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.

Definitely nbu to ask!
I was scammed out of handmade items from my Etsy shop for a fund raiser with promises of prompting my shop and items etc, saw the Instagram post of the event with no mention of my items or pictures of the donated items. I messaged her and then got an edited pic with my shop name added on.

I recently spoke to a friend of a friend who works in a charity shop. Charity shop is located in a well to do area where high value designer items are donated. She laughed about how she only works for this charity so she can rummage through the donors bags nick all the best designer stuff first to either keep or sell on vinted/marketplace etc.

I struggled to bite my tongue. She's far from poor, rolled up in a fancy car bragging about the 'exclusive' area she lives in etc. The charity would greatly benefit from those donations that shes stealing. I was pretty disgusted tbh. But kept my views to myself as it was a relatives party and didn't want to create an atmosphere.

Always ask if your not happy - I work for a charity and it sounds like it’s a niche item if it had come to us we would of spoken to you about how to use it in the best way in order to get the most for it - in a raffle we have to announce in advance what the prices are and they cannot be removed or extras added but with this kind of item we would go more towards and auction of specialist event. We had similar with a signed photograph a few years back it was donated for a raffle but we chatted about moving it to a different event and it raised considerably more for the cause that way xxx sorry that you haven’t been communicated with that is always key xxx

It’s like a whodunit, I have to know the ending.

I feel like you are trying to close a karma loop.

you impulse bought it at auction, regretted it and now the loop can’t be closed til someone else does the same

while benefitting the charity, obvs

I've donated many lovely clothes to charity shops some with the labels on never worn yet I've never seen any in the window/shops, there's a fiddle

I'd certainly be asking. My suspicion would be that one of the organisers liked the look of it and took it but I obviously wouldn't say that!
I'd say " I was wondering what price was achieved for the valuable?? I donated?

That sounds like a niche item. If you donated it to the charity it is theirs to do what they want with it. I would have looked it up and put it on eBay for charity as expect it would raise more. Perhaps put a saved search on eBay to see if it pops or even better give the charity a call and ask.

Some charities have online selling sites for high value items, so it won't go onto the shop floor or the raffle, but will instead be sold where they think they can get highest price

It’s possible they have other plans for it. Maybe a silent auction or if they had a main prize they may be keeping yours for the next raffle as that main prize.

Run a charity and massively unlikely that something untoward has happened to it. More likely scenarios- some sort of admin error where it was too late to list in the brochure or whatever and they will store and use for next time/ they decided it was worth more if it was sold as very specialist / they decided it was a bit meh and will put into another sale or use as a specific prize. They should have thanked you though. Unless you specified it had to be for this sale they are sort of free to use it in the best way for the charity. Number of people nicking nice stuff for themselves vanishingly small ime.

We've just held a bingo fundraiser and held back a couple of prizes as we knew they would get a much better return from a different event later in the year, but they should have told you if that was the case.

I’d need to know, but be braced for cheeky fuckery.
I bought and donated a lovely rainbow layer cake to a school cake sale, DC were so excited to be able to buy a slice at break time to see what was inside (colours etc) but no bloody sign of it!
I asked and was told that one of the PTA (organisers) bought it to take home 🤨
I guess the school
raise the money but felt a bit meh 🫤

Oh at first I thought you were miffed because you”d offered it but they’d changed their mind and not taken it.

As they’ve actually got the item but not raffled it I would definitely ask where it went.

I think it's weird that even after you decided DH wasn't getting it that you kept it hidden!

I'd have said look DH. I made an impulse buy but it's shit so I've put it in the garage and will sell it.
Not hidden it around your children's rooms and stuff! What would it matter if he had found it?!

Anyway, I guess I'd just ask what happened to it. Maybe they opened it and thought it was rubbish too.

I know someone who worked at a charity shop and apparently if things look especially expensive / high quality they'll send them off elsewhere - that's why you'd rarely find a Chanel handbag or something in the local charity shop for a good deal, all that stuff gets shipped off (don't know if that's to another charity shop or what). Also, I know that at the shop she worked at the people who worked there would often get first dibs on items (bad I know), you wouldn't think that would be the case for a charity raffle though.

This has brought back memories of something I've been annoyed about for years. I support a local charity shop which fundraises for a cause close to my heart. I took in an unwanted birthday gift, just not my taste, but I knew it would be someone's. Value approx £40. I stayed to browse and shop. While I was still in the shop a discussion between two of the volunteers took place about my just-donated item and which of them was going to take it! For various reasons (including the fact I had my young children with me) I did not intervene but I definitely would again - you could send a polite query asking how the auction went and how your item did at the very least....

I work for a charity and we get given things all the time. Raffle prizes, everything (We don’t have a charity shop). If it was specifically for a raffle and it was made clear that it would be part of that raffle, yes you should ask where it is - we, as a charity would never promise this though as we know people get funny about their donations not being raffled off or going to someone they feel didn't appropriately appreciate their donated item etc.
If however, nobody said it would definitely be raffled and they just accepted it as a donation to their cause to use as they wish, then yes YABU as when you donate, you do just that, and forget about the item - the charity should absolutely thank you for it formally though. We always do this, usually in the form of a personal letter.
I can almost categorically say though, that there’s no way they will have kept it for themselves. This is something we would NEVER do. It’s very morally wrong and frowned upon at my charity, I would imagine it’d be the same at the charity you donated to. The only exception to this, could be if someone within the charity offered a completely appropriate financial donation for the item - and this offer would have to be accepted by the others in the charity.

he laughed about how she only works for this charity so she can rummage through the donors bags nick all the best designer stuff first to either keep or sell on vinted/marketplace etc.

So you reported this theft to the charity concerned rather than bitching about it on MN, didn't you, @Hygiea ? Any decent charity will have an anti-theft line, or a whistleblowing line, or even a bog standard customer service line where you can phone up and report this. Any decently-run shop will have a procedure for recording what volunteers/staff are buying, and how much they're paying.

That is absolutely shocking on the part of both the prison and the CPS! I could not have let it drop in your position. Would have been straight to the local paper.

Maybe they have reserved it for another raffle it might be a very good item that they want to promote in its own right.

I wasn't aware of whistle blowing lines - but thank you for furnishing me with that info. I also said I was at a party, she was an attendee and just ended up chatting in a group - I don't know her. I don't know her name. I don't know the charity shop she works at. I was just part of the group she muscled in on to start bragging.

I was merely pointing out it's not unheard of for charity donations to be swiped by charity workers as I'd come across it.

Your hostility towards me is really rather nasty actually and not sure what I've done to deserve it tbh. Isn't everyone here sharing experiences and stories - why have you singled me out as "bitching"

You come across as a bitch

A Leg Lamp😂😂

The only way this makes any sense to me is that when it arrived the OP realised that she didn't want it hanging anywhere in the house! But unfortunately she knew that if her DH saw it, he would want to hang it in either the lounge or their bedroom, so she had to keep it hidden 😂

Similar happened to me and when I checked it turned out they felt they could get more for the item at a different event so it could be something similar