Silent Auction Fundraisers ~What I would and wouldn't do again

It's been a while since I organized the Silent Fundraiser we had for our Home Study and adoption expenses. I've wanted to write about what we did to make it happen for a while and I hope to give you some resources to make your function (if you ever need to have one) successful. I did a bunch of research leading up to the event, but nothing really dug in deep and explained, gave resources and advice all in once place. This will be my attempt to do that!

The first thing that I did was look up the kinds of baskets I could make. I found tons of themes and cute ideas. There were some that I wished I could do, but didn't have the money to make it happen. The number one thing we did to make this a complete success was asking for help from friends and family. They stepped in and donated, showed up, invited other people and bought some stuff too! Here are some of the baskets I ended up with:

Different Theme of Legos

A Basket Full of Legos

Box of Books with a Reading Buddy

Dog Themed 

Starbucks Themed

Spa Themed

Camping & Fishing Theme with Antique Baskets

Family Theme with Chinese New Year Ram

Local Coffee Place "The Corner Perk"

Puzzles Theme

Donated by Local Business "Nour-ish"

Baby Boy Read & Cuddle Theme

Disney Books Read & Cuddle Theme

Farm Read & Cuddle Theme

Baby Read & Cuddle Theme

Christian Children's Books Theme

Woman's Relaxation Theme

Mani/Pedi Kit

Fall Themed Basket

Life by the Sea Theme

Beauty Basket

Antique Ducks in an Antique Basket

Helicopter and Games

Donated Metal Art

Donated Bone China from Treasures of Hope Dongguan, China

Donated Bracelet from "Artware"

You'll probably notice looking through these pictures that I had quite a lot of children's books. While I'm sure you could ask for donations from friends and family, I actually had heard of something called Books By the Foot. They are used books and they box them up and send them to you. Now, not all the books I got were in good condition, but I got a box of roughly 100 books for $25 (though, when I checked today they were on sale for $19!). My husband, sister and I had to sort through them and decide which ones to keep and which to toss. There were one or two I kept for myself or my niece, but I tried to let most of them go.

The second thing I did was look for things that were "like new" being sold. I confess, I got a good bit of what I had in there at Goodwill or other thrift stores. Almost all the baskets came from thrift stores, including that antique one that helped those ducks sell for around $400! A basket I got for $2 and ducks my dad found in an abandoned house! Now, I must confess that my family has a slight problem with hoarding, so finding things that were "like new" was not hard for me. My mom buys stuff all the time on sale and it never gets used. This really paid off for the silent auction when my parents donated things to bring their grandbabies home!

The third thing I did was keep an eye out for deals. If something was on sale and would look nice in a basket, I bought it and saved it. We were able to buy things at a cheaper price and therefore could actually make money from it. I also built a lot around what I already had. That camping basket was built around two sleeping bags David and I had bought at another silent auction, opened and never used. We included a lantern my mom had never used, some antique fishing rods my dad had (and we cleaned up), a fly fishing tackle box, and a selfie stick (which is the only thing I actually bought)... because why not?

The last thing I did was the most important. I asked for donations. I expected a lot of "no's" and got a LOT of "yes's!" I went into it with a good attitude and low expectations. I gave everyone I asked a flyer for the silent auction and invited them to come. Even if they couldn't donate, they could come look around! But most people were very willing to donate! Telling small businesses we were adopting and explaining why was enough for most people. I tried to refer people to our blog as much as possible so if they wanted to check on anything they could. My husband's father is a pastor at a church and there are many people that were willing to donate from their businesses. We also knew quite a few people ourselves, neighbors, friends, business associates, and we asked everyone we knew. Some of them said no, but offered other things, some gave gift cards, some gave small items we put into other baskets, some donated entire baskets (pre-made), most of them gave so much I was astonished! I was absolutely blown away by how much kindness we received, how much people gave and how willing they were to be invested in our story of bring children home to a family.

