General:
Q: What is From The Heart Auctions?
A: From The Heart Auctions is a page on Facebook dedicated to hosting auctions where ALL proceeds go to various persons and causes in need. Our efforts from our vendors and bidders is worldwide.
Q: Who created FTH and why?
A: FTH is the brain-child of two friends, Trisha Meyers of
Completely Wired and Taylor Sawyer of
HunnyBunny Designs. A cause was brought to our attention by another vendor. Upon discussing the cause and its validity, we all were wishing there was a way to be sure that 1) the cause was real, and 2) the money raised would indeed go to the person who needed it. The two of us began talking about it separately and decided to make a neutral ground with verification of the cause and validation of the receipt of the funds being transferred to the beneficiaries. No specific vendor gets glorification (such as more fans) for the auction. No one receives any profit. Its ALL about the beneficiary and making you, our bidders, vendors, and supporters, feel comfortable helping those who need it most!
Q: Who admins the page? And what are their jobs?
A: Your admins are Taylor Sawyer, Trisha Meyers, and Kristina Kennedy. Taylor sets up our auctions--accepting donations and displaying them in the album. She does most of our communications, such as talking to reporters and bloggers, answering emails, etc, as well. Trisha does all of our accounting--closing down the auctions, invoicing for the items, transferring shipping credits to the vendors, getting the funds transferred to the beneficiary after they are collected, and anything else having to do with money. Kristina helps us during the auctions with un-marking spam bids, answering questions, promoting the auction, and the like. All three of us are always working to verify causes, recruit more vendors, spreading the word about the page and what we do, and anything else in between. You may also notice we have an admin named "Trish Taylor". That's our Facebook admin page. It's just used by Trisha and Taylor so that we do not get comment blocked.
Q: How do you verify causes?
A: When causes are brought to our attention, we do research on them. We will look for more information on individuals, contact them ourselves, talk to others that know them, find articles/blogs/care pages related to them. We work hard to make sure you don't have any questions as to whether or not our cause is a real one. If for any reason, we do not feel "right" about a cause, it will not be brought to auction, and if it is after an auction that we find out that it was a sham, we will take legal action to rectify the situation. Just like you, we do not want to be ripped off for having generous hearts.
Q: How do you prove that you are not keeping any funds for yourself?
A: After each auction, we transfer the funds in one lump sum to the beneficiary. We post the receipt of the transfer for public viewing. The only deficit in the receipt will be for Paypal fees. When we raise funds to do a service project (for example, our
For the Soldiers Auction which raised funds to send care packages to deployed soldiers), we document the project in photographs as well as provide the receipts for all to view.
Q: How much do the admins make from each auction?
A:
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! This is not about us at all. We are not here to make a profit. Everything we do is purely as volunteers. All money is accounted for in our receipts so you definitely know we are not making a profit
at all.
Q: What is the "Vendor Appreciation" auction? Do you make a profit from that?
A: Every 4th auction is held to thank the vendors who have donated items and time to our charitable auctions. Vendors earn slots into this auction, and they
do gain profit as the highest bid goes back to them. We specify many times during the auction that this is held to thank our vendors and make sure you, as bidders, know that they
do make profit and that it is
not a charitable auction. As for your admins, we do not make a profit at all from the vendors' items in this auction. The only profit we make is for our own items added to the auction. We, like all the other vendors, earn slots into this auction through donating items and time. Please feel free to inquire about this further.
About our Beneficiaries:
Q: How do you choose your beneficiary (cause/person that will receive the funds raised)?
A: We begin by asking our vendors to nominate anyone or a specific cause that they feel need our help to raise funds. Once we have a list of nominations, we ask our vendors to then vote on those at hand. If we are having a hard time deciding with a vote, we will open it up to the public to help us choose. We do try to have various causes, so many of us will choose a beneficiary different than our previous auction. However, all nominations stay on our list, so if one is passed over this time, it may be chosen next time!
Q: Can a bidder nominate a beneficiary?
A: We ask that only our vendors participate in choosing our beneficiaries at this time unless we open up the voting to the public. This endeavor has grown so much that we are overwhelmed with requests.
Q: Will you accept beneficiary nominations that are not US based?
A: Yes indeed!
About Donations:
Q: If I decide to join your efforts, do I have to donate to every auctions?
A: Nope. Donate when you can or when the cause is something close to your heart. But even when you don't donate, it's your support that gets us through. So sharing the current auction on your page and/or just cheering us along is very helpful and much appreciated.
Q: I don't feel like my item will bring in much money. Should I still donate it?
A: YES! The littlest bit helps when we work together! So yes, a few dollars here and there add up exponentially! If you still feel like your item isn't "good enough", consider donating a "lot" such as three hair bows or two beaded bracelets. But don't feel like you have to! Just the fact that you want to help is enough, so give what you can!
Q: Can I donate a service?
A: Of course! Services including but not limited to photography, graphic design, salon packages, handiwork, etc, are ALWAYS accepted! When donating a service, please specify your location if the winning bidder will have to be in your area to receive the service. Also, it helps if you advertise your offer on your page to pull more interest from your area.
Q: Do you accept international vendors/bidders?
A: Absolutely! We are worldwide! Please specify shipping costs to the US, Canada, and International when donating your items. We will automatically assume shipping is for the US if there is no specification.
Q: Can I help FTH without donating an item or money?
A: Yes, you can! The more people that see our page and what we are doing, the more we can bring in for the cause at hand. The best way to bring more vendors and more bidders is by word of mouth. Tell your friends and family about us. Ask a vendor you know to consider donating. Go on a "liking" or "tagging" page and tag us. Share our blog. Share our causes.
Q: Can I donate an item from a company that I am an independent consultant for (ie Scentsy, thirty one, Tastefully Simple, Avon, Wrap It, etc)?
A: As opposed to auctions where you profit from the winning bid, these companies do indeed allow you to donate an item to our auctions as they are charitable auctions. We have confirmed this, so if you are confronted by your superior about this matter, you may direct them to us. The only restriction that you might have is that you cannot add items to our vendor appreciation auction as those are held for profit. However, we would be happy to hold a "party" with you as the consultant in order to help you earn a profit. All items "earned" as hostesses of these parties will be donated back into our charitable auctions.
About Bidding:
Q: How do I bid on an item?
A: To bid, comment under the item you are bidding for with a US dollar amount exceeding the previous bid. If your bid is the first, you may start the bidding off where you would like. All bids should be accompanied by your Paypal email address. All transactions are done using Paypal, so please before bidding make sure you have a valid and active Paypal account.
Q: Can vendors bid?
A: Yes! In fact, most of our bidders ARE vendors! Just one more reason to thank your vendors!
