Everything Lego, Everything Star Wars, The Little Artist (not arts and crafts, but sketchbook, paints, charcoals, etc.), Landscaping (and we put it all in a wheel barrel) Beach (in a beach trolley), Everything Toy Story, BBQ, Water Fun to name a few!

Rainy day basket

Put everything in a upside down umbrella.

I would find a inexpensive box which could store your rainy day items. I use clear cephalone wrapping and tie it. Make sure you include a list with the retail cost of the items. This makes people feel they are getting a deal.

Our elementary has done this for the past four years. we make $2500 on average on our baskets. I have gone to our state website and just started to email places and receive admission tickets to different places. I think about places I would like to visit and write to them. If the procedes go to support the school, maybe the school will give you the tax ID # if your PTO does not have one to help get cooporate donations. Restaurants are usually very good about donating gift cards. Most cooporate retail stores are not due to they give to charities.

Good luck

Hello,
I just wanted to comment on the "silent auction baskets". We had our Spring Fling 2 weeks ago and we have done the baskets for the last few years. Each classroom picks a theme ( I will list some at the end) and eah hild brings atleast 1 item to put into the baskets. Some more than others so we (the PTO) make a starting bid. This year with the economy being like it is the baskets were not as big and fany as before and not many students were able to bring in items for the basket. Even with that said we made almost $900.00 off of the baskets. Some teachers went in together and had to combine their baskets. I recommend it because number 1 its fun and number 2 it brings in money without a lot of work.
Some themes for the baskets were:
Pets(cat or dog items)
Art(crayons, markers, glue, paper, coloring books)
Car Care
Cleaning Basket (cleaning items and air freshners, ect)
Smiley face Basket ( anything with Smiley Faces)
Baby basket
Book Worm (gift card to Books-A-Milllion, books, night light ect.)
Pamper Me( lotions, smell goods, candles)
candle Basket
Fun in The Sun
Sweet & Salty treats
Chocolate basket
Hot Wheels Basket
Easter (because it was spring)
I live in Alabama and we LOVE football around here so the ALABAMA BASKET was a HUGE hit
House Divided (one team against the other)
That is about it but anything willmake a cute basket and then you have the parents of their child wanting to make the highest bid. Great fundraisor, in my opinion !!
Thanks,
Allison

We do the same thing, every class has a theme and parents in that class donate to that theme. Then each room parent puts it together in some sort of basket. Last year we found this Chocolate store and they donated the wrapping and wrapped ALL 28 of our baskets. Each room mom took their basket there and picked them up the next day.

Our favorite most coolest theme, was Spending time in Chicago. We received many donations from some museums, The Blackhawks, the zoo. Then many families donated either Money towards an object and others donated tickets to something else. We had White Sox tickets, Chicago t-shirts, water bottles, disposable cameras, jerseys to some different Chicago teams. It was overall THE best basket we have ever had. We made $400 on that basket.

Auctions don't fare well at our school. We raffle all our baskets, $1.00 a ticket.

We do a Silent Auction for our baskets. Each classroom picks a theme and then the students bring in items to help fill their classroom's basket. We don't have a starting bid we just leave it open. We also get alot of participation from the classroom teacher's because we split the profit 50/50 with them so that they have some money to spend on their classroom.