What a story Gillian, I have tears in my eyes from reading it.

I've never done a silent auction either, but I'd suggest visiting local vendors and other DS consultants for donations - both products and services. Maybe even contact HO and see it they will dontate some products for the silent auction for you (you never know....)

As for the dinner. Where is the dinner? Will you have cooking facilites? Or are you looking to have it catered? What is your price range for each meal?

 

Oh, I just remembered that you are inactive - HO might not donate to you.

 

Food Coordinator--to help with the menu and delgating people, or catering
Decoration Coordinator--to help with set up, decorations etc
Clean Up Crew--to help break down tables etc, after event is over

If they have a tax ID I would suggest drawing up a letter and having volunteers drop off to local business for donations. (ie. spa, nail and hair salon, costco, liqour donations, and various types of business.)

This will help in your silent auction (whatever the place of business may donate, gift certificate or otherwise)

Also, you may want to seek donations for food, desserts, beer/wine, etc. Again, you may need a tax ID # so they can get the write off.

You may also want to do a 50/50 raffle....

Hope that helps and starts you going in the right directions.

 

These links should help as far as the silent auction is concerned:
How to Run a Silent Auction - wikiHow
Silent Auction Bid Sheets

 

Gillian I have never been to one but if I was going to a charity dinner I would definitly plan on paying to eat. Are you getting the food donated? I think spaghetti, bread sticks, drinks, and maybe some cake for dessert would be great.
I have heard of these dogs before.

 

A caterer would not be a bad idea. Actually, it is much smarter than planning to cook everything yourself especially since you are supposed to be the Organizer. You'll be too busy with other stuff to be stuck in the kitchen cooking for what potentially (hopepfully) could be over 200 people.

 

Spaghetti dinner are always a HUGE success where I live!!
GOOD LUCK!!

 

Gillian, this can all be very easy - and fun - if you get enough people to help you. You definitely need a committee. Don't, however, expect people to approach you. You have to ask them for help, but people do like to feel needed!!

I do have some experience in this area. In fact, I'm the Coordinator for our church's Outreach Committee. Personally, I would start by asking for help from the congregration at the church where the dinner will be held. Us church ladies, we love to be involved!! If you don't attend the church, then see if the pastor will give you five minutes to get in front of the congregation next Sunday to talk about the event, where the money's going, and what help you need. If at all possible, show a 2 minute clip or slide show of the little girl (tug at those heart strings). Also, of course, ask friends and members of the girl's family to be involved, as well.

Have one or two people (at least) be in charge of collecting donations. While a tax ID is good, what donating companies need is the request written up on the organization's letter head, so they can keep it in their records. Give yourself AT LEAST 2-3 weeks to collect donations, as some companies need to get approval from their own HO, and this might take time.

Many newspapers will run ads for charitable events for free. Also, check with your local radio stations about doing a public announcement, and see if they have event calendars on the internet. Subway (at least the one in our town), will put flyers in the bags for a week or so before the event, and our local Pizza Hut just agreed to tape the flyers for our upcoming Easter Egg Hunt on their delivery boxes, as well. Going back to newspapers, see if you (or someone) can be 'interviewed' about the dinner/auction. Since there was already a story, they may be willing to do a follow-up, and this is great, free, advertising.

Ok, now to the dinner. Catering is great, especially if you don't have access to a kitchen. However, don't rule out doing the cooking yourselves. If you have the dinner in early April, brisket will be on sale (very popular for Seder meals), and this is a super easy dish to make (I can give you a wonderful recipe, but don't have it on me right now). Serve it with mashed potatoes or rice, and broccoli or corn, or any veggie which can be steamed. Fast, cheap, filling, yet elegant. Of course, dessert is a must!! Plus, drinks (soda, coffee, tea, lemonade).

So, your committee will need someone to be in charge of menu planning/cooking; shopping; advertising; donation collection; decorating; set-up and clean-up. In each of these categories you'll need a few people, because the more help you get, the easier it is.

Ok, those are the tips I can think of for now. Let me know if you have any questions. If I think of anything else, I'll come back to post.

 

The choir I used to be in used to do a fundraiser concert each year that had a light meal as part of the evening. We used a caterer - it was easier on us (as we never had enough members actually helping with food, decorations, set-up, etc.) and we could actually get better food cheaper by doing that.

You're going to need a good amount of room for the auction items, so that they can each be displayed with a bid sheet, and not crowd each other on the tables (nothing worse than the bid sheets getting mixed up and someone bidding on the wrong item). So depending on the amount of total space you have available and the number of expected guests, you might want to consider having a light meal that can be eaten while people are moving around and placing bids (aka appetizers for dinner). Recipes that work well for food on the move include wrap sandwiches cut into small pieces, veggies with dip, cheese with fruit, etc.

You may want to consider using some of the donated items for a Chinese Raffle, too. Set them up on tables like the silent auction items, but with a bowl or basket in front of each instead of a bid sheet. Allow people to purchase tickets and place them in the baskets of the items they want to win. Then you just draw a winner. You can offer 12 tickets for $10, or I've also been to events where people get their height in tickets for $25. Use the 2-part tix, so the guests can keep 1 half so they can show it was their ticket that was drawn.

 

Heres a link to BIG recipes:
Growlies BIG recipes Index recipes to serve 100 people or more
great ones for salads, desserts, chili, spaghetti etc...my church has done a chili fundrasier with great success...much like a spaghetti fundrasier. You make a huge batch of chili and spaghetti noodles - so this stretches out the chili. Set it up like a chili bar with shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onions, cilantro etc....

You can cook spaghetti noodles ahead of time and this is a big timesaver. Store batches in gallon ziplocs in the church refrigerator, then before the dinner just take them out and run hot water over them in big colanders and dump into a pot to stay warm.

Under "main dishes" theres a great link called Spaghetti Dinner tips

Huge big sheet cakes would be great for the desserts, dump cakes would too and they are yummy - the church should have to big sheet pans - or you could ask for donations for the desserts? Thats what my church has done and we got a big variety of brownies, cupcakes, cookies, cake slices etc....just sit them all on a big table.

 

Gillian,
See if you can find out who their relief society president is (part of LDS organization) I am sure she will be totally willing to help you. I am sure she would be willing to pass sign up sheets around to get help. I am sure that as soon as you ask they will jump in.