The reasoning behind school drives is to benefit the children in need before school starts and during the school year. Not everyone has all the supplies they need, so a drive will ensure that every student has the chance to learn without any complications while class is in session. This crash course on how to host a school supply drive in 2022 can help whether you’re new to this kind of thing or a veteran of drives and donations.
Learn About Your Goals
Your top priority with this school supply drive is to do it correctly. To make that happen, you must organize your plans and figure out how you want things to operate.
This cannot happen unless you know who you’re doing this for, so you will need to get to know these children well. You should find out what their teachers require them to bring to class and what they may need to feel successful.
Hang Up Posters and Fliers
Advertise this drive as much as you can and wherever you can. This could be in the classrooms or in the lunchrooms. Make the poster visible to the children, teachers, and staff so that everyone can get in on the fun and know what’s going on.
This is a great way to make an event grow quickly. You can also pass fliers out in between classes to as many students as you can get in contact with so that everyone has a copy. This is a great way to spread the message.
Create Displays in High Traffic Areas
Make sure that wherever you decide to advertise, place it in high traffic areas where there is a lot of movement by students and staff. That way, they see your fliers multiple times a day, and they stick in their brains. With luck, they will become a little more interested each time they pass by a flier. Before you know it, both students and staff will be talking about it.
Hang Up Posters on Classroom Bulletins
Classroom bulletins are always a great way to get the attention of each individual student. When preparing for the day, some teachers use a bulletin to prepare their students’ schedules so that they know what to do to stay on task. So if you know teachers that use their bulletin boards as daily planners, that would be a perfect place to ask to hang fliers!
Create a Newsletter About the Drive
Everyone loves keeping up with the news. That’s why you should do something super creative to share the news. For example, create a newsletter that specifically homes in on the events that will take place leading up to the supply drive and the supply drive itself. This will tell everyone what they need to do to prepare for the event. Additionally, it gives them a handheld reminder that they can keep and take with them.
Share Information in Meetings
It’s extremely important that everyone on your team knows what’s going on for the supply drive. Everyone on the team should have a position, know what they need to do in that position, and know when they must carry it out.
You might want to hold several meetings before the drive happens so that you can go over roles and do a few practice runs long before the drive. That way, things will go a lot smoother when it happens, and everyone will know their places and how everything should coordinate and operate.
This also means that people can take on dual roles if they need to or help in areas that need assistance when the time comes. You will also need to talk about which wholesale school supplies distributors you will go with so that everyone knows what supplies to pick up and prepare before the drive. Additionally, that ensures you have all your resources ready so that the day goes by without a hitch.
Send Email Chain Letters
Communication is key in all things that we do. If you can, have cards made so that people can reach you before, during, or after the event so that you might plan for other events in the future. If the drive is a success, teaching staff might call on you later to host other events or drives to help students in your community.
Another great source of communication is email. You need to list your email address along with phone numbers and any contact information you are comfortable with giving out to the public. This will ensure that everyone can reach you if necessary.
When communicating through email, you can create chainmail messages with however many people you want and spread the word like wildfire. Because most of the world communicates online these days, email is a great way to get through to children and families. Additionally, you can share the news through social media.
You could go so far as to make a page for your school drive, connect with teachers and parents online, and start groups so that they can help you organize your next event. This ensures you create a great event long before it ever happens.
Make the Event Fun
When the big day comes, you should keep things fresh and exciting for the kids. You could have raffles and drawings for gifts, prizes, money, or gift cards. This will help to fill the gap for the items that kids need that might not be at the drive.
You could even host a bake sale during your drive. All of these small additions will make the kids excited about the supply drive. Thus, you’ll have a larger turnout.
If you’ve never volunteered for any community or social event with the public, this would be a great time to learn. Hopefully, our thorough instruction on how to host a school supply drive in 2022 can help those interested in bettering the lives and education of those who aren’t as privileged. Your efforts will help kids receive a proper education and hopefully allow them to succeed in school.