Help on how to bring in donations please?

michellen34

Hi everyone,

I hope you can help me. I work for a small (2 shop) charity, where we are located is close to a set of traffic lights on a main road and I think this could be why we are struggling to get donations in, we have posters in the window saying you can park for up to 20 minutes but a lot of people still don't realize this, does anyone have any ideas on other ways we can bring donations in? Mind have moved in next door to us and they also struggle to get donations too, so i know it's because of the road. We are in a prime location, opposite a shopping centre.
Thank you for any help.

aaronm_2

To get donations, you need to get others' attentions and have them donated for you. The crowd is one thing, on the other hand, I guess you need to give others a better understanding about your charity.

cit_k

Do you have a van to do pickups of stuff from people's homes? Not everyone has transport and cant take lots of items to a charity shop...

If you have the means to do pickups, advertise the fact in the window, online, and print out some leaflets telling people what sort of stuff you accept, and that you can do pickups if they dont have transport, and have lots of items....

Savvy_Sue

Do you have stocks of your own donations bags? Give one away with every purchase, including a card to say that people can park to drop things off, and that staff will help if there is a lot to carry in (I hope you can!)

See if you can get a joint feature in the local paper?

louise3965

Whatever field your charity is in, try and think of a corporate tie in. For example if you are an animal charity, think of large vets, pets r us etc. Then make them your friends. Tell them about your work and visit to ask in person for donations, leaving bags etc. Then go back and collect them. Do this a couple of times and they will start to know and expect you.

michellen34

Hi everyone, Thank you for the great advice! Donation bags are definitely something to look in to, we advertise in the window already but i think i will do some new posters and let people know we can collect. As for my charity i work for a charity for sufferers of EB, epidermolysis bullosa. Which is a terrible skin disease which has no cure, I'm not really sure Louise3965 who a corparate tie in could be, but that is a great idea, time to put my thinking cap on i think.

Belle1990

hi there
Could you contact your local radio and maybe they mention about all donations welcome and local parking for drop offs.

Owain_Moneysaver

Are there any large offices / employers who would let you park a van outside once a month at lunchtime and collect stuff, as that can be a good way of getting large quantities in one lot. You do need storage and sorting space though.

MrsManda

You definitely need to work on getting the local population an understanding about what your charity does. If they don't know where the money made from their donation goes, they're unlikely to donate. Alongside everyone else's ideas have you thought about asking the shopping centre if you can have a space for a weekend to do a bucket collection/awareness stand? Or ask the local council for a collection permit in the town centre. That way you can bring the charity more recognition which in turn will help your fundraising efforts.

EastEndLass

you need to 'meet the donor halfway' as we used to say in the charity I used to work for.

If there are any large office buildings, do collections there - give them bags to fill and arrange to come back on a certain day to pick them all up. this also works at supermarkets, gyms etc. we were doing that back in the early 90s and even now is still a brilliant way to get stock (people are happy when they can just bung a bag in the back of the car and drive to where they usually drive!).

Is there a large warehouse/B&Q etc nearby that stays open late that may help you out on a set couple of nights? They could have a cage for donations and you could leaflet the town, letting people know that they can bring along their donations there on set days/nights. You never know, you could turn it into an ongoing thing - have a drop-off point there.

anywhere that people drive to regularly is great!