@aliciabarefoot

I am in Charlotte, NC and we are a private school. We get donations from a lot of organizations in our area:
Charlotte Knights
Carolina Renaissance Festival
Tweetsie Railroad
Nascar Hall of Fame
Asheboro Zoo
Discovery Place
Ripley's Aquarium Myrtle Beach
Carolina Panthers

Plus dozens of local merchants. We just go door to door in the major strip malls.

Jet Blue flies out of Raleigh so you should try to get airfare from them. They respond fairly quickly and its all online so not a lot of hoops.

Good Luck!

@busymama
We received an American doll last week. I faxed the request early November our auction in May 1st.
They sent a letter early January and the doll came next week!

Thanks for the tips on the auction, I meet with my team today and hopefully we make it run smoother!

As for American Doll, I applied online, and have not heard back yet.

@Missy-If you are anything like us, you will receive your letter about three weeks before the event and one or two days later your doll will arrive.

@Julie
We used Bidding for Good last year. Here's the low down. Upfront "annual" fee of $600 (if I am recalling correctly, could have been $700). You set up your own auction. You decide if items are public or private. They get 9% of the top bidder amount, even if the item then goes on to your life auction and bids out higher. Since last year was our first year, we didn't get a great response. Our bill was about $400 after everything closed. There are companies out there who offer a lower percentage and no annual fee.

I emailed Green Mountain coffee over the weekend and got a response that the coffee shipped on Monday. Fast! 6 bags on the way.

For March Auctions, I received a "no" from "Your true Nature" saying they gave their quantity for March. I had emailed them over the weekend.

I am not too sure when we order the American Doll but it was received all ready for a March Tricky Tray.

I have a favor to ask. I would like smiley cookies for our event and it seems like you have to pick them up. The Eat n Park locations are no where near where I am located in Northern, NJ. Would anyone be willing to ship the donation to me? I would be happy to get the price of shipping overnight and send it ahead of time (very honest person).

Also, If someone needs something from Northern NJ let me know.