So that's how we got together the items, but that was only the part we were selling. We put together a pasta bar dinner for donations, and were able to set out some donated desserts. The location we had it at was a church reception hall, it was perfect because we had the kitchen to do the food, tables to eat and chat, tables for the auction and even a microphone for announcements (more about this in a minute)! We were able to get it for free, but we had to make sure it was set up in between the events that were taking place there. Everything had to be cleaned up by the next morning for church. I had seen a post on Pinterest that I thought would also be cool, about another couple's silent auction that they had in their home and in their backyard. They had strung up lights, BBQ and blankets out on the lawn. The set up a speaker and microphone and made their announcements from there. I could get on-board with that!

We also had to set up the bidding sheets. This was both the easiest and hardest part of the whole ordeal. Let me tell you from experience, don't wait until the day before the auction to work on this, even if you're not done with all the baskets or items. Editing the file is way easier than having to do it all at once. I used Word to create a bidding sheet, it already had a nice template. I adjusted a few things, threw in our adoption icon and was ready to rock and roll. Here's what I ended up with:

Burgundy Willow Silent Auction Bidding Sheet

Here's some of the set up stuff I created to get you inspired! Use it if you can!

Signs for Silent Auction

Silent Auction Rules

Bidders Information Sheet

Basket Numbers

We were told by Wikihow that you should start with a minimum bid of 20% of retail. We did a lot of googling to determine what that should be and a lot of estimating. We made a slight mistake of putting a "Buy Now" price. It would have been better if we had just made it bidding - though it only caused one round of confusion, it would have caused less hurt feelings.
We also had something a little special about our silent auction, we had speeches. During the time people were shopping and bidding we had people stand up and talk. Mostly it was us talking as we had over 200 people there and couldn't possibly explain everything they wanted to know about our adoption individually. We spent time detailing our decision, why we felt called and what the steps were from here. We could tell people really enjoyed this facet of the evening as every time there was a speaker, they all came back to sit and listen, and honestly it drew a bit away from the bidding. It didn't end up being a problem because people were so generous about bidding in the first place. But I could see that it probably needed to be timed a little better than it was.

Among the speakers we had a woman whom David's family is close to, speak about her adoption. She explained how she felt being adopted and it was beautiful. None of us really knew the entire story. We also asked a woman from the church who is from Bulgaria (the country we're adopting from) to explain some of the culture and explain the need. She even set up a table to show different pieces of Bulgarian culture. It was wonderful.

One part we did not plan out very well was announcing the winners, and purchasing during the auction. It ended in people patiently waiting in a long line for us to get our acts together and get them their things! It was embarrassing! We were able to set up a way for them to use credit cards and that was really nice. My brother-in-law had the church's online tithes and donations set up to a special event. I'm sure you could also do that by setting up a few computers and a Funding site. (Ps. If you're finished with your home study I recommend using AdoptTogether it gives a tax write-off to donors). Our problem with the during-the-auction-purchasing was that we didn't have enough man-power to announce the winners of each basket, someone bringing out the basket and someone taking the money. We were told to pull the basket once the table bidding was done, and place it in the back, but now I kind of wish we had roped off or covered the table, then had someone check the winner by having the person claim it and the worker verifying it was theirs. It would have been a bit smoother.

How it went - The Home Study

I'm gonna try a new style of writing today, let me know if you like it.

It was a beautiful day, so let me start there. It was cloudy and overcast, but not with pollution as it is so often in our city of DG. We haven't had rain our entire rainy season, so seeing those clouds was a
happy occasion. We got up extra early and did a quick sweep through of our house. Put away bed mats (we were sleeping on the floor downstairs because the air-conditioning upstairs was broken), put on clothes that were carefully laid out the night before, do hair, make-up, run outside and walk the dog.

Once all the little things we knew we needed to do where done, we made sure everything looked nice one final time before heading out the door. We still needed to catch a taxi, a bus would not do on a day like today. Buses save money, but not time, and time is what we were needing to save. We flagged down a taxi much quicker than we were expecting and we were on our way to Dynatown Mall where we were going to meet up with Eric. Eric is high up in a factory about 20 minutes away from the downtown area. He has a personal driver and he had offered to let us use this luxury for today.

