A local high school harnesses the power of community for fundraising success

High school graduation is a time of overwhelming excitement, which is why Haul High School in West Hartford, CT, makes it their mission to see everyone through graduation night safely by hosting SafeGrad. SafeGrad is an all night party at the school with a fair, a bonfire and other activities and prizes to keep the graduates entertained until 4:00am. Finding the funds needed for an event of that scale is no easy task, but when fundraising coordinator, Liz Reynolds, discovered FUNDrive®, an eco-friendly way to fundraise without asking people to buy anything, she knew she had found a fundraiser her tight knit community could rally around, and would help earn her the dollars needed for SafeGrad.

Liz started by checking off the standard FUNDrive® best practices, selecting a drop off day far enough in the future to give them adequate time to collect donations, creating an online flyer, and spreading the word on social media. But Liz knew that the true strength of their FUNDrive® was going to come from their town.

SafeGrad is not only a wonderful event, but it is something that the whole community gets behind because it affects so many families. It is a way to celebrate all the hard work of the graduates (and their families) while keeping everyone safe. Liz knew she could count on the support of her town to ensure the FUNDrive® was a success.

Liz started off by working with the high school on where they could store donations. The school provided the perfect solution by allowing the donations to be stored in the school basement during collection.

Next, Liz needed to gather volunteers to help unload cars and get donations to the school basement for storage. Liz provided the bagels, donuts and coffee, and the volunteers did the rest. They offered a VIP service to anyone bringing in donations, all the donors had to do was pop their trunk and the volunteers took care of the rest. One parent even brought his truck so he could drive donations from the drop off location to the entrance to the school basement.

When drop off day arrived, the West Hartford community showed up again. Loading 350 bags into a U-haul and driving them to Savers®, where they were paid directly for their donations, raising $965.40 for SafeGrad. An inspired ending for an inspiring community!