Eco-friendly fund raising: silent auctions

There's only one word for it: relief. Over the weekend, we had our preschool's annual silent auction -- the non-profit's primary fund-raising event. Heather and I, along with a few other hard-working individuals comprised the auction committee. What does that mean? Living, breathing, and stressing over auction details pretty much since last September, with these last few weeks being utterly insane. The good news? We made our financial goal. We made less money than last year, so in that regard, it was a bit disappointing, but with the economy in the crapper, it was a real nail-biter of a worry if a fund-raising auction could even work in a recession economy.

If you've never been to a silent auction before, here's how it works. People from our school ask businesses for donations. Donations are tax deductible to the businesses. From the business perspective, this should be a win-win. They donate something and get the full retail value tax write-off. But really only are paying the "cost" of the good/service. Hopefully this brings them a new customer or two, some great "word of mouth" and additional sales. We also have our parents at the cooperative preschool donate goods or services: lovely hand-knit caps, professional photography services, and of course, some of my famous lunch-box napkins, among many other cool hand-crafted things. From the shopper's perspective, they can get screaming deals on really cool stuff (less than you would normally pay retail). And the money goes to the non-profit at the end of the night, because we are hosting the event, and did the procurement of all the great donations.

The challenges with a silent auction fund-raiser that we felt this year:

• Fewer items. Far fewer businesses donated to the auction this year.
• Fewer ticket sales. It was harder to sell tickets to the event.
• Lower sales prices. It was harder to get close to retail value on the items up for bid.

Now, don't get the idea that I'm grousing here. We met our financial goal and are beyond pleased with how we did. The families that came and supported the school? You rock! Thank you! The businesses that donated? Predominantly local vendors: like New Seasons Market, Korkage Wine Shop, and Paloma Clothing. How wonderful of these fine local businesses to stick with us and support non-profits in these tough times. If the economy continues to tank, we must return the local businesses that favor of shopping locally when ever possibly. So while not everything that gets sold at an auction could be called "green" -- the support via donations from local businesses firmly places it in the eco-friendly category. Shop green! Shop local!