Decide that you will take charge and initiate a donation drive at your institution.
Select the items you will be collecting. Our most successful donation drives usually focus on collecting specific types of items. Be specific with what you are looking for, and with your goals for the drive. Try to steer your contributions towards these goals.
Decide where your team will collect items in need. Good locations include the office, small retail businesses, local schools or churches. Each team member can choose one location to target. At each location ask for approval and locate collection boxes in a highly visible area.
Plan a time frame for your drive. A good donations drive usually lasts three to four weeks.
Collect the materials you will need to get started. These include boxes, storage space for collected items, and flyers.
Encourage people to participateby spreading the word about your drive. You can contact potential donors in person or by phone. Use flyers and emails to let people know about your drive. Ask your boss or pastor to let you announce the drive. You could also plan an event, such as a party and ask each attendee to bring an item for donation. You can partner with your faith group to request items at service. Also, consider alerting local media. Make sure to indicate which items you are looking for, where people can drop them off and why it is important to donate.
Consider incentives to motivate your friends and co-workers to donate. Some ideas include creating a competition or organizing a raffle. You could keep track of which location gathers the most items, or record which individual contributes the most items. Recognize the donors with certificates or awards.
Keep your collection boxes looking clean and neat. If you get many donated items, you might need to store them elsewhere so that they don’t overwhelm your donation areas.
Once your drive is complete, go through your collections and sort the items. Count the number of boxes full of items you’ve collected.
Arrange to get your items to Blue Skies Forever. You can drop them off or call to have us pick them up.
Celebrate! You deserve it! Share the total number of boxes you collected with all of your participants. Thank your participants.
Plan your next drive!
