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.

If it's disappeared the Charity Commission will want to know too.

OP isn't in England/Wales so the Charity Commission won't be interested. She says she's "overseas".

Oh OK - missed that!

As a Charity they should be able to tell you how everything they have been given (donated) has been used.

Peacemaking as I now need to know what's happened to it.

Would you be happy to find out that someone had paid the charity a good price for the item? It may have been received and someone said "OMG! I was trying to get that for my DP's birthday tomorrow but wasn't able to source it! If I pay you <massive amount> can I have it instead of it going into the raffle?" And the organisers look and see they have tons of stuff ready for raffle that will raise X no matter what so say yes.

Probably irrationally, I'd have mixed feelings about this. Although you'd want the charity to benefit as much as possible, I think I'd be happier for more people to have a fair chance at winning it, if it fetched the same.

I always felt uneasy with the 'Auction for things that money can't buy' that they used to have on Terry Wogan's breakfast show in aid of Children In Need. What they basically meant was 'things that non-rich people's money can't buy'. I hated the fawning over 'how generous' people were in bidding astronomically high amounts for some special experience with a celebrity, when they were obviously very wealthy in the first place to be able to bid those amounts.

They seem to have changed more to a raffle system now, whereby everybody 'donates' £10 or whatever and stands a chance to win a car - although I suppose you could always 'donate' 100 times to increase your chances. I think this is fairer and, if nothing else, it shows that 100,000 ordinary people's tenners are worth as much as one rich person's million, whoever ends up with the prize.

I just checked the organization’s FB page. They said they will list all the businesses that donated tomorrow. Although I’m not a business and I asked to be anonymous, I’m hoping my item will be there at least.

Hope so. Otherwise what will you do?

It’s worth chasing it up. I’d be pissed off if something that I had given for a charity was potentially taken. It might well have gone in the silent action though.

The silent auction winners were announced at the very end, once all the raffle tickets had been drawn.

@CuriousMama if it isn’t in the listed I’ll send a private message to the organiser.

That sounds like the kind of item that could do well with a niche group. Maybe they thought they'd get more by selling it separately? I hope you find out what happened though. I'd want to know.

Don't blame you OP. Sadly there's some dodgy people in this world who sleep well even if they rob a charity. Hopefully not in this case?

I'm ridiculously invested!

Me too!

OP My local charity Ebay anything of value.

There were other items a lot more valuable than mine though. It was a fund raiser event where they asked for donations to be raffled off.

If it did turn out to be a case of someone seeing it, and really wanting it so much, they made a high offer on it to buy out right I wouldn’t mind, as long as no one has put raffle tickets in to win it first.

Oh goodness...that would definitely have been a popular item! {For Harley fans, of which there are many}
I hope it shows up, and that someone didn't just steal it.

Send them a message saying you didn’t see your item on the raffle - just checking you received it. If it’s high value, they might have decided to raise funds some other way with it :-)

I can see why you hid it for 3 years. Its one of those gifts you think your DH might like, buy it, then have the dawning realisation that it needs to go on a wall in full view of everyone.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I remember that laptop raffle and wondered if she ever received it in the end. I guess we will never know.

hope you managed to get some answers. I’d be a bit miffed too!

Did you find out?

I think asking is fine, especially if your concern is genuinely that it's been tucked away for a cheap purchase by an errant volunteer. A local charity shop to us registers for gift aid and as a bonus you get a text when your donation sells and how much for. It's quite nice to know but also it's theirs once donated.

I am going to guess that they are selling it on Ebay in order to show it to lurking Harley Davidson fans and sell it for the most they can.

A picture of a Harley Davison? I was hoping it was a Leg Lamp as seen in film A Christmas Story. Impossible to resist.

I’d want to know! I know a few people who have volunteered in these types of places, and the amount of stuff that’s taken for the staff themselves instead of being given as prizes/donations is disgusting!