How senior centers get auction items donated

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

Start inside the building

1. The groups that already make things

Quilting, knitting, woodwork, art, the kitchen. Go to each group in person, explain what the money funds, and ask whether they would like to contribute a piece. Ask, do not announce — a group told its work is being sold responds differently from one invited to help.

Give them a deadline that fits how they work. A quilt is a season, not a fortnight.

2. Volunteers and staff

Skills, businesses and employer matching programmes. One conversation at a volunteer meeting surfaces most of it.

Then the two outside groups that matter

3. Businesses whose customers are older adults or their carers

Pharmacies, home care agencies, hearing and mobility retailers, podiatrists, visiting hairdressers, medical alert providers, home modification contractors. Every one of them wants to reach your audience and their families, and almost none have been approached by a senior center for anything.

Say that in the ask, because it is the offer: the item page and the newsletter put them in front of exactly their market.

4. Participants' families

Adult children who own businesses, or work somewhere with a giving programme. Ask in the newsletter and ask participants directly — many will offer their own children's businesses if it occurs to them, and it usually has not.

5. The general community

Restaurants, retail, home services. Last, once you know your gaps. In a small town a senior center asking is an easy yes.

What to offer

The item listing, a mention in the printed newsletter — which for a local business reaching older households is genuinely valuable and worth naming as such — recognition at the event, and a receipt from the correct entity. If your center is municipal and a Friends group is receipting, say which in the acknowledgement.

Timing

• Twelve weeks out — go to the craft and kitchen groups, so a quilt has a season to be made in
• Eight weeks — the older-adult business list, in person where you can
• Six weeks — families, through the newsletter and directly
• Four weeks — the general community, filling gaps
• Three weeks — photograph and list everything, including work in progress with a note about completion

Committee structure: committee and volunteer roles.