drive tips

a friend of mind is organizing a food drive and asked me to help. and while looking up donation drop-off locations, i came across this tip sheet on how to effectively organize a successful food drive. this is the third drive i've helped organize so i've edited / added a few things so if you do a small drive of any kind (food, shoes, clothes...), hopefully this list will help. (i haven't done any large community drives so this tip sheet is missing a lot of info for that. but these basics should still hold.)

Before the drive

Do research – not every food bank (or whatever) is the same, i.e. they don’t all need the same stuff.

Contact the organization for tips and other information – your contact person may give you different information than what’s on their website. For instance, when I emailed soles4souls, my contact said that shoes in any condition were okay, but their website specified “gently used shoes.”

Determine the start date and duration of your drive – a shorter length is generally better, otherwise people will keep holding off on donations.

Set a goal – this will help you decide how much to publicize and how long to run it.

Get containers – a lot of organizations will provide them for you.

Consider a theme – example: Valentine's day - Give from the Heart

"Market" through your work, church, sports team... – This way you already have a good pool of people and you can have get in on the weekly announcements or emails already being sent out.

But if you go through your work, church, sports team... make sure you ask the higher ups for permission first! – It's unlikely your boss will say no to a food drive, but it's possible your company is already working on one. Even if there are no conflicts of interest, it's good to get your superiors involved. Besides, they can network to other departments as well.


During the drive

Have informative promotional materials – Make it clear which charity you'll be contributing to, include a list of most wanted items, provide a website or flier so people can learn more about the issue. Also encourage financial contributions for those who don't have material goods to donate.

Place your donation boxes and promotional materials in high traffic areas and provide info (the charity's, the drive info [cut-off date], your contact info).

After the drive

Remember to send out a thank you (email, poster, flier), which should include final results and how to help in the future.

Encourage other to help package everything up - A lot of people would like to see your project through, so let them.

Let your charity know how much you collected and when you are dropping it off or shipping it in so that they will be expecting you.