I also went to groupon and clicked on the websites of several of the local offerings and emailed them directly. We got a lot of cool prizes that way last year. I figure if they are on groupon or similar site giving a deal, they might be willing to give a deal to a group like ours too.
It's cool to get these big company donations, but the best response you will get from your local community. These just take time and people. Lots of restuarants will respond to a letter, but many you need to walk in and ask.
You need volunteers to go get these! That's the hard part. You can send letters then follow up with a phone call, or stop in when you're out and about.
We also have each class chip in 10-20 and pick a theme basket, that way we have several really decent basket/prizes. Everyone always comes up with creative gift ideas. We also encourage all families to participate by acquiring donations.
Contact all of your local, state and federal legislators. We got a whole Washington DC tour package from one last year and an American Flag that has been flown over the white house as well.
We give an assortment of non dollar amount prizes too, like front row seats to the spring and next year's Christmas program. Each of the teachers gives a lunch with a student, we give things like permission to chew gum in class one day, be the secretary's helper for 20 minutes, extra 10 minutes of recess for your class, the local fire and police give a ride in their vehicles,
We also offered last year the option to give a direct financial contribution and get their name posted for the night. This was nice as it gave us a little money to purchase a few cool gifts to fill in the blanks. This was a way to hit industrial businesses that didn't really have a product to donate in a basket/gift card type.
I just noticed that you started the new thread for 2014! Thank you so much.
We have had sucess within the past 3 months, with:Otter Box, red box, Dyson.
There was a hotel in Las Vegas (I believe it was posted on the 2013 thread) that several groups had sucess with. Does anyone remember what the name was?
Thank you again for the amazing ideas. I can't wait to read more!
Melissa,
We use google docs to create a master list that everyone can see. You have one administrator and then add everyone's email address. We also created a timeline on there so we can keep track of what we have to do. Hats off to everyone who does an auction/raffle. It is the most time consuming job out there but it is so exciting when you get a "yes" or my son comes home with mail for me from school.
