Delicious Fund-Raising Idea for Your Favourite Charity

I had a flash of brilliance this morning!

I was looking at the surplus of chocolate in our house, though probably less than most, wondering how to keep out of it. The children are obsessed with it, sneaking glances at each other's stash and breaking off bits when my back is turned. If anyone had asked, I would have hinted for quality over quantity, but the kids are a different story. I'm in the kitchen, trying not to have chocolate for breakfast with my coffeeand suddenly the thought expanded to include all my friends who complain bitterly about the temptation. Before it got to global proportions, a simple idea hit me. 

If people gave all of their unwanted, wrapped or boxed chocolates and we re-sorted them into beautiful, Large and Extra-Large cellophane bundles, we could auction them off and donate the proceeds to a charity. An auction could be set up quickly, either locally or online, where each bundle would be displayed and put on individual lists that run until a pre-set End date and time.  Whoever is the highest bidder on each bundle at the end, would receive it in exchange for the amount they had bid. 

Receive, Give, Benefit:

• The benefit to the bidder: lots of yummy chocolate;
• The benefit to the auction organizers: giving away chocolate that they didn't have to buy themselves, therefore reducing their overhead to a minimum;
• The benefit to the charity: receipt of donated funds without depleting their own resources; and
• The benefit to the chocolate donors: avoiding sugar highs and expanding waistlines.

Everyone wins.

Have all of the pretty, shiny bundles of chocolate displayed for the agreed period of the silent auction, with a separate list for of each one. Everyone interested can see who has previously bid and how much; get a little healthy competition going.  I've come up with a few ways to make it more exciting. 

1. Identify your target market: children, shoppers, commuters, employees, event visitors, club members, convention delegates, theatre go-ers or the general public. Choose a venue and length of auction that works best for your target market. Then, arrange with the venue's management to "host" you.
2. If there is a publicized event  already organized, that you can attach yourself to, such as a boot sale, school or church fete, start and end in one day.
3. You could use a safe, but high traffic, place to display them for a week, such as the lobby of your fitness club or corporate offices, even if you had to lock them up each night.
4. Display a photo and description of each numbered bundle on your blog and invite visitors to bid on them in the comment section.
5. Use transparent, coloured cellopane to bundle most of the chocolate. Choose  just a few bundles to package in opaque wrappers (wrap in paper first, before bundling in coloured cellopane), making those into a "blind" auction.
6. If you are in a relatively public location, where people can gather to watch, hold a chocolate-bundle raffle every hour. Get your team to wander around with rolls of raffle tickets, selling them for a nominal amount, perhaps 50 pence or £1, and give away something worth at least 10 X the ticket price.  Announce the winner while the crowd is in front of you, to feed off of their interest.
7. Alternatively, set a precise time to announce all winners (auction and raffle) at the end of an event. Have a member of the charity on hand to accept a donation. Ask a local journalist to be on hand with a photographer.
8. If you hold your event near the entrance of a supermarket, ask management to announce your auction/raffle over their Tannoy every once in a while.
9. Ask your local shops to donate all their extra Easter chocolates to your cause with imminent "Use By" dates.
10. Fill a large glass jar with mini-eggs and other small, wrapped chocolates and let people guess how many are in it, for a £1. Announce the winner at the end of the day and give them the contents.

I know that it might seem late in the day to set up a fund-raising event quickly enough to capitalize on today's Easter chocolates, however, it can be done if you choose one idea above and put out a little energy. If you look around your community and identify a likely venue or event, go for it. Don't complicate it with overthinking it. Just do it. You only need a small team of enthusiastic people, a press release, some posters and cellophane. It's the term break this week, with lots of kids around and parents off work.  Perhaps you can get your own kids involved in wrapping bundles.

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