test scores.
How do we accomplish this?
Besides having some great teachers and very dedicated parents, the PTA has hosted a gift auction for almost thirty years. Approximately 500 women attend each year and the proceeds have always been significant. The profits are used to fill the gap between tuition revenue and actual operating costs.
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After the obligatory salutation, the email I received included a very detailed description of the current crisis. We, as a PTA, have secured less than half of the projected donations which we will need for this event. Coupled with that statistic was the footnote that, in light of current economic conditions, the PTA officers reduced the donation target number from last year's gift auction. Parents were strongly encouraged to attempt to solicit additional donations. Today, the local movie theater gave me four passes good for any showing; a liquor store across town supplied me with a bottle of red wine; my chiropractor tossed me a cervical pillow; and our dentist will be coming through tomorrow morning with a coupon for free teeth whitening. A couple of jewelers and restaurants and snack eateries all promised to call me back as did the cell phone store where I plan to obtain coverage as soon as our current contract expires.
Where else should I ask for donations?
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12 yarns:
Bookstore? Does the library offer bestseller express rental that they could chip in some gift certificates for? Ours rents bestsellers for $4/10 days, to cover the cost of needing a bazillion copies of the bestsellers, but only for about 6 months. Gift certificate to community education? Or to a photography class offered by a camera store?
You could try a local garage, local carwash, grocery store, drug store, and some other "service" companies.
How about where you teach? Do they offer adult education classes?
Do you have a farmer's market? A local plant nursery? Local Yarn Store?
Just a few ideas...
Deb in PA
Our Senior class parents are doing a raffle, and some of our raffle items include, a cord of firewood, two separate loads of gravel, a load of topsoil, two nights at the local resort, as well as stuff from most of the local businesses. We are making up baskets, tonight, of donated hair care items, garden items, plants, yard chairs. You can also try movie rental places.
I am in Washington state, so my local merchants are not likely to help you, but if you get small items, you might put them together into larger gift baskets. I know, not original ideas, but it may trigger something. Good luck to you.
How about a spa for a massage, a nail salon for a mani/pedi, a hair stylist for a cut/color/style?
Is there a local sports team that charges for admission? If so, what about a family pack of tickets.
Is there a hotel in your area? Maybe they would give a free night and breakfast.
When our school did something similar they got a couple of make overs from a local salon. Also check with local insurance agents. One of ours offered a $ off for new clients.
Good luck!
All the ideas I had were said already. How about approaching a radio or TV station and asking if they will take a winner out for lunch?
If you have a local insurance agent, check with them. I work for an agent and we recently put together an "emergency preparedness" basket for a local private school's auction where a friend teaches. An insurance agent shouldn't be offering any discounted services, of course(ethics & such), but they do tend to like putting their name on stuff as marketing.
I feel your pain. We are planning a charity bike ride for my local cat shelter, and I sent out over 100 letters to local and national (cat food & litter) companies, looking for sponsors. I received four checks and some free food/litter coupons.
I think everyone is depleted trying to help everyone else, in addition to the earthquake victims in Haiti earlier this year.
My only suggestion would be to target restaurants, stores, and suppliers of items frequented by teens. Yarnhog's suggestions are great if you have not already tried them. Themed gift baskets are good too, since you can collect a lot of little things: a basket of tools for a home improvement theme, a tea/coffee basket, chocolate lover's basket, dinner for two (pasta, sauce, wine), a picnic basket with inexpensive cloth napkins and fancy melamine china, a pet lover's basket, a spa basket.
Good luck!!
Coffee is always a good thing. And many of the "big box" department stores have community programs that give generously to schools. We often get gift cards that we can use as incentives for kids.
If there is a high school/college group at your church, you might see if they would be willing to auction a day of free labor or some such.
It's a poor economy, to be sure.
Our family is considering offering a home-cooked ethnic meal for 6-8 in our home to benefit my son's daycare.
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