We pulled up to the mall and paid the taxi driver. We got out, hoping Starbucks would be open at 6:30 am. In China, it doesn't open until 7:15, so we were out of luck. We went to McDonald's instead. I got what I everything that I can eat from McDonald's; eggs, a hash-brown and a coffee. David got whatever he wanted; an egg McMuffin, a biscuit and a milk. We also ordered food for our driver and Eric. They arrived soon after we got the food and we were heading over to Eric's factory in no time. Our driver needed to eat once we got to the factory, so he took 10 minutes to do that and we took a tour of the place. Eric's factory makes lamps for hotels. It was a really cool experience.

We got our GPS ready to go to Guangzhou airport and we were off. It took about an hour and a half to drive all the way there. We spent that time reading our adoption education book, "The Connected Child" and talking, all the while trying to keep ourselves from becoming over-anxious and over-stressed.

When we finally got there, we communicated (in horrible Chinese) to the driver that we wanted him to stay nearby and we would be back soon. We found the gate which our social worker would be arriving. We decided to scrawl her name on a piece of paper, just in case we didn't recognize her.
We took turns visiting the restroom and spent the time pacing back and forth still talking and joking, trying to ease the nerves.

Some people started filing around the exit corner and into the waiting area. An elderly couple, a family, lots of single Chinese people. Finally, the only person who was foreign enough to be her turned the airport exit corner. It was easier than we thought to recognize her, and we called out her name. We said hello and it all began.

We got in the car and drove back to Dongguan. Our nerves were quickly calmed as we began to just talk. At first we were still feeling the pressure to present ourselves in a positive light, but as we got to know her and she got to know us, we were much more comfortable. I offered her a snack I had packed which led to a conversation about nutrition. We talked for some time about the importance of nutrition when adopting. The fact that I had packed Gluten free pretzels, a Soyjoy and some water boded well for us! David even took the opportunity to brag on me for my dietary and nutrition expertise!

We talked about all kinds of things, but here are the big topics I remember; we talked about the level of support we felt we had from friends and family, our plans for discipline, how there could be issues with attachment after adoption, the special needs in a child that might arise with any international adoption, what we planned in terms of childcare, how we were planning financially, and so much more. We actually knew the answer to every question asked! We spent time talking in the car, in our living room and while eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant down the road from us.

She met Aubie and Luna and they were on their best behavior. She loved them! She said "I knew I would like you when I read about how your greatest accomplishment was saving your kitten." I felt a kind of kindred spirit thing going on with her. First on the topic of nutrition and now with animals!

She looked around at safety features in our house and pointed out some things we might improve on. The best thing she said all day was "I don't need to check every little safety feature, because I know you will love your children more than I do and will want to protect them more than I would."
Honestly, it made me feel capable.

There weren't many concerns for safety about our house, except the balconies. Our social worker suggested either getting some sort of lock for everywhere connecting to a balcony or these wire nets I often see around the community. David and I are looking into that now and we will see what we can find and afford. She gave us advise on the process, told us what it would entail to get official approval for the home study and offered help for certain parts of the process.

After that we took her out to get some stuffed toys for her kids, gave her a Kombucha scobi to take home with her, then drove back with her to the airport. By the time we got back home, we were exhausted. It was 7 or 8 at night and all we could do was feel proud and sit on the couch and watch tv until it was an acceptable time to go to bed.

Overall, it was a really good day. The best part about it was after all our talking she said, "I'm going to approve you for 2 kids up to age 7," which is exactly what we wanted to hear. Verbal approval. We were so excited!

Now what's next? We've been approved for two kids by our social worker, but we still have some paperwork to finish, send in, get approved, cleared and so on. We are currently sending in Child Abuse Clearance paperwork for SC and TN. David is also working on completing his adoption education so he can earn his certificate. After that our completed home study document will be sent in to the Central Authority in the US and hopefully approved without investigation (think IRS checking on validity of taxes, but with adoption paperwork). If they ask for proof of something we only have a short period of time to respond with the needed paperwork. If we fail to comply there are consequences, such as having to re-do the whole home study.  We are praying that they will not ask for proof. By the time mail found its way to us, we would only have a few days to comply because of being in China and the reliability of mail here.

If we can sail smoothly through the home study approval, our next step is to attain all the paperwork we need for our dossier. If you want to know more about what is included in a dossier check out what our agency says here.