Donation Pointers

Tips for Donations
If your school is like most other schools, donations are always useful and needed. When we build the house at our school, we depend on donations for about 25% of the materials/cost of the program. We work hard at securing help from our community. We have been fortunate because our community responds. We believe this is because we are working with students building a house for a homeless family. Some of the donors give because we are an educational institution while others donate because of the service component.
Here are some quick pointers for helping with the donations.

• We do a mail out requesting donations to all of our businesses in the community. If you have student aides, they can help with this task. Request specific materials. For example, for a roofing company, request 15 squares of shingles or from a plumbing company, request a white toilet. We have found the companies are much more likely to donate material than money. If you need money, request a specific amount to fund certain things. Example, our end-of-the-year banquet is funded because we requested a specific amount of money and specified how the money would be spent.

• The mail out is the start. We will do follow-up phone calls to find out if there is interest.

• We write grants that we find from the local businesses. Remember to check the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant.

• Work through your local realtor association as well as the Chamber of Commerce, Lions, Rotary, etc. If they have a newsletter, maybe they can present your need to their members.

• There are some things that seem difficult for us to get donated. For example, the lumber package is tough for us to get donated. So, we ask to get things at cost, with little or no markup.

• One of the best resources for donations you have is your student’s parents. We do a weekly email that is sent home that announces upcoming homework assignments, field trips, and general information about the program. In this e-mail, we will post our needs. Many times, parents have connections with their work or with friends. We typically have a good response to this approach for donations.

• Whenever we do get a donation, we advertise the business as a supporter. We do this by putting their name out in the weekly emails to parents as well as putting their logo on the web site. (Remember this year you can put logos on the website that we are hosting for your school. Contact us about this possibility.)

• Invite donating businesses to your end-of-the-year banquet as well as to your Advisory Board. Send letters of thank you and if possible acknowledge in the local media.

We hope that you are able to help your Geometry in Construction program with these tips. We found the donations were easier to secure after the first year of the program. Many businesses were waiting to see exactly what we were doing. They wanted to be a part of something different. Your local media can help you with this by telling the community what you are doing and what the benefits are for the students you are working with.