Lions club auction item ideas that actually sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. A service club's catalogue is mostly local, and its distinctive items are its own members and its own programmes.

Service sponsorship

• An eye examination and glasses for one person
• A hearing aid with fitting and follow-up
• A vision screening event, or screening for one school
• A camp place for a child
• A scholarship, named or unnamed
• The club's emergency assistance fund
• A guide dog contribution, where the club supports one

The structure and the recipient privacy rules: vision and hearing programmes.

The members themselves

• Professional services from members — legal, accounting, insurance, surveying, building trades
• A member's holiday property for a weekend
• A boat day, a fishing trip, a round of golf
• Home-cooked dinner for six, hosted by a member
• Handmade goods — woodwork, quilting, preserves, honey
• A day's labour from members: yard work, painting, a clear-out

The members' own skills are the most under-listed category in every service club. A roster of retired tradespeople, professionals and hobbyists is a catalogue, and nobody ever asks the question directly at a meeting.

The club's traditional events, as lots

• Reserved seating or first serving at the pancake breakfast
• A team entry in the club's golf outing
• Naming a hole, a lane or a table at the club's own event
• A duck, a ticket block, or a prime spot at whatever the club runs
• A vendor pitch at the club's festival booth

From the town

Restaurants, retail, services and experiences — sourced through members' personal relationships, which is what makes a service club catalogue better than a cold solicitation would produce.

What to check

• The association's name and emblem on any merchandise or signage
• Whether donations are deductible, which depends on the club's own status rather than on its being a service club
• Which account receives — the activities fund, not the administrative one
• Anything identifying a person the club has helped
• Raffles, gun raffles and gaming, which service clubs add traditionally and which are regulated separately in most states
• Alcohol lots, against the venue and any club convention

The gaming point catches clubs out. A raffle bolted onto an auction because it is what the club has always done may carry licensing and record-keeping that the auction itself does not.

General information, not legal or tax advice for your club. Account separation rules, charitable status and the use of the association's name and emblem come from your own constitution and your district — check both before fundraising.