I am depressed but grateful for this "no" list. I am just starting out and sadly have already sent to many on the list, (and received the same no's) so I hope that maybe bumping this up will help others in the same boat.
I just want to add- if you have a Unilever by you, they won't donate but they will let you go in and shop at their company store. You can get a $100. worth of product for about $25.00. The same goes for Nabisco.
So when sending out your letters you may want to rephrase it first to state that if you can't donate and have a company store, if they can let you shop there. Yes it will cost you, but if your classes are collecting money, you can use some of it shopping in company stores.
Oh, we're not giving up on local donations at all. Our first "wave" of soliciting was writing to the corporate offices/organizations. We will be starting the local canvassing in the next few weeks.
I have decided to stop listing all of the food/grocery product companies that have said NO. There are too many. The only one so far who has said YES is General Foods. And because of that, I will buy their products when given a choice!
Our local Blockbuster told us that they only donate on a corporate level. Taco Bell said the same thing. We haven't heard back from those 2 corporate offices yet so I don't know if we'll get anything or not.
I just wanted to say that this is a great resource for corporate doantions, but local is different. Many local comapnies will donate. And if you know someone who works there they know how to get what you need. So don't give up on local levels.
