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Help! Need basket theme ideas for auction

beanmenow

beanmenow

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Hi CW! My 10y/o dd is in Aladdin play and I need help coming up with ideas. We are auctioning off 10 baskets. I need 10 themes and hopefully name them based on the play or characters.

Any help would be appreciated. Does anyone have experience getting sponsors or donations from businesses?
 
It seems to be getting harder & harder to get area businesses to donate...I had a heck of a time recently! It was much easier 2-3 years ago.

Starbucks is *really* good about donating. You might have to go to a few locations to get enough stuff to put together a nice sized basket, but they have come through for me every time.

Local restaurants are pretty good about gift cards.

Local bakeries are good about gift cards & putting together a little basket of goodies.

Edible Arrangements is usually pretty good.

If you have a small non-chain grocery store, you might get them to donate a few bottles of wine.

Golf courses are sometimes good about donating foursomes/cart if you do a sports theme for one of the baskets.

If your school sells Spirit Wear you could see if they have anything extra laying around & put together a school themed basket (shirts, bumper sticker, etc.)

Good luck!
 
Well, I've only done this for sports, but I have found that businesses like to have a sheet explaining their options that they can choose from. So, I usually put our logo on the sheet & then list their donor options & what they will get at each level. (Because people like recognition for their business/efforts.) So it would look something like this:
Gold level sponsor- $500- Banner with business name & donation prominently displayed at event. ((banners are like $15 at vistaprint.)
Silver- $250 (explain what you'd do for them- name on program or whatever)
Bronze $100 (explain again)
Product donation: _____________ Value: __________
Business name:_____________ Contact person: ___________

Your name & contact info

I think it is easier to decide on your baskets ahead of time so you can go in with specific requests & then adapt your basket plans as needed. It's hard to go in & say "whatever you want to give" because you'll walk out with a $5 pizza gc that is pretty useless & not a great gift, kwim?

Other basket ideas (I was tired last night, lol):
Park District might donate a class or a voucher
Pet store might give you a gc, some dog toys, etc & then you can see if a kennel will donate a one night stay, grooming, etc. & do a "pet basket."
Valentines Day basket- odds are good that *someone* at the school has a hotel connection. Ask around, you might get an overnight downtown.

This sounds bad, but if you need baskets, ask your local funeral home to set them aside for you as they throw away arrangements that come in baskets. (We just did 45 baskets for my DD's softball team & instead of spending $$ on baskets, we got some from a funeral home. They're just normal baskets.)

Also, ask your committee if they have anything they can "re-gift" to the efforts. Especially after christmas like this, people probably have stuff they don't want, like excess candles & kitchen stuff.
 
I did this for several years for a PTA event. I mailed letters to local businesses (similar to dragonfly's) then followed up in person. Much better response face to face.
 
Oh yes, much better response face to face! And expect to go back to visit people 2-3-4 times. I also write the name of the person I'm dealing with down on my "master list" of potential donors, so when I go back I remember their name.

Other basket ideas:
-Car care- oil change, car wash certificate, car stuff
-Bulls/Cubs/Sox tickets- again, someone should know someone :lol:
-Cardinal fitness is good about donating 1 (or 3, I can't remember) month passes. We did a "last hurrah" basket & had our local bakery make a cookie/sweets platter to go with the gym membership :lol:
-If you have a "paint your own ceramics" place they might donate a bday party or at least a gift card
-Your local baseball/soccer league might donate something...our school always raffles off a "throw out the first pitch" for a baseball & a softball player. That is a good one that a lot of people bid on at our annual district fundraiser.
-Your local HS might have summer sports camps for kids, the might donate a couple.

My ideas are all sports themed, but it's hard to get donations so you might have to look at weird places like your HS & park district. :lol:
 
If you are going with a disney theme you could also name the options along those lines. Maybe King somebody, Queen somebody, and so on. Just a thought. I will post if I come up with othet ideas.
 
It's only day one, and you guys have come up with amazing ideas. Dragonfly, I'm so inspired by everything you've suggested so far. I
would've never thought about your suggestions. Once I do a few,
face to face, I'll feel better and more confident.

Thanks for all the input and suggestions so far! Please keep it coming.
This is my dd first play and it is the best experience by far. I've signed
her up for ballet, dance, karate, gymnastics etc, but this has been her
favorite.
 
