How much can a parks friends group raise with an auction?

Short answer: whether you reached people in the park rather than only the people already on a mailing list.

Working it out from everyone who uses the park

The audience is standing in your asset, and almost none of them have ever been asked.

• Households on the streets adjoining the park
• Regular users — dog walkers, runners, parents, birders — reachable in the park itself
• Organized user groups: sports leagues, running clubs, dog groups
• The approved cost of the improvement you are funding

The fourth input has to be a real quote for an approved project. A friends group sizing a campaign against an improvement the agency has not agreed is sizing against something that may never be installable.

What moves it

Reaching users in the park

Signs at the entrances, a QR code on the noticeboard, a table on a busy Saturday. The audience is physically standing in the thing you are raising for.

The adjoining streets

Neighbours benefit most, are easiest to reach, and in most parks have never been asked. A leaflet on the streets facing the park is the highest-return hour available.

Leagues and organized user groups

Sports leagues, dog groups, running clubs — organized, communicating already, and directly interested in the fields being maintained.

A project people can picture

"The playground" is something a donor can picture; "the park" is not. Improvements are unusually easy to photograph before and after: funding improvements.

Setting the goal

Name the improvement, publish its approved cost, and report with a photograph of it installed. A friends group that shows the finished thing has built the case for next year's project at the same time.

Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.

General information, not legal advice for your group. Gift acceptance, procurement, naming and volunteer rules for a public agency differ by jurisdiction — the agency and its counsel decide how any of this applies.