donating to community auction

[woodlawnservice]

Like title says.... what could I donate? I'm full service landscaper and also do maintenance. We do irrigation as well as.some herbicides and ferts..my wife's on the committee and they get buisness all over town to donate.. they auction off the product to raise money... its a great form of advertising because if u donate a big ticket item... its talk of the ttown cause everyone wants to.bid on it... so what can I donate...? Its hard to decide.... things like free mowings...( its hard.to do that cause id have to somehow limit it to yard sizes..) can't just give free.mowing out to anyone's yard not knowing how big they r... id loose out horribly! We always have to put dollar amount on things we donate. Thanks!
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[Smallaxe]

Donate one day , or 1/2 day to do whatever is the person's choosing...
If you can't afford to take a day off and do something charitable for advertising purposes, then don't offer anything...

My guess is that you'll get bids from somebody with a mess of a landscape situation and you'll be pruning, thinning, weeding and beautifying someone's yard...
Pretty silly to bid at auction to have a 'Free Mowing"... $15.00 going once,,, going twice,,, gone...
you might want to make it clear that you're autioning your time, NOT your machinery... what if they want you to bring your ztr onto a bumpy ol' hayfield... you might want to offer Landscapes only and exclude mowing right off the top...

just a few things to think about...

[grandview (2006)]

Load of mulch. I do it, Best part if you don;t know the winner and they never call you, you don't need to pay for it.,but the auction gets the money from the winner.

[woodlawnservice]

Great ideas..... id like to donate a few things.... its for a greatcause and also a great way to get my name out there even more... no landscapers nor any mow and go contractors do this.... just something different as to putting out flyers... really word of.mouth is the only advertising that works so I gotta focus on creating new ideas for that.
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[Smallaxe]

Mulch idea is a good one,,, except if they do call, now you're looking at out of pocket expenses... if you only donate labor, then they'd expect to pay for the mulch and just have you spread it for free... like plantings or putting down stone,,, whatever...
Once you get beyond your donation agreement , they may very well just keep you on until the job is done...

[Big C]

How about 1 year free lawn service..up to a quarter acre, if the "winner" has more than a 1/4 acre they will pay the regular rate for anything beyond the 1/4 acre...plus it gives you opportunity to upsell landscaping/irrigation services.

[clcare2]

usually do a 2 or 3 inch october glory maple. My guys can do it in an hour or so and I am not out that much time or money and they have something to remind them of us for ever.

[grandview (2006)]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

Mulch idea is a good one,,, except if they do call, now you're looking at out of pocket expenses... if you only donate labor, then they'd expect to pay for the mulch and just have you spread it for free... like plantings or putting down stone,,, whatever...
Once you get beyond your donation agreement , they may very well just keep you on until the job is done...

I offer 5 yrs of mulch for the auction so my cost is about 75 bucks.You can lose cost in other jobs. But for the auction it's valued at 250.00

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by grandview (2006)

I offer 5 yrs of mulch for the auction so my cost is about 75 bucks.You can lose cost in other jobs. But for the auction it's valued at 250.00

I assume you mean 5 yds... do you also spread it for the bidder or are you just retailing the mulch itself???

[grandview (2006)]

Backup the truck and dump it.