Scholarship fund silent auction item ideas that actually sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. A scholarship fund's advantage is that its own product is the right size to be an auction lot.

Award sponsorship, in units

• A full award for one year, named if the holder permits
• A semester of books, or a laptop
• A term of transport or accommodation costs
• Application, testing and admission fees, which are frequently the first barrier
• A tools or equipment grant for a trade programme
• A summer bridge or orientation programme place

The smaller units matter as much as the full award. They let bidders at every level fund something real, and application fees in particular are an unglamorous, genuinely decisive item. Naming terms are on named scholarship sponsorship.

From the community the fund sits in

• Professional services from donors and past recipients
• Experiences, weekends away, dinners, tickets
• Local business certificates and retail bundles
• Handmade work from the family or the community, where the fund is memorial
• Career mentoring, a mock interview, a portfolio review — which also serve applicants

The mentoring lots are worth building. They are cheap, they suit a fund's mission, and they can be offered to applicants as well as auctioned.

From past recipients

• A professional service from someone the fund helped through college
• A talk about what the award made possible, with their agreement
• Something from their own business

A past recipient donating a service is the most persuasive item in the catalogue and the easiest ask nobody makes. It also demonstrates the fund's whole argument without anybody having to state it.

What must never be in the catalogue

• A nomination, a shortlist place, or any influence over who receives an award
• A seat on the selection panel
• Anything implying a sponsor may meet, choose or direct their recipient
• A recipient's story, image or circumstances beyond what they specifically agreed to
• Anything describing an award as need-based in a way that identifies a family

The first two are absolute regardless of the amount offered. A fund that sells any part of its selection has sold the thing that made the award worth winning.

General information, not tax or legal advice for your fund. Whether a payment is deductible, and what a fund may do with its money, depends on the entity holding it — check with the holder and your own adviser before telling donors anything.