Silent Auction Fundraiser

We have a group that raises money for our arts programs at my school. The group is mostly made up of art teachers, music teachers, community members, and sometimes admin. We have done different fundraisers over the years, many of which worked. The one I want to tell you about is our silent auction fundraiser that we did this winter. What I loved about it, is that with 4-5 people, it was VERY easy to run. The hardest part was collecting donations, but each of us only had to collect 3-4 pieces.
What we did:

• We held a silent auction with live music at our local coffee shop
• It was on a Saturday that we expected to be busy in our small community
• It was over lunch 11:00-1:00
• The coffee shop offers food (we did not get money from food)
• People stopped by, had lunch and or coffee
• We offered live jazz music (compliments of our band director and friends)
• The band had a jar out for donations
• The silent auction was from 11:00-1:00 in the coffee shop
• We kept it small enough that 3 of us could watch the silent auction sheets and easily check people out
• Almost everyone picked items up that day (we only had to arrange for 2 items to be picked up later)
• I recommend finding silent auction sheets online (they are already laid out for you)
• Get a lot of pens
• Have change ready
• Have a way to take credit cards (if you can) we had a square
• Be Organized (have a process for checking people out and getting them the right art)

Here are some photos of our event...








How about you, have you done any successful fundraising? What worked for you?