Memorial fund auction item ideas

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. What is specific here is that items connected to the person are what the room came for, and that some of them need care.

Connected to the person

• Something they made — artwork, woodwork, a quilt, baking from their recipe
• A basket of the things they liked, assembled by somebody who knew
• A donation in their name to something they supported
• Naming something after them, where an organization permits it — a bench, a tree, an award, a room
• An experience they loved, donated by somebody who shared it with them
• A print of a photograph they took, where they were a photographer

These are the items the room came for, and they raise more than anything bought.

Their own belongings, carefully

Families sometimes want to auction possessions, and it can be genuinely right — a collection going to people who will value it, tools to somebody who will use them, a bicycle to a rider.

• Only if the family initiated it, and only what they specifically offered
• Never suggest it. The instinct is well meant and it lands badly
• Give them a way to withdraw an item at any point, including on the last day
• Consider whether a family member may want it in five years and does not know yet
• Some things should not be sold at any price — and the family may need somebody to say that gently

That last point is worth somebody outside the family holding. Grief produces decisions about possessions that are sometimes regretted, and a friend saying "let's keep that one for now" is a kindness.

From the community

• Professional services from colleagues and friends
• Local businesses, particularly ones the person used or worked with
• Experiences, weekends away, tickets
• Handmade work from the community
• Their employer, their club, their team, their congregation

An employer will frequently do more than donate an item — a match, a collection, an internal announcement — and colleagues are usually looking for a way to help.

If the fund has a cause

Where the fund supports something specific — a hospice, a research charity, a school, a sport — that organization will often contribute, and the connection makes the catalogue coherent.

What to keep out

• Anything from the circumstances of the death
• Anything requiring the family's participation — a dinner with them, an appearance
• Anything implying the family endorses a business or product
• Items nobody has permission to offer, which arrive with good intentions
• Anything the family has not seen listed, if they asked to review

Keep the presentation plain

Honest photographs, short descriptions, no production. The catalogue does not need to work hard here, and one that visibly does reads as a marketing exercise around somebody's death.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Whether contributions are deductible depends entirely on which entity receives them, and setting a memorial fund up correctly at the start is much easier than fixing it later — this is worth one conversation with an adviser or a community foundation.