I agree that I would also like to know whether you have to contact corporate or can go to the individual stores! I don't have any recent lists, and would really like to be added to the list to get them. I have a list from a couple of years ago and have sent to some of the companies on it. Some were really generous in giving donations. Thanks!
One thing that I would love to see if a list that the national companies and whether or not they donate and if you need to contact corporate headquarter or the local store. We have 2 Home Depots with in 5 miles of our school and would love to know if I have to send a letter to Corporate or if I can contact the local store for a donation. This would make our donation drives so much easier with me doing all the leg work and having my committe members go out to the stores and ask.
What I would love is to see a list of national companies and whether or not you need to contact their corporate headquarters or local store. For example Home Depot (there are 2 with in 5 miles of each other) Should I contact Corporate for a donation or can I go into anyone of the local stores? Same thing with Best Buy and Circut City.
Just kidding, but really. I agree with you all about having a central list, yes it is nice but I would expect the donations would get smaller and smaller as the days go by.
I do like the idea about maybe putting info on certain companies like the American Doll people 1 in 3 year policy, Are there other companies that have a time frame? or just plain useful info like "don't forget to ask the furniture store in town" Which I did forget this year.
I did not ask for any celeb autographs, because I wouldn't know what to do with them.
I don't want a list of companies that everyone else has contacted. Lots of the items I've seen on other lists have been things that just wouldn't work at our school. What I really love are the ideas behind the list. You give me an idea or two and it starts the brain working, then I can think of several more that fit my school to a tee!!
Examples: 1. Hardware stores: (I never would have thought of contacting one of these on my own) A local hardware store gave us a child size park bench that sold at auction for almost $100. 2. Police Department: Enlist a local officer to pick the winning child up and take him or her to lunch.
I think that if everyone would share ideas (not necessarily business names) it would work great. I really wouldn't know what to do with an autographed picture, let alone several. It just wouldn't work at my school unless I spent extra money creating a basket of items centered around the celebrity. I also saw somewhere where you could get a free hot-air balloon ride. Of course the minimum bid had to be set at around $250 and you had to be located near a large city off the list.
I just don't want to have to thumb through a long list of unrelated businesses that who knows what they'll give to get to something great. We've never even attempted national companies because we don't want to have to try to track down items that may not be worth the time spent.
Could you send me the lists (regarding donations) you have?? Thank you in advance!!!
Originally posted by ranroo: By the way..if anyone wants to email me their lists, I would be more than happy to combine them all into one large list to put on this website.
