How to Run a Baked Goods Ticket Auction
Are you looking for a new fundraising idea? Try a baked goods ticket auction.
We started hosting a baked goods ticket auction about 4 years ago and it has become an annual tradition that people look forward to and expect!
We decided not to have a bake sale as there are often items left over, and this eliminates that problem! Plus, this adds an air of excitement!
For best results, try to find a pre-existing event that you can tap into. For us, this is the village’s annual tree-lighting party. People are already here and there are plenty of other activities for them to do while we are running the ticket sales.
Here’s how to run a baked-goods ticket auction
Before the Event
1. Pick a date and time for your event.
2. Advertise it to the community.
3. Ask people to bake. This can be done internally through your organization. We ask people to bake something and package it just like for a bake sale (without any prices). Because our event caters primarily to families at Christmas time, we ask people to bring Christmas-themed food. Label anything that contains nuts. Packages with smaller quantities works best so that there are more winners!
4. Create tickets. This is the document that we use for the tickets. Download here. Print off the tickets and cut into strips. Make a sheet that lists the numbers 1-350 so that you can write the names beside each ticket number.
5. Gather supplies. You will need:
a. Pens and markers
b. Scissors
c. Masking and scotch tape
d. Paper bags
e. Float (lots of change!)
Set up
1. Set up Tables. We covered ours with Christmas table cloths!
2. Have people bring their baked goods at least 30-60 minutes ahead of time.
3. Display the baked goods on the tables. We group the same items together to conserve space).
4. Place a strip of masking tape across each package. You will need this at the end of the event (write the winner’s name on this piece of tape)
5. Tape a paper bag to the table in front of each baked good (or group of baked goods)
At the event
This part of the event can be really hectic! It’s fast and only lasts a short period of time. We recommend having three stations where people can buy tickets.
1. Sell tickets. We sold a strip of 10 tickets for $2 or 3 strips for $5. I made up a few posters to hang on the walls with the prices.
2. When the person buys a strip, write their name on their chart by the numbers that they buy.
3. Instruct people to rip each number off their strip (they will end up with 10 small squares). Put one ticket in the paper bag of the item that they want to win. If they really want to win it, of course you put in more tickets in that bag!
Wrapping Up
This is also a hectic part as people are really excited to find out if they win! But, with a good system, it goes smoothly.
1. Close the ticket sales. For us, we find that running the ticket auction for 45 minutes is enough. We want to catch the winners before they go home.
2. Draw the winners. We had two volunteers go around to each item and draw a ticket from each bag and tape that number to the baked good with scotch tape.
3. Find winner Names. We had two groups of two volunteers each. One group had the sheets with the names of which names correspond with which ticket numbers. I took a picture of these sheets on my tablet so we could have another copy. Two volunteers start at each end of the table. One looks up the number on the sheets (tablet) and the other writes the name with a marker on the strip of masking tape.
4. Call out winners. You can have someone loudly announce the winner’s names, or if it’s a small village like ours, you can send someone to go find them to tell them they won
This event is a lot of fun. Some people win a lot of items, so it’s always good for a laugh!
It’s a very hectic and chaotic event – but it only lasts for about an hour, and when it’s over, you realize how much fun it was for everyone and you can’t wait to do it again the next year!
Any questions on how to run this event, please email info@valleyfamilyfun.ca
