How nature centers get items donated

For letter structure and follow-up, see how to get silent auction donations and the donation request letter template.

Start with the staff, and let them set the cap

Naturalists, animal care staff and educators supply the strongest items in the catalogue, and they are also the people delivering programmes all week.

• Ask each individually how many experiences they will lead, and treat it as a ceiling
• Ask animal care what each animal can do and how often, against the permit
• Do it before the calendar is set, so the commitments land in gaps rather than on top of programmes
• Respect a no, particularly from part-time seasonal staff

The order

2. Schools and teachers you serve

Teachers who book programmes are partners with their own communities. Ask them to share the auction with families and to introduce local businesses — and ask what they need, because it usually turns out to be the bus.

3. Camp and member families

The most engaged households, and a directory of professions nobody reads as one. Ask what they do as well as for goods.

4. Outdoor and nature businesses

Outdoor retailers, birding shops, garden centres, native plant nurseries, pet and aquarium suppliers. Their customers are your families precisely.

5. Family-facing local businesses

Restaurants with high chairs, soft play, farms, ice cream, family attractions. This audience is parents and the catalogue should reflect that.

6. Other centres, zoos and attractions

Trade reciprocal passes. It costs nothing, both catalogues improve, and family day passes are reliable mid-tier lots.

7. Garden clubs, birding societies and land groups

Aligned memberships with their own newsletters, and frequently their own experts who will donate a talk or a walk.

What to offer

The item listing, a mention to a membership of local families with children, recognition at the event and in the programme guide, and a receipt. For a garden centre or an outdoor retailer that membership mention is a genuine placement.

Timing, around the school calendar

• Ten weeks — staff agree the experience list and its cap; animal items checked against permit conditions
• Eight weeks — schools, teachers, camp and member families
• Six weeks — outdoor and nature businesses
• Four weeks — family-facing local business, reciprocal trades
• Two weeks — catalogue closed; every experience carries its season, group size, age range and weather plan

Solicit in late summer or winter. Asking a naturalist for auction items during the spring field trip season gets an honest answer you will not like.

General information, not legal advice for your centre. Permit conditions for educational wildlife, and what those animals may be used for, come from the issuing agency — ask them in writing rather than interpreting the permit yourself.

Committee structure: committee and volunteer roles.