I recently came across another great idea to raise money at your benefit fundraiser and wanted to share it with you in time for your next event. This idea is literally a door to cash!
When your benefits fundraising committee meets to plan your event, assign someone to find a door. Yes, you read that right: a door! I’m not saying you should go out and spend good money on a new door at Home Depot. No, this gate will be in the front of someone’s yard on trash night. You don’t need to have windows or even a handle, you just need an old door.
Now is the time to turn your door into dollars. What you are going to do is take the gift certificates you have collected and stick them, many of them, to the side of the door. These gift certificates will be for things like car washes, oil changes, pizza, dinner for two, tire rotation, McDonald’s, Arby’s, Hardees, a manicure, a message, a free salon visit, you get the idea. Just remember, this is the side of the door your charity event guests will never see! Prop the door against a wall so the gift certificates are hidden so no one knows the value of “what’s behind it.”
On the other side of the door, the side that faces the crowd, you can spray paint a large question mark, or using a magic marker write the words “Mysterious door” or “What’s behind door # 1?” Make it fun! Whether you decide to put this door on your live or silent auction is up to you, although I suggest you put it on the live auction because the auction could be really fun. The key is to have this door in view from the moment your guests start arriving so that the mystery piles up and the guessing game begins. You want your guests to ask each other, “I wonder what’s behind that. Is it worth nothing or is it worth a lot? Should I bid? If I don’t, will I regret it?”
If this door is part of your silent auction, you will need to write “Gift Certificates” on the bid sheet so people know what you are bidding on. If the door is at your live auction, you can wait until the door opens to bid, at which point your auctioneer can let the crowd know what you are bidding on. Just make sure the prize is good so the bidder leaves happy. A recent event I attended featured such a gate at the live auction. The event organizers engraved gift certificates totaling approximately $ 250 and the highest bidder won it with a bid of $ 650!
