It’s almost time to go Back To School: Are you planning your supplies drive?

It’s almost August.  Which means it’s almost time to welcome your students back to school. You’ve probably started planning and making necessary upgrades to your classrooms.

School supplies are always something both teachers and families plan for. You can never have enough supplies. Especially considering stressed school and family budgets.

Consider organizing a fun and easy back-to-school fundraiser or a supply drive. There are many families who have supplies lying around the house they would love to give away. You will be surprised how many will show up to support your initiative. After all, everyone knows that every penny counts when you have a child at school.

Another way to go about this is to organize a buy from a catalogue, where families can order supplies for their children every month from the catalog provided by the school so that the proceeds go directly to the school. The parents will also appreciate the one-stop shopping experience. Buying from one provider in one store online of offline is always helpful.

Here are few things to keep in mind as you organize a drive for school supplies:

• First, ask the teachers to note down all of the missing equipment and supplies that the school needs at the moment.
• Advertise your efforts properly. By handing out flyers about your charitable drive you can inform people to participate and show their support. You need to make your request visible at all the right places like the local mall, at stores and churches.
• You can also advertise by email to the parents and send them proper invites with dates mentioned and ask them to spread the word among family and friends.
• Let the world know too. Reach out to the local media for a wider publicity.
• Use social media to your advantage. Facebook and Twitter might be the best platforms for you to promote your event, reach out to donors. You might even attract and engage new donors who are interested in supporting education. We can help with crowdfunding. Just let us know.
• Arrange the list of thing you need based on priorities. Not all will be able to provide you with everything so the least you can do is make it clear and understandable to them you essential needs.
• Be sure that you are accurate about the time, date and venue for the drop-off of the donated supplies. Always keep the queries of the donors satisfied. If you give them good response it will be easier for them to donate.
• Partner with the right people, those who can provide you with a great location for drop-offs of the donated items, a clean and appropriate collection site. Make sure the boxes are nicely stored and are not mishandled.
• Keep your volunteers informed about the location of drop off and make use of them cleverly to ensure the proper handling care taking of the boxes of donated supplies. The volunteers are essential as they will later help you to and deliver the supplies from the collection site to the school and later to classrooms.
• In the end be thankful to your generous donors. Keep in mind to send out ‘thank you’ notes either on paper or online. You will also need to thank all the volunteers for their help.

Back-to-school fundraiser can go a long way and create a positive educational environment. Don’t let time restrains, assumption that the initiative will be a waist stop you from taking action. An action that not only makes it possible for the school to purchase necessary supplies for the children to have an enriching educational experience but also further strengthen your community. Wait no more. Start planning and reaching out to families.