BeCause

Vacations for Ghost Hunters

October 28, 2015
The Halloween season is a time for frights, be they on the big screen, the “trick” part of trick-or-treating or the unholy abomination that is budget candy corn. For people who are big into the holiday, though, it is also a time to get on the road and check out some of the spookiest sites in the world. Some of those attractions are manmade, like the events we profiled last year. But others stem from a combination of tragedy and a certain suspension of disbelief that can make people believe they are seeing ghosts.

Mitch-Stuart doesn’t feature any specific ghost-hunting trips in our catalog of non-profit fundraising auction travel packages. However, several of our Destinations of Excellence can also act as home bases for those looking for restless spirits. For those looking for the scariest of Halloweens, one of these places might be hospitable. It was an opera house in Paris that once housed a phantom in its basement, so it should be no surprise that the City of Lights has its share of haunted tales. The city’s catacombs are one destination for ghost hunters, with the remains of more than six millions Parisians there, often arraigned into macabre art. The Red Man of the Tuileries, a notorious hitman for the royalty in the 16th century, is said to still patrol the Louvre, and even the Paris Opera, the setting for fictional “Phantom of the Opera,” has a “real-life” ghostly visitor in the form of a love-struck woman, just outside its doors. A little closer to home, the spirit of Hollywood pervades much of Los Angeles. But the spirits of Hollywood can be found at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, across from the TCL Chinese Theater (and the famous sidewalk handprints). A mirror there that used to hang in the suite of Marilyn Monroe supposedly shows the reflection of a blonde woman in the background, while Montgomery Clift (of “From Here to Eternity” and “Judgment at Nuremberg” fame) is said to walk the ninth floor. The stories are so woven into the fabric of the building that the hotel’s website used to have a section devoted to the tales. Even places considered to be bright slices of paradise can find themselves possessed by spirits. Honolulu doesn’t seem like the type of place that would be ghost-friendly, but residents claim that it has its own history with the supernatural, in locations like the Old Waialae Drive-In Theater (located close to a cemetery, and said to have been visited by a faceless woman haunting the restroom), the 16th Avenue bridge (site of a hit-and-run, the victim of which still appears to some) and even the Green Lady, an apparition who has been “spotted” everywhere from Scotland to New England. Want to send your donors on a wild ghost chase? Reach out to a Mitch-Stuart travel expert today!

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What’s New for the Winter

October 21, 2015
Throughout the year, the staff of travel experts at Mitch-Stuart is busy setting up organizations with opportunities to raise funds using auction travel packages for non-profits. But during down moments, those same people are scouring the world, looking for bigger deals, interesting destinations and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

(Yeah – they’re busy folks.)

For the October update of the Destinations of Excellence catalog, we’ve put together a plethora of new travel packages. Some go to our favorite spots, with new options. Others expand our footprint to new areas. But each one can help your charity bring even more money through a gala auction or a fundraising auction. Some highlights: One of the biggest updates to our catalog for the winter comes in lodging capacity. We’ve expanded our villas and residencies offerings to offer more trips with larger living spaces. Send up to six people to Aspen, for instance, and stay in a three-bedroom residence at the North of Nell, right at the base of Aspen Mountain. Send a supporter and three family members or friends to a Tuscan villa, a luxury residence in Los Cabos, or even a two-bedroom residence in London. There are now more opportunities than ever to give your donors a chance to bring the entire family on vacation, organize a guys-or-girls getaway, or partake in any other group travel outing. Of course, the winter catalog is always a great place to look to find trips that give donors a chance to sample the season’s charms. Whether it’s ski-in/ski-out mountain access in Park City and Deer Valley, Utah or snowmobiling and winter wildlife in Jackson Hole, even the most committed summer lovers will find reasons to head into the beauty of the winter snow. We’ve spoken at length before about why now is the best time to travel to Europe, and we’ve added three more opportunities to do just that. An arts tour of the French Rivera, a ride on the London Eye and a trip to the Van Gogh Museum are great reasons to head to Monaco, London and Amsterdam, respectively, and each package can bring in big bids to your fundraising auction. Some of your donors may want to escape the winter’s chill a little closer to home, as well, which is why we’ve added golf adventures in San Diego, California and Scottsdale, Arizona, along with trips to the charming Asheville, North Carolina and the always-temperate St. Helena, California, near Napa Valley. Want to check out all we have to offer? Reach out to a Mitch-Stuart, Inc. travel expert to talk about our new options, or register for online access to our catalog today!

