Links
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Ten Steps to Clothing Needy Children - Summer 2006
A Guide for
Conducting a Successful “Back-to-School” Clothing Campaign
Agencies to Contact to Get a Profile of a Child
Sample Profile of a Child
Sample Thank You Note to Employees after Project
closes HERE ARE THE TEN STEPS!!!
Back-to-School Clothes for Kids (“BTS”), with the help of donations from corporations and their employees, clubs, individuals and local retail stores, provides new school clothing to needy children from kindergarten age through high school.
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For children aged 5 - 11,
sponsors shop for school clothing for the children based on a “Profile”
which contains a child’s sizes and color/style preferences.
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For 12 year olds and
teenagers, funds are donated and
BTS has “shopping nights” in late August at local stores. The teens come to
the store with social workers; they are given a budget; volunteers assist
and they purchase clothing that they like for school. We call these
SWAT Nights (Shopping With A Teen) Your company, branch or club can help needy children by conducting a clothing campaign. Even a family or a group of friends can! The following outline will take you through the steps to ensure your campaign runs simply and smoothly. Included beside each step is a suggested time frame that will allow you to collect all clothing in time for school.
1. Forming a Volunteer Team (Mid-End July)
Depending on the size of your company, branch or club, and how large your campaign will be, you may want to identify a team of volunteers to handle various aspects of the campaign, such as publicity, pledge collection, shopping, packing and delivery of the clothing. If you are starting small this year, you may need only one coordinator to handle these tasks.
2. Getting Started (Mid - End July)
Decide how many Children to Sponsor - To determine this, we suggest you estimate spending $200 per child. If this is your first time participating, you may want to start small—even outfitting one or two children is wonderful. You can sponsor more children next year after you are a “veteran” of the program.
Decide which Population of Children you will Sponsor – See Agencies to Contact which describes the populations of kids we are helping and who to contact to obtain a Profile on a child. You can sponsor homeless children, children whose parents are obtaining education or training to end their reliance on public assistance, or needy children helped by community programs or attending some of our area’s schools.
Decide how you will structure your Project -
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Are employees going to donate
designated items of clothing (e.g. Mary will buy the sneakers for a · Are you going to solicit money donations and a committee will do the shopping? Or · Combination of above? or
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Are you going to collect money
and donate to BTS for teens’ shopping nights? 3. Obtaining Profiles (End July)
Once you decide what population of children to sponsor, and how many, you need to get a Profile on each child. The Profile will include the child’s first name, their clothing sizes and color/style preferences. Call the contact at the agency for the program you have chosen and they will fax you the number of Profiles you need.
Check over the Profile when you receive it. If it is unclear or a size appears to be wrong, please call your contact at the program to clarify. If they give you a size that still seems to be wrong or the child is very hard to fit, ask for another Profile. (DON’T WORRY. THE CHILD WILL BE SPONSORED BY THE BTSCFK ORGANIZATION. He or she will need to come to one of our in-store ”shopping nights” to try on the clothing to ensure a good fit.)
Clothing to Buy and School Supplies to Buy. The clothing consists of:
· 3 outfits (3 tops/3 bottoms). If a uniform is required, this would take the place of an outfit · 3 sets of underwear & socks · one sweatshirt (or sweater)
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backpack & school supplies -
check the bottom of the child’s profile. You may not need to buy · coat or sneakers (the profile will specify which the child needs most)
4. Sending a Flyer to Employees (End July / Beginning August)
See Sample Flyer which you can use to advertise the campaign to your employees. There is an empty box on the flyer where you can fill in the dates of your drive and the person to contact.
5. Collecting Donations - Money and/or Pledges to Buy Clothing (Beginning - Mid August)
You can collect money and clothing for the children you sponsor in different ways. Some companies set up a table in their cafeteria or reception area to collect money or to sign up employee pledges. Other companies have a volunteer in each department who solicits coworkers for donations of clothing or money. Each employee is offered the choice of purchasing items of clothing or making a cash contribution.
