The holiday season isn’t just about warm drinks, festive cheer, and merry activities. It’s a time of giving, receiving, and helping those that need it most. And with Christmas approaching, a lot of people are going to be in need of warm, comforting clothes for the winter season. But not a lot of people are lucky enough to have warm enough clothes to withstand the cold. Which is why Christmas is the perfect time of the year to bring out your charitable side and work with your charity organization to plan out your own Christmas coat drive.
A successful Christmas coat drive requires a few basic things. You’ll need a good place, an effective donation mechanism, and – of course – a bunch of promotion tactics to get the word out. Luckily, we can help you out with that last part. If you and your charity organization want to make a change this Christmas but don’t have the budget or time to plan it out in detail, here are a few super effective ways to plan and promote your Christmas coat drive in no time.
1) Find an accessible place
This might seem basic, but accessibility is key to a successful Christmas clothing drive. When planning out any important charity event, it’s important to remember that people will only donate if the venue is accessible, safe, and open to all kinds of people. Which is why you need to put some thought into what venue would be the safest, most accessible space for your charity event.
To make things simple, you can go for a community center, rent out a local public hall, or even set up an outdoor drive at the local park, if the weather allows for it. If you live in a tight knit community and have a decently-sized backyard, you can use that too!
Make sure to avoid renting out places that do not allow the general public to come in, have strict policies, or have been discriminatory in the past. Remember that the purpose of a charity drive is to help those in need, and the first part of that is providing the community with a safe space where anyone can join in and help out.
2) Spread the word with vibrant flyers
Once you’re done planning out the where and how of your Christmas coat drive, it’s time to think about the promotion you’ll be using. Charity drives will only be successful if they’re promoted well and the message reaches its intended audience. Which is why you need to think in detail about how to get word out about your event.
One of the best ways to get word out across your neighborhood is to make use of a good ol’ flyer. Flyers are tangible, informative, and – if you do it right – vibrant enough to catch people’s attention. The best way to go about creating your own clothes drive flyer is to go onto marketing tools like PosterMyWall and scroll through the wide variety of clothes drive flyers available until you find one that meets your needs. You can then go onto the editor to customize it according to your liking, add your own information, add a few fun Christmas-themed images and animations, and print it out according to your preferences.
When creating an informative flyer for your christmas coat drive, it’s important to mention some key points:
- Make sure to add the name and logo of your charity organization, as well as details about your efforts and who you are aiming to help out. Odds are, others who support the organization will see it and come support your cause as well.
- Add important details like the venue, timings, and contact information to ensure accessibility.
- Add extra instructions on the type of clothing you’ll be accepting for your clothes drive. Make sure to add details about what people should and shouldn’t bring while donating.
3) Create a Facebook event page
If you’re doing something for charity and want your message to reach a lot of people, you have to include social media in your bag of marketing tactics. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are great when you want to spread the word, and add some extra credibility to your charity project and fundraiser.
One great social media tactic to try when promoting a charity event is to create a Facebook event page for your coat drive. Creating a Facebook event page is a great idea because it officializes your charity event, and allows you to gauge how many people you can expect to donate by looking at the number of people who say they’ll attend. You can set up your Facebook event page with a custom Facebook event cover image highlighting the details of your coat drive (and, of course, the organization you’ll be supporting too). After that, continue to add more details to your page and update it regularly to keep your attendees up to date with the preparation for the coat drive.
4) Utilize Instagram stories to add a personal touch to your charity drive
Don’t miss out on using Instagram Stories. Create a page dedicated to your charity efforts and put up stories of the prep process, the donations, the set up, and details about how much was collected. Instagram stories are more relatable for your audience because you’re showcasing your efforts in real time, which makes you come off as more genuine, and more committed to your cause.
Posting engaging stories featuring heartwarming stories of people benefiting from the coat drive, behind-the-scenes clips of volunteers in action, and countdowns to key event dates can build anticipation and inspire participation. Also, interactive features like polls and questions can be added to your stories to increase active engagement and collect valuable feedback from followers. You can also use relevant hashtags, location tags, and collaborate with influencers or local businesses to further expand the reach of the coat drive campaign. And
By sharing the mission through your custom Instagram stories, your charity organization can foster a sense of community, make viewers relate more to what they see and thus encourage generosity, and ultimately make a significant impact in helping those in need during the cold winter months.
5) Promote your fundraiser on Eventbrite
When promoting a charity event like a Christmas coat drive, you have to look into multiple avenues of promotion. And when planning out your social media strategy, you absolutely need to include Eventbrite into the mix. As a platform made specifically to promote such events, Eventbrite lets you post about your coat drive, share details about it, and much more.
Of course, you have to set up your page properly for it to get recognition. And the best way to start is by creating a custom Eventbrite banner that details all the important information about your coat drive. Once you’re done with that, you need to make your event public and discoverable on Eventbrite so that it is accessible to a wide audience on the platform. To make your event discoverable, you must correctly categorize it, and tag it. You can also make your event more specific by adding subcategories.
This will make your event more visible to the people who use the platform and will allow you to attract a wider audience to your charity event.
6) Send out custom emails
If you regularly hold fundraisers and charity events, you probably already have a list of regular donors. Why not reach out to these donors through an official channel and keep them up-to-date on your efforts so they can choose to donate again? And what better way to do that than through a custom charity email campaign?
Email campaigns are a great way to keep in touch with your donors, and prompt them to donate again. You can use tools like PosterMyWall to create your own mailing list, pick out the perfect charity email templates, add all the information you need to, and send them out to the relevant people. The important thing to note is that you should have the following details added to your emails:
- Details about the charity event and who you’re helping so that your donors know exactly what cause they’re supporting
- Extra emphasis on donation details along with multiple donation options to increase accessibility
- Contact details so that anyone can contact you for extra information
Promote your Christmas coat drive today!
We’ve shared our favorite tips about how to promote your clothing drive, now it’s your turn. Whether you’re looking to create clothing drive flyers, custom email campaigns, Facebook event graphics for your clothing drive fundraiser, or if you just want to figure out how to get started, check out PosterMyWall!
