Donations and Fundraising for school

About 5 years ago I started helping the Hospitality and Fundraiser leads for our Junior High.  Starting with nothing, I was told to just contact area businesses and see if they were willing to donate.  That year I probably had about 300 contacts.
     This year I finished the year with over 1700 contacts.  Contacts are not donations.  The way I do it I get 1 in 10 donations.  I am NOT a phone solicitor.  And doing fundraising for the youth department found out I am not a door to door person.
     We live  on the outskirts of a large City.  Although we have Museums, Major Baseball, Football, Hockey, and Soccer teams, donations I have received have been from our area mostly.
     Now that we are in High School, we have 350 staff for Teachers Appreciation.  Our goal is to have a gift for every staff member.  This year we exceeded that goal.  We were able to give "Goodie Bags" to all our staff with about 20 free items in it.  We also had individual gifts for 330 staff members.  This year it was all from Business Donations.
     So, how do we do it.  It may sound crazy, but after I have racked my brain for area businesses, I turn to Google Maps.  You can zoom in on a street and it gives you businesses and you can click on them to get information.  Also I google Restaurants, since they are a big supporters of our school.
      I keep a log in excel of all my contacts. (Business Name (if Corp add that at the end), Phone Number, Fax Number, Contact Name, Email Address, Website, Address, how I contacted them (Fax 7/17/14, email 7/17/14, Comment Card 7/17/14).  If they respond, I highlight one color for a donation and make a column for what was said, and another color for No!  I DO NOT MAIL LETTER OUT!  It is a waste of time and money.  You know that is going in their junk mail stack.  If they request a letter mailed, I put on the outside of the envelope DONATION REQUEST.

    Since I started, I have tried to find Businesses in different ways.  While sitting at the dentist office and find a magazine of top area places, I take pictures with my phone of there information so I can look them up at a later date.
     Since we get the Newspaper, anything that might have spotlight businesses I save to research later.  Here is my stuff I have collected for my spare time!

 When going through the website, pay attention to their details.  Check to see if they have a Donation tab or philanthropy tab.  They will tell you what they require.  Sometimes they will email you the details.  Examples: Raffles/Auctions only, must be a 501c3 with a number to verify, please fill out our form.


Speaking of the Examples, I have a binder I keep my information in for each event I do.  To me, because I can get overwhelmed and I have tons of Volunteer and Hospitality parents emailing, I print each donation response with directions or that is donating so I don't have to search for it later.  The NO's if they don't tell me we put all our donations to .....  I delete from my list or it sounds like a one time No, I just mark them on my spreadsheet.
    BLANK FORMS:  I have place in my binder for blank forms for companies.  I make a copy before I fill it out and have one ready for the next time.
   Detailed instructions of what to do, I print them out and put them in my binder. 

On faxing, when we were at the junior high, we were allowed to send local faxes.  Now at the high school, we don't have that ability.  It ended up being a blessing!  I found this fax service with a free 30 day trial and $8 a month until service is cancelled, including long distance numbers!  You send your faxes through your email and get a report if it when through! http://www.ringcentral.com/

If someone only donates to a certain thing, I file it in my binder for a future event. 

  Please remember to send a Thank You card to anyone that donates to your event.  It is the least you can do for a free item.

Visitor Centers are a great resource to find out of town businesses.  The odds of getting a donation are alot slimmer, but if you have the time.  I have tried for years to try and get a "Get A Way" gift with a hotel and dinner and entertainment.  I have only been about to get one of the three.