Fundable.Org

Beautify your community. Clean up the environment. Raise money. Three great reasons to hold a community cleanup fundraiser.

And here’s how to do it….

The Cleanup Area
Ask members of your school, group or charity for recommendations. If you’re still at a loss, contact the town or county officials responsible for beautification or the environment. This department may fall under Parks and Recreation.

By involving these officials, you also may get additional exposure for your cause. See if your community will advertise the cleanup on their website.

Meeting
Once you find your cleanup site, schedule a meeting with volunteers. Set a day for the cleanup. Talk about the various role(s) needed. For example, you’ll need promoters, supply gatherers, donation collectors, and workers for the cleanup. Depending on how many volunteers you have, each person could wear all of these hats.

If you tell everyone what to do, you’ll likely get less buy in for the positions. Have a sign-up sheet for each duty. If some positions are short, you may need to assign some people.

Supplies
You’ll need rakes, gloves, garbage bags, and possibly other items (chainsaws, lawn mowers, etc.) depending on the scope of the cleanup. Have your supply volunteer ask local hardware stores for donations.
See if any volunteers have pick-up trucks for hauling trash and debris.
Promotion
Make an event flyer showing the location with a picture, your cause, and the date, time and pledge info. Post it all over town—supermarket, public library, schools, colleges, etc.

Ask your group members to post the cleanup on their Facebook pages, Twitter, and send emails to family, friends, and co-workers.

Collecting Donations
This is probably the most important stage for your successful community cleanup fundraiser.

Tie your donation pledges to a specific goal such as number of pounds of trash collected or number of roadside miles cleaned. For instance, 2 cents for every pound collected of trash and debris. You could set a maximum of $20 (1,000x s cents) for each pledge.

Have your volunteers solicit friend, family, neighbors and co-workers for pledges. Use a sign-up sheet.

If you’ve gone through your town or county, get a city councilperson or even the mayor to endorse the project. This is one way to get the newspaper, TV and/or radio to promote it. Media can do this through PSAs (public service announcements).

Have the newspaper take before and after pictures to show the public the good your team accomplished. Have local TV film on the day of your cleanup. They love these stories.

Cleanup Day
Set up teams: cleaning up trash, picking up debris, raking, cleaning, hauling, etc. Make sure you properly dispose of all the trash and debris at either a landfill or other designated area.

Reward your team with a post-cleanup cookout. Ask a local restaurant or supermarket to donate the food.

Summary

It’s hard for a community not to get behind a community cleanup fundraiser. You are offering to beautify your town and raising money for a good cause. If you thoroughly plan your event and enlist as much community support as possible, you’re almost guaranteed success.