Over the years, companies have been very creative in obtaining pledges from employees. One clever company hung a small clothesline over the table where they were collecting pledges. On the clothesline were “cut-outs” of articles of clothing which a child needed—a shirt, sneakers, a backpack. On each “cut-out” was a child’s name, size, color preference. Employees looked over the clothesline, chose the item they wanted to purchase and took down the “cut-out” from the clothesline to have with them when they shopped.
· Clothing Pledges – a Pledge Sheet will keep you organized if you are sponsoring more than 4 or 5 children. It helps you keep track of the clothing being purchased by various employees. From the Profile you receive, fill in a Pledge Sheet for each child. As an employee commits to buy an article of clothing, have that employee sign their name (with their phone extension) by the article of clothing on the pledge sheet.
· Cash or Check Donations -- donors who do not wish to purchase clothing can make a monetary donation. You can use this money to shop for those items that were not donated to complete a child's wardrobe or it can be used by BTS for the teens' shopping nights.
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Receipts
– See form of Receipt you can
use.
6. Shopping (Mid August)
Employees who agreed to purchase an item will be shopping for that item individually…and/or you may have created a shopping committee to shop for all the clothes (or just the “non donated” items). · Clothing to Buy · Discounts -- Any discounts we obtain are posted on our website www.backtoschoolclothes.org · Paying Sales Tax – this explains the guidelines on sales tax exemption.
7. Collecting and Packaging of Clothing (3rd week of August)
Employees are asked to deliver donated items by a specific date to their coordinator or specified room/area. It is now time to package the clothing for delivery!
· Put a copy of the child’s Profile in the package or tape it to the package.
· Packaging must be “per child”, i.e. do not put 3 children’s clothing in one box. Some companies have used plastic stacking cartons or laundry baskets, which can be used by the child’s family. Some companies have used duffel bags or sturdy shopping bags to package the clothing. If the children you are sponsoring must travel to pick up the clothing, they may do so by bus, so be sensitive to packaging in a manner so it is easy for these children to get their clothing home.
· The best thank-you anyone can get is from the child they sponsored! If you get a note from the children, it is great to include this with any “wrap up” to employees who contributed. To facilitate receiving a “thank-you” note from a child, include a thank-you note for the child to use in your clothing package. Put the child’s name next to the “To” at the top of the page. Put an employee’s name and the name of your company in the “From” portion. Include one of these notes in the package of clothing you deliver to each child and staple it to a stamped, self-addressed envelope. As you can guess, all children will not respond—but hopefully the knowledge that you helped the child will be thanks enough.
8. Delivering Clothing (Last week of August)
Some of the programs that participate in BTS try to have parties or receptions where donors can deliver clothing and meet the children and their families. Other programs do not have these receptions due to logistics or other concerns. In these cases, the donor is asked to drop off the clothing to a social worker or program coordinator who will get the clothing to the child. I think we all agree that meeting the child is not the important issue; it is the child receiving the clothing!
Note - if the program you have chosen is having a reception, there is no guarantee that the child you sponsored will be there. A child or parent can get sick or have transportation problems. Also, a family’s situation may be such that they simply cannot attend for any number of personal reasons. I am sure you understand that the decision for a child to meet a sponsor is a privacy issue, and we want to respect the parent’s decision in this area.
9, Thanking Employees (September)
As with every worthy cause in which you ask your employees to participate, make sure you thank them for their participation. Some companies provide a follow-up memo thanking all whom participated and reporting on the results of the campaign, e.g. how many children were clothed. Other companies send a personal “thank you” note to each employee who donated clothing, money or volunteered their time. (See copy of Thank You Note to Employees” Chase sent to its employees thanking them for their participation and updating them on the success of the project.)
10. HELP (anytime!)
If you need help at any point along the way, there are a number of people and companies who have been participating in the drive for some time who will be happy to assist. They are:
Connie Kennedy of BTS is also available for questions or assistance at 697-2792 (day) or 576-6053 (eve). Email her at info@backtoshoolclothes.org
If you want to help, please write or call “Back-to-School Clothes for Kids” P. O. Box 304 White Plains, NY 10605
Phone 914-576-6053
A Not-For-Profit Tax-Exempt
Corporation
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