Quilts donated to fundraisers -
 

Just wondering what your experiences have been with these?

From my limited experience, I - and the organization - would have been better off with me writing a check for the cost of materials.

The "winner" was the person that bought the quilt.

After adding up just the cost of materials - or the replacement cost if I shopped my stash - the organization would have netted more from a check from me for the materials cost than what it netted from the sale.

I have heard stories both ways. Many times a quilt brings very little at a fundraiser auction, silent or live, although I have seen them bring phenominal $$$. I have found that raffles do better.

A raffle produces more money then selling. We sell tickets $1 each. We have learned to make simple patterns. Our last fundraiser quilt was a queen size nine patch of the state's football theme. We sold over $500 at one public venue. It's not the time to put lots of detail work in a quilt for a fundraiser if you want the general public to be interested. The color and theme are the most important choices. The last raffle we had three quilts. One college football theme queen size. One throw size made for a little girl (flower, butterflies fabric), and one throw size made for a little boy (trucks, cars fabric). Most everyone bought a ticket for at least one of the quilts, many all three.

I have donated quilts etc for various fundraisers over the years. Some things did go for less than the materials, others had bidding wars to win them. While I would agree raffles seem to do better than auctions IMO most people go to get a bargain as well as support the cause. I donate because I want to and don't equate the cost of materials with what the cause gets for my quilt(or whatever). Whatever they get is more than they had before. However if it bothers you then donate money rather than a quilt. I think the question you have to ask is would you donate the cost of your time and materials to this particular cause if you hadn't been asked to donate a quilt.

I agree with the raffle. I donated a quilt to rescue years ago and told them to raffle it off. It was a cute lap sized quilt with dog themed fabric. If it had been auctioned I doubt they would have gotten the $600+ that they got from the raffle.

Many years ago I donated a quilt that I made to an org. that my husband belonged to, they were restoring an old meeting hall. This was back in the mid eighties when quilts were not so readily available at the local Walmart,Target etc. and a hand made quilt was more of a novelty. The tickets were sold as a raffle, and the org. made a little over $1,000. I was quite proud of that. This was an historical reenacting group, so I made star blocks in red,white and blue.
It is true in making a raffle quilt or one to sell, as previously said, what would the general public of your area like? and too, queen size goes over the best. Good idea about throw and kids quilts also.

Each year I donate a few quilts to my home town Bible camp annual quilt auction. They almost always bring in more than I had spent on materials, and part of that reason is becauseI buy materials at garage and estate sales, plus get fabric donated to me. They never bring enough to compensate for my time.

In addition, I occasionally do a special quilt with a friend at church, and it is donated to the church for a fundraiser or other purpose. This summer we are working on a quilt made from art work (on a bed sheet) done by young children during a mission trip that our teenagers went on. It is likely to be something displayed in the church youth room or perhaps given to the mission community. In the case of working with this friend, I don't care one bit whether or not or how much money might result from any of our quilts -- the privilege of working with this friend is all the satisfaction I need.

I make and donate quilts because I enjoy it. If I didn't give my quilts to the auction, I would be accumulating them and have a storage problem. I already make many charity quilts for places where they are given to recipients. My auction quilts are the ones I have spent more time on and often have challenge to them.

Each person had to look at his/her own situation and do what works for them.

i agree, raffles do much better

I donated a quilt that sold on "silent auction" I told them to put $500 as the starting bid. Two people did get in a bidding war over it and it went for $1500.

It was a design to look like the stained glass windows of the chapel where I work, so a OOAK quilt.