Themed Basket Auctions

by Patty
(Oklahoma, USA)

Every year our high school's band has a themed basket auction.

Each section puts together a basket full of donated items and then auctions them off. You can use any theme but these have been some popular ones:

• Romantic dinner (wine/sparkling juice, gift card to a fancy restaurant, candles, cheese).



• Knitting (needles, yarn, DVD on how to knit, gift card to a local knitting store).



• Local football team (football with logo, hat/scarf/blanket with logo, passes to a home game, pennant).



• Little girls' sleepover (various shades of nail polish, microwave popcorn, kids' DVD, hair ribbons, kids' game).



• New baby (baby booties, rattle, stuffed animal, baby hat, small pack of diapers/bottles/washcloths, gift certificate for baby shop or dinner out for parents).

We make several hundred dollars a year on this auction alone, and find that local merchants are happy to donate the items if we mention them during the auction.

---

Rob's Note:

This is a fantastic idea for your fundraising auctions and it's not surprising that you raise several hundred dollars every year with it.

It kind of fits into the Gift Basket Fundraiser that you can read about on this site. You can also grab the 101 Gift Bakset Ideas book for more Themed Basket ideas.

I'd recommend you look to take this Auction Fundraiser Online with Bidding For Good, who are an excellent online fundraising auction platform. It should increase your supporter/participation reach.

Thanks for the excellent contribution!