Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County

Fundraising Tips

The more tools you use to engage your donors to take action and support your food drive, the greater success you will have! There are countless ways you can encourage people to get involved. We've outlined our top suggestions below. We encourage you to get creative and use what works best for your group.

Start a Food Drive!

Set a Goal

Setting a goal can help provide more focus to your collection efforts. Use our 'fill the truck' image on your customizable web page to help your donors track the food drive's progress. This is provided after you Start My Food Drive Now.

Recruit Help

Invite your most enthusiastic friends and co-workers to help you publicize your food drive. Social media is a great way to let everyone know about your food drive. Ask your friends and co-workers to share your posts and Tweets. The more people you have supporting your food drive, the more success you will have.

Create a Theme

Giving your food drive a theme is a great way to get people excited about participating. Consider organizing your food drive around our Most Needed Items or a holiday. Assign an food item for each day of the week. Doing this encourages your teams to work towards a common goal and provides Second Harvest with the items people need most.

Organize a Special Event

Consider combining your food drive with a special event. Offer a reduced ticket price to a theater performance, a movie or a concert. Or allow employees to wear jeans to work one day if they make a donation to your food drive. Be creative!

Create Friendly Competition

Organize teams by department, floor, classroom or other groups and see who can collect the most donations. It helps if the winning team is rewarded with a special incentive or prize.

Provide Incentives

Prizes and incentives are a great way to increase overall participation, and they don't need to be large or expensive. Consider offering the winner a prime parking space for a week, the ability to sleep in late, or have a free day off. How about a coffee card or lunch with the boss?

Use Social Media

Let everyone know about your food drive and how they can help you spread the word. Provide status updates, reminders and special call outs to individuals and teams on social media. Like Second Harvest Food Bank’s Facebook Twitter Instagram pages and tag @secondharvestfoodbankoc. Use #EndHungerinOC and #WeFeedOC.

Get Management Involved

Having support from your organization’s leadership helps emphasize the importance of your food drive. Encourage your leadership team to set an example by making a donation, sending an email, or making an announcement at your next meeting. Use the Promotional Email/Letter Template to help them craft a personalized message.

Double Your Donations

Participants will feel like they are making a greater impact if they know their donations are being matched. Talk to your employer to see if they have a matching gift program or ask leadership or a partnering organization to match your donations.