This document provides guidance on conducting successful food and fund drives to benefit nonprofit agencies. It discusses determining the timeframe and details of the drive, creating promotional flyers, displaying collection materials, and advertising through various channels like websites, newsletters, businesses, social media and newspapers. Maximizing efforts involves partnering with other organizations and local grocers for drop-off locations. Thank you letters or receipts should be sent to donors detailing the impact of their donation. Building long-term partnerships through ongoing communication is emphasized. Grantwriting tips include researching funding opportunities, understanding the key elements of a competitive proposal like the problem statement, objectives, methods and evaluation, and following up appropriately depending on if the proposal is accepted or denied.

1. RAISING FOOD & FUNDS
2013 All Agency Conference
Presented by
Casey Milton & Jane Corpora

2. Food & Fund
Drives

3. “Raising Food and Fund Donations”
Conducting a Successful Food & Funds
Drive
What is a food & funds drive?
 An event to collect food and/or monetary donations to
benefit your agency.
Benefits:
 You can collect food or anything else your agency needs
o Specific food items, personal care items, supplies
 Builds awareness
 Builds relationships

4. How to Sponsor a Food and Funds
Drive:
 Determine a timeframe and the details
 Create flyers
• Who is hosting the food drive.
• When (Timeframe)
• Where to drop off the donations (Include partner agencies).
• Detail needed items.
• Detail where to give/send monetary donations
• Detail contact information.
 Visibly display collection materials for the donations.
 Collect and distribute!

5. Advertising Your Drive:
 Ways to advertise
 Website
 Weekly/monthly pamphlet or newsletter
 Local surrounding businesses
 Social media sites
 Local newspaper/online calendar

6. Maximizing Your Food Drive:
 Partner with surrounding agencies, churches, businesses and schools
 Via email, letter, flyer
 Partner with local grocers – Drop off locations
 Contact the media
 Via a press release
 Engage the community
 Make yourself accessible!
 Involve your place of business- use all resources!

7. “Thank You” Letters/Receipts:
 Create a “thank you letter/receipt” template
 Detail the donation
 Detail the donors impact in your community
 Detail contact information-for future support 

8. Making Long Time Partnerships:
 Build a relationship with your organization(s)
 Keep in contact with your business
 Ask for their continuous support
Communication is key in building
strong relationships!

9. Contact information:
Casey Milton
Cmilton@stlfoodbank.org

10. Grantwriting
Creating
Winning Proposals

11. Secret Formula?

12. Grantwriting Workshop
Objectives
•Better understand how to research
funding opportunities
•Understand the key elements of a
successful grant proposal and why each
is important
•Learn common mistakes and best
practices to put forward the best proposal

13. Grantwriting
What are the
benefits of
grantwriting?
•Financial
•In-Kind
Support
•Public
Relations
•Relationship
s

14. Getting Started
 Before you begin, you need to know your
own story.
 You must do your homework to find
sources and then learn about your
prospects. It’s a good idea to contact
potential funders for details.
 Make sure you have adequate systems in
place to properly acknowledge, track and
report on the outcomes if you are
awarded.

15. Public Libraries Internet
Email
Subscriptions
Business
Journals
Research
Tools

16. Before you Write a Proposal, Ask
Yourself These Questions:
Does my mission fit
the funder’s focus?
Am I within their
geographic focus
area?
Is a full proposal
appropriate, or
should I send a
letter of inquiry?
When is the
proposal due? Don’t
wait till the last
minute to submit
your proposal.

18. Proposal Components
 Cover Letter (if you are not submitting proposal
online)
 Mission Statement
 Problem Statement
 Objective
 Methods
 Evaluation
 Future Plans
 Budget
 Summary
 Appendix/Add-on’s

19. Cover Letter
Serves as a one-page introduction
Always address letter to a real person
Be positive and concise
Address the key issues and the “hot
buttons”
Original signature by your highest official
List all enclosures under the signature
block

20. Problem Statement
What is your unmet need in the
community that you wish to address? Be
specific.
Who is being served?
What is currently being done (or has
been done in the past) to address the
problem?
Validate your data by citing sources (US
Census Bureau, Feeding America, etc.)

21. Objective
What do you hope to accomplish
with the funding?
Your objective(s) must be
specific and measurable.
Avoid over-ambitious goals.
Remember, you will probably
have to report on your outcomes.

22. Methods
How are you
going to achieve
your objectives?
Be specific.
Explain how you
arrived at any
conclusions or
projections.
Give a breakdown of all new
proposed procedures to give the
funder the best possible
understanding of your plan.

23. Evaluation
Explain how
you are going to
keep track of
the project
Demonstrate
that procedures
are in place to
track daily
activities
Tell how you
plan to analyze
your success
and report to
the funder

24. Future Plans and
Sustainability
Funders
don’t like to
be your only
source of
money.
If you have
other funders,
list them. It
demonstrates
that others
have
confidence in
your ability.
Explain how
the program
can continue
in the future.

25. How will you utilize
the funding?
Make sure
everything adds up
and that your budget
is logical
You must list all
expenses associated
with the project
Budget

26. Summary
Also known
as Executive
Summary;
should be a
concise
snapshot of
your
proposal
The
Summary is
written last
Do a
thorough job;
funders may
read the
Summary
first to decide
if further
review is
worthwhile
Please see
the handout
for a listing of
what should
be included
in the
Summary

27. Enclosures and Attachments
Requested enclosures can vary with each
proposal, pay close attention to this detail!
You must include everything requested;
some funders ask for several copies of
proposals or attachments.
If you don’t have a requested document,
explain why it isn’t available (for example, if
your agency doesn’t prepare an annual
report)

28. Proposal Follow-Up
• Send thank you letter- This is a must.
• Note any reporting requirements. Put
report due date(s) on your calendar
(possibly weeks ahead of due date to
give you time to compile requested
info).
Accepted
Proposal
• Contact funder to find out why you
were denied (great input to improve
next year’s request)
• Send a thank you (thanking them for
considering you) - remember, there’s
always next year!
Denied
Proposal

29. Contact information:
Jane Corpora
jcorpora@stlfoodbank.org

30. Q & A
Got
questions?