Donation Acquisition
By Bryan Engel-Director of Operations – Mid-Atlantic Region, Diocesan Council of Pittsburgh
Do not tell anyone, but at one time, I worked for another thrift store organization. My title was Donations Acquisition Coordinator. I only worked there for two years before seeing the light and coming over to St. Vincent de Paul. But, during that time, I was able to raise their donations from 300,000 pounds of donations to 1.2 million pounds of donations in that timeframe. How did I do it?
- Fun-raising … To get their name out there, we reached out to other non-profit organizations, schools, churches, and sporting organizations. For two hours, we would show up with a truck and collect donations on site. After that two-hour period, the truck closed. The donations were weighed, and we paid 10 cents per pound to the non-profit hosting the drive. No need to sell cookies, candy, hoagies … just donate to a non-profit and feel good about raising extra money for your school, church, or sports team.
- Promote on Social Media … To book a fundraiser, non-profits were required to promote the event for at least 3 weeks (anything less did not help them or the charity). That got their logo out to the community without us having to do anything (other than create a flyer). If you can get other organizations to promote your brand for free … that 10 cents per pound also includes FREE advertising.
- Word of Mouth … At EVERY event, I would print out flyers with a QR code on how to schedule a donation drive. You would be surprised by how many people on the softball team have family members at another school in the band. Eventually, the word spread. I went from doing ONE event to THREE every Saturday. At some drives, we would schedule two trucks because they would fill them. It became a contest. “Let’s make more than the other school!”
If paying for donations is not for you, here are some other options:
- More donations bins in high traffic areas.
- Extended Hours. In Pittsburgh, we just opened our stores on Sundays from 11am-5p. Guess what? We got donations on Sundays too! More people donate on the weekend, so we are making it convenient for them.
- Email your donor database.
- Discount Coupons for Donors.
- Partner with Real Estate Agents … pre-Covid, we saw a spike in furniture donations by reaching out to local Agents … you would be surprised how many of them need to clean out a house quickly and will pay to do so (win-win).
- Use social media – it is FREE!
I hope this helps you get more donations for your stores or your friends in need. If you want to see how SVdP Pittsburgh promotes our donation drives, click the link https://svdppitt.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/donation_drive_video.mp4 … check me out as a cartoon.
If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.
