I was asked to donate two gift certificates for a silent auction for charity. I haven't done this before so my question is. Do you do a set amount? or could you do a base amount say $40, then what ever the winning bid was? I was thinking of a set amount of $75, which is what most of my party cakes go for, and include an example cake picture and number of servings? Any thoughts would be appreciated, I would like the certificates to look great and really encourage the bidders.
you should state that you need at least x weeks notice, that their date may already be booked.
make it for x$ worth of cake, leaving it as possibly whatever the winning bid was could leave you way out of pocket, or if it doesnt go for much, struggling to do something cheap.
is it for a set cake (set size, set range of decorations) or can it also be used towards getting a bigger cake?
i like ur idea of the pic so they know what x amount gets them.
there have been a few posts on this, so it might be worth going back to them, i know i havent covered everything!
xx
I just looked at several of your cakes (as you will know by the barage of comments I made.) You do quite a variety of styles of cakes. You difinitely need to be difinitive about what size and what is or is not included. I think for a silent auction it is expected that you place a dollar value on the donation so the bidders know when they want to stop competing. Pictures of similar cakes would be the way to go.
I think for an auction you should put a cake size (2 layer-8" round, 10" square, whatever) instead of a dollar amount.
I have done a gift certificate for a Silent Auction before. I donated a 10" Homemade Decorated Cake. I made it into a flyer so I had room to place a few pictures of my cakes, and placed the value of the cake. I also stated to please place order 2 weeks in advance.
The person running the auction will decide what the beginning bid will be. But since silent auctions are to raise fund for a cause, the organization always got a bid for more than what the cake was worth.
I've done the same thing for a silent auction at my kids school. I donated a "two tier party cake to serve 30 or $75 towards any other cake" if they needed something larger. I also required 4 weeks notice and put a disclaimer about being booked in advance. Also put an expiration date on it and that it has no cash value... you might get some wacko that only wants an 8" cake and asks for the cash back... ya never know.
i agree that the easiest thing to do would be to state the size and how many servings that is (if you wanted to limit flavour/buttercream or fondant do that too) that it is worth x$ and can be used towards the purchase of a larger cake-and definately add how much notice you need. that way you know and so does whoever bids on it what they're getting.
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