Organizing a Toy Drive 

The holidays are a time of giving, with many people exchanging gifts with their loved ones worldwide. Still, some families in your community may need help to provide gifts for their kids. A holiday donation drive may be the perfect solution to these families’ needs.  

Your nonprofit can spread holiday cheer this year by organizing a toy drive for your constituents or a partner organization. Giving deserving children holiday gifts is an excellent way to give back and engage your support network. This guide provides a toy donation drive checklist and tips for making your drive successful.  

What You’ll Need for Your Toy Drive

Organizing a successful toy drive takes careful planning. Use this checklist to ensure you have everything you need for your organization’s campaign.  

A Drop-Off Location: One of the essential things you’ll need for your toy donation drive is a drop-off location for the toys. You’ll also need receptacles to place toys in, as well as signs identifying them as donation bins. Consider leveraging a corporate relationship and asking to use their office or conference room space for a drop-off location.  

Volunteers to Coordinate and Manage Your Toy Drive: Volunteers make any donation drive run smoothly. You’ll need people to help plan, advertise, collect, wrap, and deliver items. Consider if your toy drive could be a project wholly owned by your junior board or other high-level volunteers.  

A Way to Promote Your Toy Drive: Getting the word out about your toy donation drive to as many people as possible is essential. Your advertising methods might depend on your organization’s needs and reach. 

Focus on Specific Age Groups 

Some toy donation drives are open to toys for any age group. While this might be more flexible for your donors, narrowing your focus to one age group or a range, like kids in first through third grades, can be beneficial. Keeping your toy drive concentrated on a limited age range gives donors more direction in shopping and prevents purchases that don’t match your recipients’ interests.  

It’s also critical to tell donors which age groups your toy drive will focus on. A well-meaning donor could bring a shopping cart full of baby toys, but they’ll be no help if your focused age range is middle school.  

Whether you support teens or kids in temporary living situations, families in your school district, or other deserving kids in your community, make your toy drive impactful by being specific.  

Advertise Your Toy Drive

Spread the word about your toy donation drive by advertising as often and early as possible. If your target donors are people within your organization or business, you might use an organization-wide campaign to reach your audience. If you’re advertising your toy drive to the broader community, you’ll need to promote it more widely.  

Consider using a social media strategy to let people know about your upcoming toy drive. There are many free social media tools for nonprofits to use in their advertising campaigns.  

You can also post physical flyers and talk to local businesses in your community. You may be able to persuade a few companies to offer discounts and coupons to encourage donations.  

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Fundraise Via an Online Wishlist 

Using a wishlist for your toy drive may help guide donors as they shop. When you create a wishlist for your holiday donation drive, you can ensure your organization receives toy donations that will bring recipients joy.  

Your organization may create an online wishlist and share the link with donors. Start by listing the toys your donation recipients might want based on age and gender. You could use generic names or find specific brands to include on your list. Big box and online stores make creating wish lists easy! 

How to Create an Online Wishlist in GiveSmart  

Use an online fundraising platform like GiveSmart to make your wish list accessible. Log in to your admin site and add items by choosing “+New Item” at the top of the screen. Then fill out crucial information on each item, so donors know what to get. Select “Donate” as the item type and fill in the price. Once you’ve created your online toy drive wish list, donors can access it through your page’s items tab. 

Offering multiple ways to support can help your nonprofit capture more donors and support. And, with general monetary gifts, donors can solicit matching gifts to make an even greater impact. 

Host a Toy Drive Event 

Consider hosting an event or adding a toy drive to an existing event. Do you have a holiday happy hour, board meeting, or craft fair in November or December? Offer that existing event as a drop-off opportunity.  

Can your board or junior board take the lead on a new holiday-themed event to raise funds and collect toys? It might feel overwhelming to do more, but face time at this time of year should be part of your donor stewardship strategy. With significant fundraising happening during the last months of the year, don’t underestimate in-person interactions.  

Create a Goal 

Another helpful strategy for making the most of your toy donation drive is creating a goal for your toy drive.  

Defining a goal for the drive gives your organization and donors a precise finish line and milestones. A clear objective might motivate donors to give extra to meet the target donation amount. Having a goal helps make your follow-up solicitation specific, too.  

Set up Toy Collection Locations 

You’ll also need to choose collection locations for your toy drive donations. If you’re hosting the drive within your business, organization, or school, select an area accessible to all members or employees. Clearly mark the collection location for the holiday donation drive.  

If you’re organizing a public toy drive, you may need to partner with other organizations or corporate partners to set up multiple, convenient drop-off locations.  

However, having several drop-off spots means your organization will have more to manage. Remember that you’ll need to periodically collect the toys and store them securely before wrapping them.  

Distribute the Toys 

With every other element in place, you’re ready for your toy drive! After donors have brought in their gifts, the last step is to wrap and distribute the toys to the children. Your strategy for delivering your donations will depend on the recipients you chose for your drive and your organization’s capabilities.  

You might distribute toys to families before the holidays by dropping them off at specific locations or having family members pick up their gifts. Whatever method you use, get volunteers involved in the action so they can see the rewards of their efforts. 

Manage Your Toy Drive With GiveSmart 

Organizing a toy drive requires a lot of planning, but the impact is well worth the effort. If your organization wants to make its toy donation drive the best it can be, using fundraising software can be a powerful strategy for success. At GiveSmart, we understand your nonprofit or organization has unique needs for managing its fundraisers, so we developed our fundraising solution with flexible features to support your efforts.  

GiveSmart’s industry-leading fundraising platform enables donor management, donation tracking, online fundraising, and campaign management capabilities. Our tools and customer service team give your organization the support it needs to further its mission and create a more significant impact.  

To see what GiveSmart can do for your organization’s toy drive this holiday season, request a demo today.