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Auction Synergy

October 14, 2015
In this space we have talked about pairing trips with auction themes, with the season of the year and even with food menus. There are plenty of ways to tie a Mitch-Stuart non-profit charity auction package into a gala event, but the most meaningful for your biggest supporters may be to offer a trip that dovetails with your organization’s goals, one that deepens their commitment to your cause or helps celebrate it.

This, of course, isn’t easy, and it might not work for every organization. Few want to spend a tremendous amount of money on a trip that doubles as a lecture, and some charities don’t lend themselves easily to travel-related celebrations. But for others, offering a cause-related once-in-a-lifetime experience will keep your efforts and work in the front of a donor’s mind, even as they enjoy the fruits of their generous bid. Conservancy groups, for instance, have a great wealth of opportunities to send supporters on trips that pair well with their cause. This could take the form of a visit to an underexplored corner of this country, a place where outdoor activities are front and center; Jackson Hole comes to mind. But sending a donor to the Masai Mara Nature Reserve in Kenya, one of the world’s great animal sanctuaries, will bring into stark relief the important work that conservancy organizations do. Our “Explore Kenya’s Breathtaking Landscape & Wildlife” package will send your supporters to Masai Mara in style, with seven nights at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club, a favorite of international travelers. Educational charities have plenty of options when it comes to trips; almost every destination has a great museum, university or even historic library to see. But only Washington, D.C. has all of those in the kind of numbers that could fill an entire itinerary. The “Exciting Downtown Washington, D.C. Experience” trip pairs a three-day, two-night stay with an “Old Town Trolley” tour, which stops at places like the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court and the myriad of museum options along the National Mall. It’s the kind of trip that can ignite a love of learning in anyone, young or old. Childhood obesity has been a cause in the spotlight over the last seven years, as Michelle Obama has spearheaded reform efforts. One of those programs that the First Lady has pushed is “Let’s Move,” an initiative that helps convince kids to get outside and run around. That’s not bad advice for adults, either, and it’s hard to imagine a more beautiful place to do so than Colorado, on one of our trips (such as “Breathtaking Allure of a Rugged Winter Wonderland” or “Mountain Village Enclave”). The state has one of the lowest obesity rates in the country, and its system of trails, mountain bike paths and ski runs is one of the reasons why. Nothing reinforces the importance of physical activity quite like getting into the outdoors and trying it for oneself, and when your donors look at vacation photos taken from the top of Colorado’s breathtaking trails, they’ll remember your cause, too.

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Saving Summer

October 07, 2015
The transition between the summer and the fall comes with all sorts of lifestyle changes: The grill may get packed up for the season, windows that have been open since mid-May might finally get closed, and equipment from summer activities may get put into the far back reaches of the garage for their winter hibernation. Your organization, however, can help your supporters take those bikes out for one last spin, those clubs out for one last round or even those surfboards out for one last wave.

At Mitch-Stuart, Inc., we help non-profit organizations raise money with consignment fundraising auction travel packages to all corner of the world and for all times of the year. One of the ways that charities and other groups can sell big-ticket travel at galas is by helping donors defeat the calendar and find parts of the country where their favorite summertime activities are year-round affairs. For much of the country, golf is not possible for months out of the year; hitting a white golf ball into a snowbank certainly makes it difficult to find for the second shot. But the weather in Hilton Head is amenable to hacking through 18 holes at any time of year. The average high temperature there per month never gets below 60 degrees, and though it may get a little wet in the winter that certainly doesn’t stop many golf diehards. If you’ve got donors who will play a round in rain, sleet, snow or any other weather, one of our trips to Hilton Head could be the excuse they need to donate big to your cause. Of course, when the winter comes, mountain biking becomes much more difficult. But two-wheel enthusiasts can still find thrills, even if they don’t come in the snow-covered Rockies or Cascades. Arizona may not be the first place that comes to mind when it comes to big peaks, but Sedona is one of the top destinations for downhill biking in the country. The West Sedona Tour is a local favorite, a 13-mile loop that joins together eight different trails and has tremendous views of places like Bear Mountain. And when Colorado and Wyoming are still snowed in during the late winter, the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival in March features bike demonstrations, live music and great riding. One of these summer activities can actually improve in the wintertime. Surf towns are often overrun in June, July and August, but during the off-season, there’s more room to maneuver. Spots like Southern California (especially in the San Diego area) and Hawaii (where the winter is more about rain than cold temperatures) go from being tourist magnets to having manageable crowds, which is better time for spent in the ocean and on the land. In fact, when Coastal Living named its top five winter surfing spots, places like Oceanside (in between San Diego and Los Angeles) and Kauai took up the top three spots. Got some active donors who long to chase the sun in the winter months? Reach out to a Mitch-Stuart travel expert about offering a trip to one of these destinations at your next auction or gala!

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