We are a private catholic school, so some of these things may not apply to all, but here are some things we do that go over well:

1) Principal for a day
2) School Secretary for a day
3) Student athletic pass: free admittance to all school games for a year
4) Front row at 8th grade graduation
5) Use of the school marquee for a week
6) Lunch for 4 with the principal
7) Summer Sports Camps certificates from our local High Schools
8) Mayor for the day
9) Sherrif for the day
10) Naming rights for a year for street entering into school parking lot
11) Naming rights to school gym for a year
12) Dinner for 8 prepared by Father (our school/parish priest)
13) Free school lunch for a year
14) VIP parking spot at parish/school for a year
15) Class projects - projects made by each class to be auctioned off

Our chief of police has agreed to have lunch with a student at our school. A local sandwich shop is allowing a student to name a sandwich.

This is great! Hopefully this saves a school from not doing an auction because they thought the community wouldn't donate product. Instead there are a ton of free and exciting things groups can have at their auction besides flat out product or service donations! Well done!

Great thread. Most auctions make their biggest bucks off of these items. I call them "things you can't buy at Target". Every donation is appreciated, but various gift cards and golf shirts and vacations are only so exciting. It's these unique "only at the auction" items that really make the difference.

For our school, some biggies are:

Dinner with the Mayor at the Mayor's house
Hand-painted desks with hand prints of all the kids in a particular class
Gym naming rights (for one year)
Candlelight dinner in the school cafeteria catered and waitered by 4 teachers.

Love to hear more...

Tim

Ice Cream Store Scooper for a day - ok, maybe just for a few hours! My cousin did this at their local Baskin Robbins and bought it for her daughter. All the friends came and she made sundaes for them, etc. I just contacted our Baskin Robbins and she said it's too hard for kids to scoop but that they could run the soft serve machine PLUS she's give the school 31% of all the proceeds made during the time the child was there. She even offered to do multiple time periods, but that might interfere with the bidding - if it's not that special than it might go for less.

I just posted this on a different thread, but how about a Ladies Night at the local firestation? My cousin did this one as well. The firemen cook dinner for the ladies, take them for a ride on the firetruck, etc. Of course you always run the risk of them having to leave...

A ride to school on a firetruck

Vet for a day

My cousin's school also has these types of events (can you tell I"m new to this and stealing all her ideas?): The teachers host a movie night at the school and provide snacks. Usually there is a limit to the number of attendees and they charge $20 or so per child. For the younger kids, have the teacher come to their house at bedtime and read them a story. Priceless!

If you like any of these let me know. She has tons!

Due to the difficult economy our PTO is trying to think of different auction donations. Here is what we came up with so far:

Principal for the Day
Lunch Superstar for the Week (first in line everyday)
Librarian for the Day
Extra 20 minutes of recess for the winner's class
Homework Pass
VIP parking at a school event
Birthday party at the town firehouse - sponsored by the fire dept.

Please feel free to add to this list. I am sure we all need help!!!

Thanks!