If you want to have fun hanging out with a group of people and help your community in the process, consider starting a donation drive. Donation drives can help any cause or organization, from a sock drive for a homeless shelter to a book drive for the local library. Simply choose a cause or organization you want to support, and then get started. Keep reading to learn how to start a donation drive in your community.
Step 1: Pick a Location, Date, and Time
Before you can organize anything, you need to decide where and when the drive is going to be held. Are you partnering with a local organization that has space for a drive? Is there a business willing to offer its building or parking lot? What about a free gathering space, such as a park?
Your options can change depending on when the drive will be. If it’s on a Saturday afternoon, a park might be too busy. But a business that works during regular hours probably isn’t willing to give up its space during the week. Pick your location, date, and time wisely.
Step 2: Get Volunteers
If you already know when and where your donation drive is happening, then you can start getting volunteers. Start building a team through word of mouth with your friends and family, and then spread the word through other channels, such as announcements at work and in social media groups. Invite people you don’t even know by putting up posters around the organization you’ll be helping and near the location where the drive will be.
Try to describe the work that will be done during the drive. Someone who may not normally volunteer but who loves a certain type of work may sign up if they know you’re offering a role they’d enjoy.
Step 3: Advertise the Drive
Once you know where the drive is happening and have the volunteers to help with it, you can start advertising the drive itself and asking for donations. You can have your volunteers spread the word with their friends and family, create a social media event page for the drive, and put up posters asking for donations. If you’re partnering with an organization or business, ask them to help advertise the event and your partnership.
Step 4: Say Thank You and Share Results 
When those donors arrive at the drive, make sure you have some way of thanking them for their participation. This could be as simple as having a person stationed at the event who thanks them at the time of their donation or asking for donor contact information so that you can send a thank you email or card. Getting donor information is a great idea because then you can both thank them and share the drive’s results. Sharing results this way or through one last string of social media posts and posters is a great way for people to learn the impact they’ve made with their donation and will inspire them to donate again in the future.
These four steps cover how to start a donation drive in your community. If you begin with the preparation details, gather enough volunteers, spread the word, and take the time to thank donors and share results, you can have a fun, productive donation drive that will help your cause and the greater community.
