Cheer and gymnastics auction item ideas that sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. The distinctive lots here are safety sponsorship and spirit packages, and every athlete-facing item needs a safeguarding check.

Safety sponsorship

• A landing mat, a set of panel mats, a resi pit refill
• A spring floor section, or a beam
• Spotting blocks, a spotting belt, a rig
• A coach's certification or safety course
• An athletic trainer for a season or a competition
• AED and first aid equipment with training
• Naming a piece of equipment or an area of the gym

This is the strongest category with businesses and civic clubs, and the one most programmes never list.

Spirit packages

Tiered bundles aimed at relatives: team spirit packages.

Gym services, subject to policy

• A birthday party at the gym — the space, the equipment and the staff already exist
• An open gym or parents' night session
• A parent-and-toddler class term
• A clinic for another team or a scout group
• A skills clinic taught to a group, which sidesteps the one-adult-one-athlete question entirely
• A summer camp place

The birthday party is the most under-listed item in this silo. Parents are looking for a venue, a gym is an exceptional one, and it fills an off-peak Saturday.

Note that group clinics are frequently the safer version of a private lesson, both for safeguarding and because they cost the same staff hour and serve more people.

For athletes and families

• Grips, shoes, practice wear, competition bows
• Physiotherapy, massage or a sports medicine consultation
• Photography of the athlete, taken properly
• Nutrition or strength consultation from a qualified provider
• Tickets to a collegiate or elite meet

For the community

Restaurants, retail, experiences, home services. Most of the catalogue, aimed at relatives and neighbours rather than at gym parents.

What to check or keep out

• Private lessons, against your safeguarding policy and governing body rules on one-adult-one-athlete situations
• Anything putting a donor or stranger with an athlete
• Athlete photographs beyond your media release, never with a name, and with care about isolated images of a single child in competition wear
• Anything touching placement, level, routine position or team selection
• School or national organization marks on merchandise without permission
• Anything implying a charitable deduction where the gym is a business
• Diet, weight or body-composition items, which in this sport are a genuinely bad idea

The last one is specific to cheer and gymnastics and worth stating plainly. This sport has a known relationship with disordered eating, and a gym auctioning a weight-loss programme or a body-composition assessment has made a mistake nobody should have to explain to it.

General information, not legal or safeguarding advice. Whether your gym is a for-profit business, a nonprofit or a school programme changes what a donor may claim, and your governing body's safeguarding rules govern anything involving an athlete — check both before fundraising.