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With fall, there are plenty of nonprofit fundraising events to promote. One of the best I’ve seen recently was with Whitesboro Music Boosters from Marcy, New York. Their coordinator, Robin Wynn, was looking for fundraising ideas and decided to do a fundraiser for the shoe drive.

Throughout the year, Whitesboro Music Boosters hosts a number of fundraisers to promote music in their school district. The money they raise helps schools cover the costs of casting parties, uniforms and travel. For this particular fundraiser, they were raising funds for a new program to offer students private lessons during the holidays when schools are not in session.

Whitesboro students, parents and the community collected 5,730 pairs of shoes. No one was asked to donate money. All they had to do was ask people for slightly worn, used, and new shoes. Those thousands of shoes went in 230 bags and Whitesboro was paid for by Funds2Orgs based on the total weight of the shoes.

I think Robin’s experience is a great experience to share with others – no matter what kind of fundraiser you do for your school, nonprofit, church, or group. The point is, most charities don’t raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in any given fundraiser. In fact, most organizations tend to be small and their fundraisers raise a few thousand here and a few thousand there.

My team and I thought Robin and Whitesboro were so great to work with us that we decided to interview him on Facebook Live. Robin was interviewed by our social media star Joe, who began by asking her why she decided to have a shoe drive.

She replied, “We’ve done a ton of fundraising and people have run out of fundraisers… You can see it when we say, ‘We’re fundraising for’. We can see it in their eyes … What I really liked was that we didn’t ask anyone for money. We asked them for things they had and they didn’t know what to do anyway. “

Joe then asked Robin about the success of the Whitesboro Music Booster fundraising event.

1. The recall group has a strong presence on Facebook. So it was natural for them to use Facebook to promote their shoe workout. They asked people to support their efforts, to contribute and they provided updates. With Facebook as their primary social media platform, they leveraged it and Robin said this was one of the key factors in their success.
2. They toured their community and asked businesses to get involved. Lots of organizations do this, but with a shoe drive fundraiser it’s unique because businesses don’t have to contribute money. No one does. The Whitesboro Music Boosters have asked local businesses to place banners and posters on their windows. Most were happy to do something so simple for a good cause and for their community.
3. Robin and his team implicated a local radio station. The DJ was awesome and created an event where people were invited to go to a particular location and throw shoes at a tarp target as they passed. In the process, the pilots had the chance to win cool prizes. It was a great way to get people who might not otherwise have been involved in music amplifiers to donate their shoes (and fundraising).
4. Neighborhood schools got involved. For example, elementary school classes challenged themselves to see which classes could collect the most shoes. The winners received a popsicle party. The college students were challenged by the principal to collect at least 700 pairs of shoes. In doing so, they were treated to a “Crazy Hat Day”, which the children loved because it was the occasion to wear hats in schools. By the way, the children gathered 1,200 shoes and were able to wear their hats. And high school students helped collect shoes in the community.
5. When Joe asked Robin about her one fundraising tip, she said, “Talk to everyone.” Robin describes herself as an introvert, but she’s talked to everyone about fundraising from the shoe drive – at the barbershop and even the bank.

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Source by Wayne Elsey