How much can a summer camp raise with a silent auction?

Short answer: how many alumni you can contact, and whether the campaign ran in the off-season.

Working it out from alumni you may not have

The audience is enormous in principle and tiny in practice, because the list was never kept.

• Current families, reachable in the off-season
• Alumni and former staff you can actually contact today
• The camp's own social following, which is large and seasonal
• The cost of one week of camp, which is your unit

The second input is usually near zero, and if so this year's campaign is a list-building exercise that also raises money. Fixing the leak — a durable contact from every leaver — is worth more over a decade than anything else on this page.

What moves it

Alumni, if you have any list

The determining factor and usually near zero. If so, this year's campaign is a list-building exercise that also raises money: alumni and family outreach.

Off-season timing

Autumn, with new photographs and nostalgic families. An in-season attempt mostly does not happen at all.

Property items

A weekend at camp, a cabin, the site for an event. Unbuyable elsewhere and costing a caretaker's time.

Whether the goal is a week

"Send a kid to camp" is bought. A total is considered.

Setting the goal

Publish the cost of one week and set the goal in weeks. Then report in weeks — "the auction sent nine campers" — and photograph the property rather than the campers, which reports completely and identifies nobody.

Goal and budget mechanics: fundraising goals and budget.

General information, not legal advice for your camp. Youth protection, media consent and the conditions attached to any accreditation or affiliation differ — your director and your own policies decide how any of this applies.