Our School Auction Went From $1,200 to $16,207
Same school. Same families. Same neighbourhood shops. The only thing that changed was the system — and it's in the free 23-page playbook, along with the donor scripts, the 4-week timeline, and the listing formula that turns a $40 basket into a $180 basket.
Written by a parent who actually ran them — not a fundraising company trying to sell you software.
Every number here came off a real 32Auctions dashboard.
It Didn't Happen
All At Once
This is one school's spring auction, year after year. I took it on in 2024 and got a little better at it every time. That's the whole point — you don't need a miracle year, you need a system you can run again.
Plus a holiday auction in 2025 that raised another $5,127 on a shorter runway. Four auctions, $35,925 total, one person running them. Every number came off a real 32Auctions dashboard.
23 Pages. Zero Filler.
The donation ask that actually gets a yes
The word-for-word script that turned local businesses into repeat donors — and the one reframe that makes them thank you for the chance to give. Most people ask like they're begging. There's a better way.
The 4-week timeline that runs itself
So you're not chasing items at 11pm the night before, wondering if anyone's going to bid. Every task, in order, with the deadline that actually matters.
The listing formula that makes items sell
Same gift basket. One listing closes at $40, the other at $180. The only difference is how it's described and where the bidding starts — and that's where most auctions quietly leak thousands.
The AI prompts I use to do it in an evening
Draft donor emails in minutes and write 40 item descriptions in a single sitting, instead of losing another weekend to it.
If This Sounds Like You,
It'll Work for You
- You're on a PTA or PTO and the auction landed on your plate
- You run a booster club or sports team fundraiser
- You're on a parent council and last year's auction underperformed
- You've got a school gala, fun fair, or spring benefit coming up
- You're doing it with a tiny team, or alone, and you need a system instead of a group chat
And who it isn't for: if you've got professional fundraising staff and a six-figure event budget, you don't need this. It's built for volunteers doing it in the cracks of a full life.
I'm Not a Fundraising Consultant. I'm a Parent Who Got Voluntold.
A few years ago our school needed money and nobody was raising their hand, so I did. What I got handed was a sparse list of businesses that had donated once, and a bin of plastic sign holders. The year before, the whole thing had raised $1,200.
I took it virtual and it raised $4,127. More than triple — and that was the year I realised the ceiling wasn't the school or the neighbourhood. It was the way it was being run.
So I did it again. $10,464 against a $7,500 goal. Then a holiday auction. Then this June, $16,207 — the same school, the same families, thirteen times what it made before I started. Not because I'm special. Because by the second one I'd stopped winging it and started running the same system every time: same donor scripts, same timeline, same way of listing items.
Then I started handing the boring parts to AI — the outreach drafts, the item descriptions, the tracking — and the whole thing went from eating my weekends to fitting in an evening.
That system is what's in the playbook. I wrote down what I'd have wanted on day one, staring at a blank spreadsheet.
— Dan Kohler, Toronto
Is it actually free, or is this a trick?
Actually free. You get the 23-page PDF the second you enter your email. I do sell a course later for people who want the whole system, but the playbook stands on its own — plenty of people will use it and never buy anything, and that's genuinely fine.
Will this work for my school? We're small.
The system doesn't depend on wealthy parents. It depends on local businesses saying yes and items being listed well. A $10,464 auction and a $16,207 auction came from the same neighbourhood school with the same ordinary families. The difference was the system, not the postal code.
I have three weeks, not four. Am I too late?
No. The timeline compresses. Start with the donation script today and you'll have items coming in by the end of the week.
What platform do I need?
The playbook works with whatever you're using. I run mine on 32Auctions, and I'll show you exactly how I set it up.
Your Auction Is Coming
Whether You're Ready or Not
Grab the playbook, read the donation script tonight, and start Monday with a system instead of a group chat and a bad feeling.