Hi,
THERE IS NO LIST. I wish I could bold that and underline it. No one has a magic list of addresses that they can send you that will get you a lot of donations.
This is because sometimes companies donate and sometimes they don't. I have had companies tell me no that I see on the boards that others have received donations from. Or vice versa. Maybe it has to do with how the letter is written, or what time of year they receive it, who knows.
I really enjoy reading these boards, except for the frustration of reading "please send me the list" emails. I wish we could delete them all! [img]smile.gif[/img]
It isn't hard to find addresses of companies. It just takes a lot of time. Think of a company, say Home Depot. If you can't find their website address, just google it. Go to their website, and look around. Try "Contact Us" or "About Us". You can generally find their address fairly quickly. Quite a lot have their donation policies posted, so you might not even have to waste your time writing to them.
On another thread, this was posted, which is also very helpful:
ademom74
Should be on Payroll
Member # 8881
Author Profile
posted February 21, 2006 01:01 PM
Ok, guys, now hear this... There is no list.
I just read this thread which is entirely 'me too' posts. Oh my mistake, I think one person posted a donation list but the other 4 pages are all me-toos.
All of you who are looking for businesses that donate-> go to the search bar on this website and search for 'Dottie'. She put together an amazing list of names and addresses that you can easily cut and paste to your own computers. The list is old (2001) but still is a great resource, especially if you are just starting out.
From what I have seen, after sending out a few hundred letters, most national corporations are NOT donating. There are a few, but we have found that we are having better luck approaching the branches of those companies that are in our area.
If you don't have volunteers to do this, and if you yourself are not willing to put the manual labor hours into soliciting the donations, then maybe you should think of a different fundraiser. Because it takes a long time and sometimes the results aren't as fruitful as one might hope. That's probably why universities and non-profit organizations pay generous salaries to those who are in charge of Development...the work is tough!! (and I apologize for assuming that those jobs pay a lot, maybe they don't, but they certainly would have to for me to do this sort of job for a living!)
Anyway, good luck to everyone. I'll get off my soapbox now.
Chris