I've been a fundraiser for 4 years so I appreciate all I learn here so I wanted to share what I've learned.
First off, besides a school letterhead, you'll probably need a tax id number. The two schools PTO's I work with do not have their own so I got permission from the county to use theirs. You can do this by contacting the city/county your school is in and letting them know who you are and why you need it. I was able to get a copy of the letter from the IRS to the county and a letter from the county stating the tax status of the school. I make copies as needed and submit these with my request.
This year instead of googling "donation request", I started searching by a specific business name, company name, etc followed by donation request. I had SEVERAL pop up which took me directly to the info I needed. Before this, I would go to FAQ and community sections of pages. I'm waiting to hear back from at least 30 places that accepted donation requests and have already heard from a few. For example, I googled "Marshalls donation request" and got a link to go right to the page. Same with TJ Maxx. (I havent heard from them yet.) Some have forms you print and take to the store: Whole Foods, Best Buy. Some have forms you fill out and email: Books a Million, Subway.
DENIALS:
Crutchfield electronics (disappointing since they're located in our hometown)
Zappos shoes
Dicks (only because they need 60 days turnaround)
Penske Racing
Nintendo
Donations RECEIVED:
Ben & Jerrys (locally, 2 x small ice cream cake certificates)
Cheeseburger in Paradise (locally, 2 x $25)
Your True Nature (notice of package to be shipped in Feb)
Stampin' Up (HUGE box of scrap booking materials)
Keurig
Disney World
Smarties Candy
Monster Energy Drinks
Giant grocery store
Smarties, Giant Foods and Monster are from random googling as mentioned above and new to me.
From Monster, I received one large t-shirt with logo, 2 sticker sheets and a couple hundred logo tattoos.
Monster Beverage Co
550 Monica Circle, ste 201
Corona Ca 92880
Smarties candy sent 2 baseball caps, 2 mouse pads, 2 bags of rolled candy and 2 boxes of 24 each mega rolls...really FAST turnaround, less than one week!!
Smarties Candy Co
ATTN: Eric Ostrow
1091 Lousons Rd
Union, NJ 07083
From Giant, I had been in the local store last year and got a gift card. I saved time this year and mailed a letter to this address and received 2 x $10 cards.
Giant Food LLc
ATTN: Jamie Miller
8301 Professional Place, Ste 115
Landover, MD 20785
I will be posting as I hear back so check back frequently. Its been 3-4 weeks since I started so I expect to start getting items or rejections since yesterday I received these three!