As you have read in our past post on this blog, I have been spending a lot of emphasis on recycled materials as an opportunity for donations for charities. The amount paid for all types of recyclables have dropped drastically in the past 4 months. This is not all bad! While prices were high, thousands of little start-up recycling businesses were popping up just to make a quick buck on the opportunity. Just like any financial trend, it is those who have a long term vision and are willing to plan for the long haul that will succeed. Now that the price of recyclables have dropped many of these overnight businesses have closed their doors so the opportunity for charities is to position themselves to receive recyclable when the markets rebound.

How does a charity position itself?

#1 Regularly mention in your newsletters to your donor base about your ability to receive non cash donations such as cars (running or not), jewelry, collectibles, business inventory and recyclables. It will take several months of continuing to remind your donor base of these types of opportunities until you will see non cash donations being offered.
#2 Consider using media outlets such as billboard space, radio spots or newsprint. If you are a public charity, many times media outlets and billboard companies will offer public service advertising for free for charities when space is available. One thing to remember, you get what you pay for! If you want good ad space or good radio spots or good billboards, you will need to pay for it.
#3 Talk about non cash donation whenever you are speaking with your donors. This especially holds true when talking with board members, major donors, core donors and anyone interested in supporting your charity. The idea of non cash donations is very viral and as you tell as many people whom you have influence with, they will tell the people they know and before you know it, you will have a regular stream of non cash donations to supplement your cash donor base.

One of the neat things about non cash donations weather they are recyclables, unused items or overstock, the donation is usually a win win for the donor and the recipient charity. Always remember that www.idonate.com is always here to help you liquidate non cash donation we are also here to advise you in what donations you should or should not receive. Please go to our web site www.idonate.com to learn more or you can give us a call at 913-538-7850. You can subscribe to a non cash donations web site giving link for $45 per month that will allow your donors to offer non cash donations and we will be able to assess and liquidate the donations while allowing your charity to monitor the progress and give input where needed.