Alumni association auction item ideas that sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. An association sells access to a place its bidders are sentimental about, which is an advantage almost nothing else has.

Campus access

• A night in a residence hall room, which alumni find funnier and more appealing than anybody expects
• Dinner in the historic dining hall, or at high table
• A private tour of a closed or restricted building — the tower, the roof, the observatory, the tunnels
• Ringing the bell, raising the flag, or whatever the local ritual is
• Sitting in on a lecture by a well-known professor
• A behind-the-scenes visit to a lab, a collection, a rehearsal or the archive
• Graduation or convocation seating, where policy allows

The residence hall night is the sleeper item. It costs the institution a made bed out of term, and alumni bid on it out of pure sentiment.

Athletics

• Best seats for a rivalry game, with parking
• A sideline, press box or bench experience, where compliance permits
• A tour of the facilities with a coach
• Team-signed items, subject to licensing and compliance
• A retired coach's or player's time — a clinic, a dinner, a talk

Everything here needs the athletics department and compliance, not just the association. Student-athlete likeness and appearances sit inside their own framework.

Things people can keep

• Building fabric — a brick, a floorboard, a seat, a piece of the old floor
• Framed reproductions of campus photographs from a specific decade
• A reproduction of a class's yearbook page or programme
• A piece of a felled campus tree, turned into something
• Alumni-donated memorabilia from their own years

Rights and ownership: memorabilia and archives.

Alumni-owned everything

• A stay at an alumnus's hotel, villa, cabin or vineyard
• A meal at an alumnus's restaurant, anywhere in the country
• Professional services — legal, design, financial, medical, consulting
• A mentoring or career session with an alum in a field a student wants
• A tour of an alumnus's company, studio, brewery or farm
• Work by alumni artists, makers and writers

This is the association's largest and least-worked supply. An institution with decades of graduates has alumni owning businesses in every category and every region, and a request from their own school is not a cold letter.

What to check

• Anything from the archive, which is the institution's collection
• The institution's marks on merchandise, and athletics licensing where it applies
• Student-athlete appearances or likeness, with compliance
• Campus access items with whoever controls the space, in writing
• Anything implying influence over admissions, which is absolute at any price and will be suggested
• Faculty or staff time without asking them directly
• Student images beyond the institution's media consent

The admissions point deserves emphasis. Somebody will float a tour with an admissions officer, a file review, or an introduction, framed harmlessly. There is no version of it an association can list.

General information, not legal advice for your association. Whether you are an independent organization or part of the institution changes who receipts, who owns the alumni data and who may use the marks — the advancement office and your own counsel decide how any of this applies.