How do I donate a bonus week to a charity?

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Mark, could you post the information about exactly how to donate a bonus week to a charity?

I am thinking about donating a week to a 2008 benefit auction for a charity that I am involved with. This would be quite a substantial donation for me, so I would like to know how the donation process works, how to make it go smoothly, and how to make sure the charity raises as much money as possible using my donation.

Thank you!

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Mark, could you post the information about exactly how to donate a bonus week to a charity?

I am thinking about donating a week to a 2008 benefit auction for a charity that I am involved with. This would be quite a substantial donation for me, so I would like to know how the donation process works, how to make it go smoothly, and how to make sure the charity raises as much money as possible using my donation.

Thank you!

Wackymother - thank you for your post. The way I have personally done it in the past is, the charity advertises that one of the donations is one week of accommodation in a luxury one or two bedroom suite in a choice of locations in USA, Mexico or Canada. (I use those three regions just to keep it simple). Or if you want to keep it simpler, you can define specific locations that are popular like Orlando, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Puerto Vallarta etc.

To promote the value of the package, I would emphasize the value is approximately $1,400. My wife and I would print out a nice certificate with all this information on it. It also states for them to contact you with dates and location when they are ready, and then you can login and place the request for them.

Weeks are great fundraisers. I remember one of my favorites was a few years ago when our company (SFX) donated several weeks to the Monterey Childrens Kidney Foundation. The foundation organized a Black & White ball event with band and dinner.

At one end of the hall, there was a display of pirate's booty which included a treasure chest containing the prize. The chest was padlocked and you had to buy a key for $25. Well... there were close to 400 people there and there was so much excitement generated as everyone stood in line to see if they had the lucky key that would open up the treasure chest and win !!!

If you want me to send you a copy of the certificate my wife and I use, email me at accounts@sfx-resorts.com.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Thanks, Mark. What I'm nervous about is that someone will buy the week and then not be able to get a match.

We all know that we're supposed to be very flexible about dates/places/sizes of units--but a non-timeshare user who buys a pretty expensive (I hope) week for charity won't understand how all this works and is not very likely to be forgiving about not being able to find a week. Plus they will probably have the usual date restrictions like traveling only on a school schedule.

How can I get around that?

[3kids4me Super Moderator and Super Mom Find all posts View Profile Close 3kids4me]

Okay, I'm not SFX, but having done this before (through RCI) I have a suggestion:

Could you get a week in advance during a school vacation time in a popular spot, and donate that? For instance, how about grabbing a place for next President's week or Christmas week? Then you have no worries, and the bidder knows exactly what they are getting. I have done this with great results.

Sharon

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Okay, I'm not SFX, but having done this before (through RCI) I have a suggestion:

Could you get a week in advance during a school vacation time in a popular spot, and donate that? For instance, how about grabbing a place for next President's week or Christmas week? Then you have no worries, and the bidder knows exactly what they are getting. I have done this with great results.

Sharon

So that worked well? I worry that a lot of people will not want to travel that particular week or whatever. The charity is not enormous so we're not talking about a huge, huge pool of people bidding. They have a charity auction every spring and the people who attend the "gala evening" are the only ones who bid. There's no pre-auction bidding.

What destination did you choose, Sharon? Orlando? Cancun? Or skiing?

[3kids4me Super Moderator and Super Mom Find all posts View Profile Close 3kids4me]

One was Orlando for President's Week, and one was Williamsburg for April break. (Both went, but I guess if one hadn't then we could have cancelled the exchange or used it ourselves!)

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

One was Orlando for President's Week, and one was Williamsburg for April break. (Both went, but I guess if one hadn't then we could have cancelled the exchange or used it ourselves!)

And did they make money for the charity? Or am I better off just giving them the money I would pay for the bonus week? Was it a big big charity (I mean, with a lot of potential bidders)?

[3kids4me Super Moderator and Super Mom Find all posts View Profile Close 3kids4me]

And did they make money for the charity? Or am I better off just giving them the money I would pay for the bonus week? Was it a big big charity (I mean, with a lot of potential bidders)?

I guess it depends how much you have to pay for the bonus week. With my weeks, they were already a sunk cost since I have to pay maintenance, but I did pay the exchange fee and the guest certificate fee. (But unless I let the week go to waste, I would have been paying those anyway for someone.)

It was a dinner/auction and I would say about 80-100 people attended (our special education PTA) so I'm not sure if that is considered big or not. Also, most were couples (so cut that number in half!) and some were staff members who don't normally bid (it's the parents that do the buying!).

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Okay, thanks. I think...I guess could go this year and see what things are making money for the charity. Tickets are $108 per couple...and you have to dress up...and there's that awful fake gambling stuff. I think the idea is that you "gamble" and use the "money" you've "won" to buy auction items.

I think most people give a week at their second homes and those make some substantial money.

[3kids4me Super Moderator and Super Mom Find all posts View Profile Close 3kids4me]

Yes, we had one woman do that...but the dates she put on it were actually more restrictive because she wanted to use it herself for school vacations!

[ronandjoan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ronandjoan]

It worked great for us

Hi Wacky
Just to reassure you that I read last fall about Mark doing this, and so I inquired and we did it for a charity raffle- they had the drawing on New Year's Eve. I was a little concerned about begin able to get a week since
Yes, regular timeshare people might not "understand", but it was well advertised to begin with that flexibility was necessary ,etc, and so as soon as the winner was announced, we communicated and then I called SFX and was able to get a week confirmed right away that they wanted. It took about 3 calls to them to coordinate everything and in 2 days it was done! It was great and easy and SFX was really easy to work with on this!
JOAN