Our Pet Shelter Fundraiser
by Jennifer
(AZ)
We had our first online auction about a year ago, and we are now gearing up for our second annual auction. We prepared by sending out a massive email to all the adopters, present and past, from our shelter. We included all the volunteers, contributors, everyone we could think of. In the first email, we talked about the auction and the need for donations. We did not limit the type of donations in any way, everything was welcome! We also paid personal visits to each pet store in the area, and to some of the small local businesses, asking if they'd be interested in making a donation. We met with a great deal of success, and found many businesses are interested in donating to a good cause. For all of those that did so, we made sure to have their business cards and/or flyers to include with the donated item, so in this way they could benefit from a bit of advertising.
After the donations began to come in , we appointed one person who was quite good with the internet to coordinate the online aspect of the auction. While she began the process of posting the auction items, we sent out another reminder email about the auction, and we posted in several all breed rescue pet forums to promote the auction, along with photos of several auction items.
Most of the items we had in the auction were pet related of course, but there were also a fair number of items, such as home decoration items(candles, plates, etc.) which did quite well also. One HUGE unexpected hit was the "mystery grab bag!". We set aside several items for it, including a candle, a bag of gourmet dog treats, a hand knitted scarf, and a digital picture frame. We started the bidding at $50.00, and just said "we can't tell you what's in it, but the higher the bid goes, the more we add!" every time the bidding rose another 20 dollars, we added an item. A couple of picture frames were added, a free photo session from a photography studio with branches all over the US was added, and so on. (We made sure at the beginning of the auction to set aside enough items to make it a really great gift.) The bidding on that one item ended up being $299.75! There were many good natured bidding wars over this, and it was great fun for all.
Our auction was a great success, and we raised over $2000.00, not bad for our very first try! This year we fully expect to double that amount and will do our very best. That money makes a huge difference in the lives of these animals, and we are so happy to be able to do these auctions.