Kiwanis club auction item ideas that actually sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. The distinctive lots here are the club's signature event and its sponsored students.

Provision sponsorship, counted

• Backpacks and school supplies for a classroom
• Winter coats or boots, by the dozen
• Weekend food bags for a term
• Bicycle helmets for a school
• A camp place, or a week of one
• A scholarship, named or unnamed
• Library books, playground equipment, a ball field improvement

Count everything. "Sixty backpacks" is bought; "support our youth programmes" is considered.

The signature event

• First serving or reserved seating at the breakfast
• A table with the club president or the mayor
• Flipping pancakes with the club, which people bid on more than clubs expect
• Naming a table, a duck, a lane or a hole
• A vendor pitch at next year's event
• The club catering a breakfast at a workplace or a school

The full logic: the signature event.

Members' own

• Professional services — legal, accounting, insurance, trades
• A member's cabin, boat or holiday property
• Dinner for six cooked and hosted by a member
• Handmade goods, preserves, woodwork
• A day's labour from members

As with every service club, this is the most under-listed category and it takes twenty minutes at a meeting to produce.

From the students

• A Key Club work crew for a day — yard work, a move, a clear-out
• Car washing, leaf raking, snow shovelling for a season
• Babysitting or tutoring, arranged through the school appropriately
• Student artwork or a school performance
• A student-made item from the shop or art programme

A student work crew is a genuinely good lot. It sells to older residents who need the help, it is real service hours, and it is the sort of thing that gets written up in a local paper.

From the town

Restaurants, retail, services, experiences — sourced through members' relationships and, increasingly effectively, by students.

What to check

• The association's name and emblem on merchandise or signage
• Whether donations are deductible, which depends on the club's own status
• Which entity receives, especially where a Key Club is involved
• School approval and media consent for anything involving students
• Anything identifying a child the club has helped
• Raffles and gaming, which clubs add traditionally and which are separately regulated
• Student labour items against age, supervision and liability, which the advisor should confirm

General information, not legal or tax advice for your club. Charitable status, account separation and the rules governing sponsored youth programmes come from your own constitution, your district and the schools involved — check before fundraising.