Since you're really looking for basket donations & not sponsors (although a $500 sponsor would solve your basket issues & you could buy whatever you want! :lol: ) I would go in asking for the moon & "settle" for a product/certificate donation. I've found that if you ask for $500 people balk & are HAPPY to give you a $50 gift card or a couple bottles of wine. ;)

I'm glad your DD is enjoying her play. :)
 
We actually need sponsors too. I signed up for the souvenir committee thinking how easy it will be just to sell stuff.... NO, we have to make 10 baskets a night x 4 nights = 40 baskets. Then we have to find themes, and donors to fill the baskets. It's a lot more labor intensive than I had anticipated, but thats how it goes. My particular assignment is to approach businesses for donations. Hopefully I can contribute alot. Thanks again for all the help!!

dragonfly said:
Since you're really looking for basket donations & not sponsors (although a $500 sponsor would solve your basket issues & you could buy whatever you want! :lol: ) I would go in asking for the moon & "settle" for a product/certificate donation. I've found that if you ask for $500 people balk & are HAPPY to give you a $50 gift card or a couple bottles of wine. ;)

I'm glad your DD is enjoying her play. :)
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I did this for many years at our school, I don't know when your auction is but I had emailed disney and they sent us passes to disney world and also american girl has were you can request a donatioin and they sent us a doll but both needed a few months notice of the auction. We would always start asking for donations in Sept when school started and would have the auction in Feb.
 
Auction is in Mar 1,2,3,4. Do you have any email addressess? That would be awesome! Half the battle is knowing who to contact on those big companies. Thanks so much!!
 
Here is the link for american girl doll, it needs to be six weeks out so fill out right away
http://www.americangirl.com/corp/corporate.php?section=about&id=5

As for disney I don't have the address, I called my friend I did this with and she doesn't have our list of who all we contacted she had passed it on to the next one in line to take this over and now we doesn't know who has it, I wish we did I would send it to you but when I did this I did alot of goggling. Try putting in companies that donates to auctions.

ETA: Also email the cubs, sox, bears, blackhawks they sent us autographed stuff. I don't know what teams play at the sears center now but I remember they had sent us tickets for games so did the Schaumburg Flyers & Kane County Cougars. Other places YMCA, Medievel Times, Legoland, Drury Lane, Lincolnshire Marrett Theater, Pheasant Run, Zanies Comedy Club all these places would donate. Lynfred Winery always gave us a wine tasting for a group of people, email local hotels some would give us a 1 night stay. Get out the telephone book and just email all your local entertainment places.
It has been 4 years since I've done this and some of these places could have change on their donations but these are the places that would give to us back then.
 
We always do "A Pot Of Gold" baskets @ our church...Small basket with a box of the candy & taped to the back is an envie with cash...anywhere from $10-$50...those seem to be the ones that get the most bids...
 
I have done this for the past 20 years at my son's grade school and the local Lutheran high school. It is very time consuming but SO much fun !!

Maybe some themes:

Jasmine--a beauty basket
Iago--a pet basket
Genie--May all your wishes come true/Your Wish is My Command--make this one a higher item basket--maybe with a hotel gift certificate or some sort of event tickets, wine and cheese

Maybe Magic Carpet ride--filled with different foods and candies or beers from around the world

These are some songs maybe you could theme from the Movie.

A Whole New World--Another idea for a higher end gift basket--fancy wine and glasses and a gc to a fancy restaurant

One Jump Ahead--maybe some sort of exercise/workout themed basket

Or maybe a basket that is Alladin themed--movie/movies, popcorn, dvd player, bottles of pop, candy

Just trying to run the Alladin character/movie thru my head.

We are doing 2 Silent auctions this year. One in March--Family Spring Fling Day and another in November--Fall Festival. I am already getting stuff together for the November auction. One thing I bought is a large stuffed Lion from the Jewel clearance for $14.99 down from $60 and I am putting that with a Lion King DVD.

I have a bunch of addresses that I have used that I can send to you, if you have a little bit of time. Some businesses take awhile to get back with you.
 
couponmom1234 said:
I did this for many years at our school, I don't know when your auction is but I had emailed disney and they sent us passes to disney world and also american girl has were you can request a donatioin and they sent us a doll but both needed a few months notice of the auction. We would always start asking for donations in Sept when school started and would have the auction in Feb.
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Yes, American Girl will send a doll, but once you get one, there is a 7 year wait until you can request another. We just got our doll for our November auction again this year after having to wait.

Chicago sports team are pretty good about sending stuff. Autographed photos and we have received an autopgraphed puck from the Blackhawks a couple of years ago.
 
ThAnk you thank you all for the unbelievable suggestions. I found the website for disneyworld and super excited! You have to allow 2 months so I'll apply for the next play.

I love the pot of gold idea and the different theme ideas. Was trying to figure a theme for the free glade candles, air freshners from target.
 
beanmenow said:
ThAnk you thank you all for the unbelievable suggestions. I found the website for disneyworld and super excited! You have to allow 2 months so I'll apply for the next play.

I love the pot of gold idea and the different theme ideas. Was trying to figure a theme for the free glade candles, air freshners from target.
Click to expand...


Well, that could be A Whole New World basket !! :) Make it like a spa basket. ;)
 
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