A clothing drive is a very easy, quick, and cost-effective way to raise money for your school or group. All that’s really required is a little advertising and a clothing drive can be a highly profitable school fundraiser. Here are the details on how to plan a clothing drive fundraiser along with a list of organizations across the country that run these types of events.
Planning a Clothing Drive Fundraiser
A clothing drive fundraiser is an event where your school acts as a donation center for a very short period of time and is then able to turn over those donations to an organization in exchange for cash.
Organizations that run clothing drives are typically donation management, collection, and recycling for-profit organizations. They help groups raise money by facilitating the collection of unwanted clothing, shoes, and linens and ship them to people who need them around the globe. For simplicity purposes, we refer to them here as “donation management centers” or “donation center”.
With a school clothing drive fundraiser, the school group collects donations for a short period of time and then arranges delivery of that clothing to a local donation management center. The school group can either load up a few of the volunteer parent’s SUV’s and make the delivery, or, in many cases, the donation management center will pick them up with their own large box truck.
In exchange for the bags of clothes, the school group gets paid cash for the clothes. The amount of cash received is based on the weight of the bags of clothes.
PRE-EVENT PLANNING
- Assign a Chairperson who coordinate the clothing drive with the school and the donation management center and who will distribute advertising. See below for the advertising suggestions.
- Identify a network of volunteers who can help the Chairperson collect donations and bring them to a designated holding area at the school, help distribute advertising, and (if needed) help deliver the donations.
LOGISTICS
- Contact a donation management center near you and register with them to run your clothing drive.
- If your clothing drive is scheduled for Saturday (the date all donations are delivered to or picked up by the donation center), then plan to collect donations at the school for the few days prior.
- Assign a designated holding area for all donations in the school. Obtain approval from the school’s principal. The stage is usually a good, out-of-the-way location.
- Decide if you’ll allow donations to be dropped off at any time during the school day or if you’ll have set times when volunteers can be on-hand to accept them. Perhaps during morning and after-school pickup.
- If donors are allowed to leave donations at the school anytime throughout the day, be sure to put up a large sign telling them exactly where to place the donations.
- Note: Many donation management companies also have bins that they can leave in your school parking lot so that the bags of clothes can be deposited here.
ADVERTISING
- Most donation management centers provide customized flyers online. Distribute these to school families in the kid’s backpacks. Be sure to include the donation dates and the types of items that can be donated since the requirements may vary among donation management centers. In addition to clothing, many will accept linens, shoes, and small houseware items, but not all.
- Announce the clothing drive fundraiser on social media and ask everyone to “share” it. Repeat this announcement and ask up until the final day of the clothing drive.
- Place an A-frame sign out in front of the school with the donation drop-off dates and times.
- Announce the clothing drive in the school newsletter and local newspaper.
DONATION CENTER’S THAT RUN CLOTHING DRIVES
Following is a list of donation centers that run clothing drive fundraisers. This list is not all-inclusive, nor is it an endorsement of any individual organization. Entri Ways is not associated with them; we simply wanted to help in your search for a local center. You can also search “clothing drive fundraiser” plus your state online for more.
Savers – many states throughout the USA
Good Thrift – Pacific time zone area.
Clothing Drive Fundraiser – NY & NJ
Clothes for the Cause – CA, ID, WA
World Wear Project – TX
SAY THANK YOU
Remind your volunteers to say Thank You to everyone that donates. As the Chairperson, be sure to thank every one of your volunteers.
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