A Tradition: The ForKids Auction
How it began:
In the spring of 2002, ForKids faced devastating government funding cuts for our work with homeless families. We weren’t a fundraising nonprofit and the community largely didn’t know we existed. The solution? We needed a special event to raise money and awareness about the needs of our children. The ForKids Children’s Art Auction was born.
In one night, we change the lives of hundreds of children right here in our community.
The first Art Auction was a memorable night: pouring rain, 60-mile-an-hour winds, and crazy bidding wars over artwork with names like “Rainbow Turkey”. It was amazing what people did that night for our kids. It cost us just $600 and we raised an astounding (to us) $21,000, allowing us to keep our services flowing for families. Each spring the magic happens all over again, but in drier conditions with higher stakes. Our 2023 Children’s Art Auction raised over $1,700,000, allowing ForKids to provide more services to more families and children in Hampton Roads, with a greater impact, than ever before.