I just mailed out over 100 donation request letters and I included our school's Tax ID # in the letter. This way, the organization already has our Tax ID when sending donations. Also, I found walking into stores like WalMart, K-Mart etc., and speaking to someone face to face - got me a lot more success. If you have the time to do some legwork and driving around, I think you will be more successful in receiving donations. I have had a great response from most of the businesses when I have walked in and spoke to them in person. Make sure to take a generic donation request letter with you with your school's tax ID #. Good luck.

With our local stores I call them and ask them if I should seen the letter to them or their corporate......each store is different. Also don't forget if you are a nonprofit group then you need to offer them your tax exempt number for donation purposes. If you go to www.irs.gov and look up Publication 526 it can answer any of your questions, tax wise, regarding charitable contributions regarding non profit organizations. You need Adobe Acrobat reader to read this which you can get free online. Best of luck!

I would like to THANK everyone for the list of people to contact for donations! I am kind of new to this fundraising stuff and have just started planning an auction for April. Who do I contact local stores or main corporate offices for stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Best Buy or Wal-Mart? In the past we have contacted Wal-Mart but do not get any response. Any suggestions would be great! I really love this site - it has been such a big helper to our school!!