Community Donation Guides

What is a community donation guide?

A community donation guide is a map or pamphlet that shows what organizations people should donate things to in a city, town, or region. Community donation guides are vitally important as they prevent waste and allow organizations the resources to continue doing good.

Efficiency

Donation guides have the ability to increase the number of goods donated by making it easy and convenient to donate.

Donations

Donations can go to the organizations that need them most, allowing them to continue serving their community.

No-waste

A donation guide can make true recycling of goods and items possible and easy.

Connecting

Donation guides connect communities and allow local organizations to function.

Efficiency

Donation guides have the ability to increase the number of goods donated by making it easy and conveint to donate.

Donations

Donations can go to the organizations that need them most, allowing them to continue serving their community.

No-waste

A donation guide can make true recycling of goods and items possible and easy.

Connecting

Donation guides connect communities and allow local organizations to function.

Efficiency

Donation guides have the ability to increase the number of goods donated by making it easy and conveint to donate.

Donations

Donations can go to the organizations that need them most, allowing them to continue serving their community.

No-waste

A donation guide can make true recycling of goods and items possible and easy.

Connecting

Donation guides connect communities and allow local organizations to function.

Who will the community donation guides help?

Community donation guides will help the communities that they’re created for by making it easy for people to donate things they might have otherwise thrown away. Additionally, the community donation guides will aid in the impact of each donation by ensuring that the donation goes to the organization that needs it most.

What exactly is a community donation guide?

A community donation guide is a list of organizations in a community and what they need people to donate to them. The list is organized such that someone who has things to donate can easily determine which organization needs what they’re donating. 

Our donation guides are directly inspired by the work of Elaine Piraino-Holevoet who created a donation guide for New Haven County CT. This guide can be see here.

Why should youths create guides for their communities?

Creating community donation guides is a difficult and time intensive process that, once completed, truly benefits the community it’s made for. Youths can give back and connect with their communities in a way that is rarely possible with other projects. 

 

Creating a Donation Guide

Step 1: Getting Started

Contact Epic Youths and become a member. This is very important as it will allow your donation guide to be listed in an easily accessible format online for those in your community. We will also give you credit for your contribution on the page of the donation guide.

Step 2: Where?

Choose what community you will compile the donation guide for. It is best to compile a guide for your own community, but communities can be large and sometimes it’s best to make a donation guide for each part of that community by working in sections. For example, making a community donation guide for the whole Los Angeles County would not only be difficult, it will not be as effective as making a donation guide for a smaller area. Communities are constantly changing and each community has intricacies that only residents would know, this is why it is especially important to focus on an area you know well and preferably live. Back to our example, for somewhere like Los Angeles County, it is best to break the area into sub-sections such as neighborhoods. How an area is broken down, or if it’s broken down at all, will largely depend on the number of people that live there or the number of organizations that operate in that area.

If you have any questions, don’t worry, we will be there to help guide you through this.

Step 3: Research

Compile a list of organizations in your community that need donations. Especially make sure to include all organizations that you see making a large positive impact. Try to find out what they need from their website or reach out to a director of that organization if possible to find out what they need.

Additionally, find out the best way to donate to these organizations. Is it best to drop off donations at a physical location? If so, where? Does that location change? Is it best to contact someone at the organization before donating? Who should be contacted and by what phone number or email? Find all this out and write it down in an organized format for each organization.

Here is a checklist of the information you need in your list: organization name, short mission statement from the organization, the organization’s website or social media, what donations they want, and the best method of donating.

Step 4: Putting it Together

Now contact us and we’ll put it together on a sub-section of the Epic Youths’ Website. Your donation guide will have its own page, and most importantly will be easily accessible for people trying to find it online.

Step 5: Finished!

Once the page with your community guide is finalized, all you need to do is keep an eye out for any changes that might occur in your community. Sit back, relax, and know that you have contributed a valuable asset to your community that will facilitate organizations continuing to do what they do best.