Taking a Chance on Something New Pays Off for Small Nonprofit

As a small, new nonprofit, Northwest Hospitality is always on the lookout for different and effective ways to raise funds. So this spring we tried out something new; a clothing donation drive with FUNDrive®! It’s sort of an all-around win-win-win scenario for the community and our organization. The community has an extra incentive to clean out their closets of unused or unwanted gently used clothing, shoes, and household items, and we can turn those items into cash to support our mission. How does it work? We stockpile community donations until our set turn-in date and deliver them to the designation location. FUNDrive® weighs all our items and once everything is weighed, FUNDrive® writes the organization a check to buy those items!

I enjoyed facilitating our first try at this fundraiser because it challenged me to find creative ways to find donations and gave me the opportunity to connect with my community online and offline. The social network NextDoor was great not only to find donations but to share information about Northwest Hospitality. Other members and volunteers of Northwest Hospitality reached out to their communities via Facebook and Instagram. It helped to create a Facebook event because it got the information in front of people and it was easy to share. The whole experience ended up being pretty social and fun while being a great way to get the word out about Northwest Hospitality.

Let’s not forget about our offline efforts. I was able to connect with schools and picked up unclaimed items from Lost and Founds. I also made a few random trips to friends’ houses to gather up donations. I received a lot of gratitude for physically going to pick up donations but will definitely consider finding one convenient spot for drop off to make things more efficient next time.

We collected close to 900 pounds of donations, earning a little under $200 we’ll use for operating costs. This will go towards insurance costs for volunteers, which is necessary mainly for our Environmental Hospitality trash pickup program.

Overall, the FUNDrive® was a successful fundraising experiment. FUNDrive® is pretty remarkable for helping out the community in this way. Thank you to all of our donors and to FUNDrive® for helping us raise money to help keep our programs going!

Northwest Hospitality works with community groups to assemble and distribute hospitality kits and food cards to people living in the streets of Washington State. Volunteers in their Environmental Hospitality program clean litter and trash from homeless encampments and other community areas.