Emails don't' get looked at by many people unless you put.
Formal Donation letter from
School, Any city school in Ill.
I'm the co-chair for a christian school outside of Philly. Most of my donations so far which are total $5000.00 are from phone calls and a few emails. Ask to speak with the person in charge of the donation requests. Also if you have a carpool line ask parents for suggestions on places where they shop, dine, kids places, and museums. Also it does take time to get a donation or even reply. Don't worry if you didn't hear back from them. But you have to do the hard leg work and call vendors. I've only started doing this and in two months I have so much it's overwhelming.
If you would like I can send you sample letters in which I have sent and got results. Hope that helps.
Mary,
I am in the burbs of Chicago, I would suggest contacting a lot more companies, I contact alot more than that when trying to get donations and usually start in January for May. Restaurants in Chicago are usually pretty generous. Chances are you are 501 status and just don't know the number, if your group files some sort of taxes every year the number is on those forms...took me years to find out we were and we are a public school but noone knew the number but the school told me where to look. Only major corporations and out of state would want that number though, for most chicago area companies the form you have is fine. I have the same form that I use for most companies. Go directly to the immediate area companies, if they know you are close they usually won't answer unless you send someone personally in there. Make sure that person can explain the event, the benefit to the school, community and their business. Also, I don't freak out right away chances are some of those companies will just mail you donations close to the event time, I receive the bulk 3-4 weeks before the event and even some the week of and during it, and honestly afterwards too. Hope this helps, if you want any leads message me on here or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Shari
Mary, check with your Archdiocese on getting a letter. If you are with the Roman Catholic Church and listed in the directory you should be able to get a letter stating you are 501(c)(3) and use your tax id number for requesting donations.
Mary I would suggest trying some of them again. Many of the companies start their donations over at the 1st of the year, so you may have some luck. You may have 2 strikes against you with no 501 and being religiously affiliated. If you would like I am in Central IL(near Peoria) and we can share info/successes. You should be able to send me a message through the link on the left by my name. Thanks
Hi! I have been reading through many of these post and I need some advise/help. We are planning a fundraiser raffle for Feb. I sent out about 100 requests via email, mail, fax and donation forms on websites. I have gotten about 20 "NO's" and the rest with no responce. We are a chicago area catholic school and I have no idea what I might be doing wrong. I don't have a 501c3 charity #, which I think might be my big problem. We do have a tax exempt # which I have included in my requests. Is the problem that I just requested so late in the year? Should I send a second request to the companies that I havn't heard from? HELP!!!
Hi! I have been reading through many of these post and I need some advise/help. We are planning a fundraiser raffle for Feb. I sent out about 100 requests via email, mail, fax and donation forms on websites. I have gotten about 20 "NO's" and the rest with no responce. We are a chicago area catholic school and I have no idea what I might be doing wrong. I don't have a 501c3 charity #, which I think might be my big problem. We do have a tax exempt # which I have included in my requests. Is the problem that I just requested so late in the year? Should I send a second request to the companies that I havn't heard from? HELP!!!
