To wonder where my donated item went?

[LemonTreeSkies]

There is a local charity that does great work. They had a fundraiser planned for today and we’re asking for raffle items. I sent the organiser a photo of a brand new items that was appropriate to their audience that I was willing to donate if they wanted it. It was worth about £200. He said yes, great, they’d appreciate it.
fundraiser event was today. Someone posted a video of a walk through of the raffle items and I didn’t see my item there.
I’ve just watched a replay of the live video of all the tickets being drawn and my donation wasn’t there. I’m not sure if IBU to be a bit peeved.
Im not sure if I should message asking what happened to the item I donated or just take the attitude I was willing to donate it so it shouldn’t matter what happened to it.

There likely is a reasonable explanation but I would want to know what that is

I imagine they probably realised how much it was worth and sold it online. Charity still gets the money so I don’t see the issue 🤷‍♀️

I work for a charity and if someone donates something of high value we usually sell on eBay to get the most we can - sometimes with raffle prizes we would save some if we have multiple events coming up

My guess is a signed framed football shirt.

I could definitely hide something for 3 years and keep thinking I should decide what to do with that!

I wouldn't care. If I didn't want something and gave it away then that's it.

I'd ask too

I imagine they probably realised how much it was worth and sold it online. Charity still gets the money so I don’t see the issue 🤷‍♀️

But OP said there were more valuable items that were in the raffle?

I wouldn't care. If I didn't want something and gave it away then that's it.

I don't think people usually give away valuable stuff for raffles, just to get rid of it, though. Yes, if it's an unwanted smellies gift set or some Christmas socks; but if it's worth £200, surely you would sell it and get the money yourself, if you didn't specifically want the charity itself (i.e. not an individual who works for it) to benefit from it?

Awful reality but people do take stuff. Ask.

This

But OP said there were more valuable items that were in the raffle?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll Charity workers don’t always know the value of items, but even if they do, some valuable items won’t always sell well online so not worth trying.

We used to do this for the PTA even if it wasn't high value. For the Christmas fair for example we'd get deluged with bottles of wine, so we'd use half as prizes and keep the rest in the cupboard for the next event. We were donated one of those oversized Connect 4 games as a prize, headteacher had put it on her "wishlist" of things she wanted to fundraise for, so we just gave her the donation and paid for something else.

Similar to the "well I donated X item to charity shop and never saw it on sale" - many reasons why this might happen. None of them dodgy. Any donations of winter woolies we are getting at the moment are being boxed and won't be on sale until September. Bridal stuff goes to the boutique store, vinyl records to the music specialist store. Also stuff sometimes sells really quickly, you put something on the shelves, walk into the back shop, come back 2 minutes later and it's sold.

I reckon one of the staff fancied it.

My guess is a signed framed football shirt.

I'm thinking too that it's something quite special and rare/unique.

If it were a Nespresso machine or games console, anybody with the money could easily find one to buy.

This is a great idea!

I once used to donate to a local charity for things like raffles etc, until a woman who volunteered there came out to my car and started picking through my things before I had a chance to even get them out and saying "oooh, I need one of these! Ooooh, I'll take that!" I naively at that age I was thought she meant "I'll take that for the shop/raffle!" but turns out the volunteer was just taking it all for herself. Now I am very, very careful to vet who I give to.

Check and see if it is/was on eBay. You can search for sold/ended items as well as current listings.

I once used to donate to a local charity for things like raffles etc, until a woman who volunteered there came out to my car and started picking through my things before I had a chance to even get them out and saying "oooh, I need one of these! Ooooh, I'll take that!"

As suggested by PP, I think some people assume - or will justify it to themselves/others - that those who give things to charity are only doing so to get rid of something that they consider to be junk/rubbish - and not something that they know to be of value, that they could sell themselves, but which they want the charity to have the value of.

They seem to think/claim that nobody else would see the clear inherent value of an item and it is only their efforts in selling/raffling it that make it worth anything.

That was my initial thought

Omg if it was that why would she give it away as a business?
And then want to know who got it pmsl

"I dropped it off as a business and can’t help wondering if someone took a fancy to it."

I don't get what this means - did you leave it outside when it was closed? Did you write on it specifically the details of the raffle it was for?

My thinking is likely just simple mistake - it'd be really very easy to miss one item off accidentally.

It's absolutely fair enough to ask - I would just message the person you had contact with initially.

Important point: please come back and let us all know!!

Sounds like OP dropped it off at (typo?) a business who were presumably collecting for this event? My local vets will often act as a drop off point for raffle prizes when a charity they support are having an event, for example.

If a business was acting as a third-party collection point, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from just taking and keeping anything they fancy for themselves.

Same as with people who rattle buckets in the high street or people in the old days who used to deliver charity envelopes to all the houses in their street and then come back a few days later to collect them, hopefully with money in - I'm sure the majority wouldn't dream of taking any of the donated money for themselves but undoubtedly a lot of people would do. Plenty probably deliberately get into doing it for that express purpose.

Probably the same kind of people who eat at a restaurant with a big group, let everybody else pay first (with generous tips) and then put 'the rest' on their card, so that they can steal the tips and avoid paying more than a fraction of the cost of their meal themselves.

You can absolutely ask. I help out at a local charity though and they often try and time bigger donations to make sure they have something valuable at every raffle. If they already had great stuff for this one, it makes sense to hold some items back incase they’re less lucky with donations next time.

I would ask too as it’s a high value item. I’d say it’s quite possible they’ve held it back to raffle off another time or separately if it’s of particular interest (like a signed football/strip) but I’d probably want to know too.