It’s hard to believe that the holidays are just around the corner! It’s been a rough year in many ways, but there’s something about coming together to support a great cause that brings hope and warms people’s hearts during the holiday season. Hosting a donation drive is a fun way to get family, friends and the neighborhood into the holiday spirit and do something good for the community! Check out these five tips on how to host a donation drive.

1. Choose a Local Partner

Think of a cause you care about and look up local organizations in your community. You want to make sure the donations you are collecting are things people actually need! Many nonprofits have a wish list posted on their website of items needed, so you can use that as a reference to ask for donations. It also adds credibility to your donation drive when people know where the donations are going. 

At Root for Kids, we serve pregnant women and children from birth to age 5 in Washington County and the Arizona Strip. Every month we serve 600 children through Early Head Start, Early Intervention and Parents as Teachers home visiting programs. If you’re in the St. George area, we’d love to partner with you!

2. Recruit

You can host the drive on your own or you can partner with family members, friends, church groups, school groups, etc. to reach an even broader audience. Decide together who you want to support and go to the next step…

3. Define Timeframe and Drop-Off Location(s)

Decide when you want to take the donations to the organization. You can check with the organization first to see if there any preferred donation drop off dates and times (especially during the holidays and COVID-19). Define a drop-off location and give people enough time to bring the donations (at least 2 weeks).

Our next fundraiser event is the Drive-Thru Radiothon on December 14, 2020. We are encouraging people to stop by Root for Kids (2044 S. Mesa Palms Drive – St. George, UT 84770) between 6:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. to drop off donations. 

4. Spread the Word

Now that you have all the details sorted out, you are ready to get the word out about your donation drive! You can create a flyer or poster to take around the neighborhood and make it an image as well to share on social media. You want to include the following details:

• The organization you are benefiting and a little bit about what they do
• Wish list of items needed
• Drop-off dates and location
• Your contact information

Again, you can always contact the organization to see if they already have something designed you can use. If you’re interested in hosting a drive for Root for Kids, feel free to download the image below to share and the PDF for printing.

5. Gather and Deliver

Collect donations from the drop off location(s) and deliver them to the organization you picked. Don’t forget to take pictures and share on social media (tagging the organization), so your followers and people who donated know they’ve made an impact!

We hope you have found these tips helpful and are motivated to do something for your community this holiday season. Feel free to use the materials on this post and on the Radiothon page to host your donation drive benefitting Root for Kids. 

Guest post by HedgeHog Electric

Part of the fun of the holiday season is piling into your car all bundled up, warm drinks in hand, and enjoying the beautiful Christmas lights and holiday displays. Yet, it can seem like a real hit-or-miss on finding those homes who go above and beyond with their decorations.

Here at HedgeHog Electric, we love the holiday season and wanted to celebrate it by doing something special for the community. After some brainstorming, we introduced the community to the St. George Christmas Light Spectacular Christmas Map.

What is the St. George Christmas Light Spectacular

For the last few years, HedgeHog Electric has developed a Christmas lights map—called the St. George Christmas Light Spectacular. On this map, we pinpoint the best Christmas-decked houses with lights, decorations, and sometimes even music, that will make your night magical.

Whether you prefer to print out our Christmas light Google map or follow along on your smartphone, you are in luck. We have developed our Christmas lights map so that you can choose to download and print it out or simply allow your phone to open the map up in your Google maps app and will enable it to direct you from one amazing house to another.

Beyond just making an excellent Christmas lights map, we wanted to embrace the holiday season more completely. So, every year, HedgeHog Electric chooses an exceptional charity to donate to as part of our Christmas Light Spectacular.

This year, for every Facebook like our Christmas map receives, HedgeHog Electric will be donating $1 to Root for Kids. Also, for every new Instagram follower we receive, HedgeHog Electric will also donate $1 to Root For Kids. This donation promise will go from November 29 through December 31.   

Why HedgeHog Electric chose Root for Kids

It is always a tough process to decide what local St. George charity to dedicate our Christmas Light Spectacular map toward. In past years, we have chosen the Dove Center and the local Habitat for Humanity branch here in St. George. This year, we wanted to focus on a nonprofit that is dedicated to serving our most vulnerable population, and Root for Kids does just that.

Root for Kids provides an array of services for children from birth to age five as well as their families. These services include individualized home visits such as early intervention to help children develop critical speech, motor, and learning skills with the help of trained specialists. Root for Kids also provides health services for children and pregnant women enrolled in Early Head Start. 

Since 1993, Root for Kids has served over 16,000 children in Washington County and the Arizona Strip. Currently, they serve 600 children every month. With the help of donors, they are able to reach more children and provide extra support and services to the families enrolled.

So, if you can, you can choose to donate directly to Root for Kids or join them on Monday, December 16 for their 4th Annual Radioathon. If you are not able to at this time, simply following HedgeHog Electric on Instagram and liking our Christmas map on Facebook will help facilitate a donation. For every new follower or like on the Christmas Map, we will donate $1 to Root for Kids!

Be sure to check out Root For Kids, from their history to the programs they offer. That way, when you go to like our Christmas map on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, you know just who is benefiting and feel good about giving back this holiday season.

Thank you Hedgehog Electric for partnering with us this year!