Holding a live auction at our carnival has been an awesome fundraiser for our school for the past four years. Of course, there are the typical items to bid on that were donated, hotel nights, zoo tickets, Six Flags tickets, etc., but here are some out-of-the-ordinary things we had up for auction….and they were a hit! Bidding wars are so much fun to watch!

Our most popular item that caused the longest bidding war was for one student to spend the day with our custodian, helping him do his job during the school day. Following that in popularity, is the staff vs. students kick ball game. This works best if it’s limited to ten older kids, for example, 4th and 5th grade. Our principals even get in on the action! And closely behind that, would be lunch on the roof for four kids with the principals! Teachers offer “mystery dates” or an outing to lunch and a movie. Our librarian offered a student from each grade level to be the librarian for the day. Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers offered an ice cream party for five kids.

In our silent auction, we have also had success with selling “reserved seating” to upcoming school programs. That’s worth a lot to the parents who don’t want to arrive an hour early just to get a close seat!

I’m sure there are many more creative and fabulous ideas out there. Leave a comment so we can all share some great ideas.