Auctions - friend or foe?

Many Christian schools employ the annual auction as a way of raising funds. The school deploys the parents to secure or procure items (usually for free or at reduced cost) that can be sold for a nice profit, which benefits the school.

Some of the positive aspects of this approach are:

1. Stakeholders (parents) are engaged in the support of their children's school
2. It brings the school community together by working cooperatively
3. It gets the parents interacting with the neighbors and businesses who get to learn something about the school
4. People who have craft and other skills can be stewards of their talents and contribute to the school in this way
5. The auctions can raise large amounts of money

Some of the negative aspects are:

1. Parents get worn out from soliciting (or begging), hence a slowdown on bid items
2. Businesses, too, get weary of be asked for free or discounted items unless they already have a healthy relationship with the school and auction support flows from the relationship
3. Auctions, in their purest form, are financial transactions that do not build relationships or assist donors in the stewardship growth.

There are additional positive and negative aspects, but what do we do with auctions?

I suggest that you look at ways of tailoring the auction to encourage and build relationships with people who see the school as a ministry they want to be involved with. For example, a class may assemble a basket of mementos or a scrapbook or even get the parents to help with a quilt.

These kinds of projects help forge meaningful connections between the donor and the school and allow for there to be an on-going and growing relationship that allows us to go deeper with the donor.

So, before we throw out the baby with the bath water, look for ways convert the transactional event to a transformational experience.

Write me back with your experience; we can sharpen each other.