Organizing a Bottle Drive Fundraiser

Planning is the Key to Raising Money with Refundable Containers

Mar 9, 2009 Sharon Russell

Spending time planning a bottle drive means less work and more money earned on the day of your bottle drive.

Bottle drives can be a quick and efficient way to raise money for your non-profit organization, school, or team. Basically, a bottle drive requires your group to collect refundable items, sort them into specific categories and sizes, and count them into bags and boxes in preparation for pick up or dropping off at a recycling center. However, with the increasing number of refundable items that must be sorted and counted, as well as safety concerns for volunteers, running a bottle drive can be overwhelming.

Preparation is the Key to Success

Proper planning helps to ensure that your bottle drive will run smoothly, you will easily be able to keep track of volunteers, and you will maximize the amount of money you earn for your cause. Use the following steps to be sure you are ready for your next bottle drive:

1. Recruit volunteers

Prior to the bottle drive, you will need people to make and distribute posters and flyers in the neighborhoods. On the day of the bottle drive, you will need people with vans, trucks, trailers, and cars to drive volunteers around the neighborhoods to collect bottles and return them to a central location for sorting. You will also need people to sort and count refundable items. Before you set the bottle drive date, make sure volunteers are available to help on that day.

2. Select a date and location

Many communities have a bottle drive registration system. Check with your city or community association to find out if there is one in your community. If there is, select a date several weeks after any other bottle drive is scheduled in your collection area.

3. Make route maps, route sign out sheets, and volunteer sign in sheets

Print out maps of the area you will be collecting in and mark routes that can be given to the volunteer drivers. Number the routes and keep a master copy at the sorting location. This will ensure volunteers are not collecting on streets that have already been done. Make route sign out sheets where drivers can sign out a route and indicate which volunteers are with them so you will know where your volunteers are in case you need to contact them while they are out collecting. If possible have the driver record a cell phone number on the sign out sheet. Also, if you want to track volunteer hours, make a volunteer sign in sheet.

4.Determine how you will sort the refundable items

When you arrange for a recycling depot, the depot will be able to tell you what is required to prepare your items for refund. They will have a list of refundable items, their sizes, and the number they want in each bag or box. In addition, some recycling depots require bottle caps to be removed, gable top and drink boxes to be crushed, and so on. Once you have that information, create signs that can be placed near the sorting area so volunteers can easily see what is required. You should also determine the system you will use to sort the items. If possible, arrange to have tables where volunteers can sort items while standing or sitting. If you expect to run several bottle drives, you might want to spend some time creating a bottle sorting system.

5. Arrange for a central location to sort and bag items

If you are fundraising for a school, you might arrange to use the school parking lot on a Saturday or Sunday. You might also be able to use a community center or store parking lot. Get permission first. When selecting a sorting location, remember that collectors will need to drive in to drop off bottles and that you will need enough space to sort and count items into bags and to store the filled bags until they are taken to the recycling depot.

6. Advertise your bottle drive

Put posters around the neighborhoods you will be collecting in. if possible, make door hangers or flyers with your bottle drive information and deliver one to each house on the routes you plan to visit. Ask people who will not be home or don't want to be disturbed to put their bottles in a bag in their driveway and mark them with yoyur organization's name. Flyers delivered to each home can be very effective, but also time consuming and require a lot of paper.

7. Arrange for necessary supplies

Consider bringing the following items:

Tables
Sign in sheets, route maps, and route sign out sheets
Pens and pencils
Permanent markers for writing counts on bags that are not yet full
Signs or lists of refundable items and the number required in each bag
Clear plastic bags to put sorted and counted items in
Trays for counting pop and beer cans. Trays typically hold 24 cans are can be an easy way to count them
Rubber gloves (also consider non-latex gloves for people who have latex allergies)
Paper towels to clean up spills
Broom and dust pan for cleaning the area after the bottle drive
Cell phone

A well-planned bottle drive will be efficient and raise a significant amount of money for your cause. By following these steps, you will be ready when the day arrives for you to run your bottle drive.

The copyright of the article Organizing a Bottle Drive Fundraiser in Non-Profit Management is owned by Sharon Russell. Permission to republish Organizing a Bottle Drive Fundraiser in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.