Donation Box?

[Aaron Maue]

OK. It's my first year, so I have no idea what the traffic will be like.

I'd love to think that those that do show up might be willing to make a small donation to some sort of charity, so I'm wondering if I need to put out a donation box of some sort. On one hand, I don't want anyone to think I'm doing this just as a way to solicit money. On the other hand, I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to promote a cause and raise a few extra bucks for them.

Any thoughts? I'm torn.

Note that I have ZERO interest in recuperating anything and I'm happy to do it even if nobody donates a nickel. I only look forward to the reactions of those that see it and hope that it gives them a fond memory of the holiday.

[lkcubsrule]

I've had an animated display running for 5 years now, with no donation box. I don't feel at all bad for not having one. I've asked my parents what their thoughts are, and they said that I shouldn't. There's lots of organizations asking for money, and we don't really "have" to. I just do it as a 'service' to my community expecting nothing in return.

I wouldn't consider it a sin of omission not to have one -- it's simply personal preference. I would say no to your current situation, only because its your first year. If people ask/give you money, I would donate that to charity and possibly put one out in the future. Not that I'm trying to put your display down, but I would guess that you aren't going to get a lot of traffic this first year. Let this be your "test" year. If you could potentially raise a substantial amount, I think it would be a decent idea.

[ace_master]

I think I'll agree with Icubsrule... this past year was my first, and although a lot of people knew about and saw my display I didn't get half the traffic that others in the area doing their 2nd or 3rd year display were... The very end of the season really picked up though.

[scubado]

2010 was my practice year. I didn't have a box out and also didn't have much traffic. I also didn't have a transmitter and wished I did. December was too cold to stand around outside to listen to the music for too long. Interest did pick up once I put out a banner stating schedule of music, three songs every half hour on the weekends.

[George Simmons]

I put out a donation box. We donate every penny to our local food shelf. I light the box during announcements, hawk it proudly and shamelessly in announcements, on the display info sheet, on the website and in all the media releases.

[CKSedg]

Aaron Maue wrote:

OK. It's my first year, so I have no idea what the traffic will be like.

I'd love to think that those that do show up might be willing to make a small donation to some sort of charity, so I'm wondering if I need to put out a donation box of some sort. On one hand, I don't want anyone to think I'm doing this just as a way to solicit money. On the other hand, I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to promote a cause and raise a few extra bucks for them.

Any thoughts? I'm torn.

Note that I have ZERO interest in recuperating anything and I'm happy to do it even if nobody donates a nickel. I only look forward to the reactions of those that see it and hope that it gives them a fond memory of the holiday.

It's definitely a personal preference. I don't have a donation box because I think there are many opportunities for everyone to donate to charity already. I don't want people who come by to feel obligated at all to drive by or sit and watch as long as they want. I do my show first of all because I love to do it and secondly because I feel it brings joy to others. I don't think they would love it as much if I were soliciting donations---even for a charity. But like I said, that's just my opinion and what works for me. I don't fault anyone who thinks and does differently.

[paulanator]

This last year was our first year and I decided to take donations if people were so inclined. I thought a donation for food for the local soup kitchen would be easy. Just ask for canned or packaged non-perishable food.

We created a clear tub (one like you put lights in for storage) with some LED battery operated lights inside, which lit the box really cool. We made a sign above the box, and set it out on the end of the driveway.

The Charity was a success, people loved helping out a great cause. We collected 111lbs of food, and $452 in cash....

Yes, I said cash. I did not want to deal with cash and did not ask for cash, but people just threw money into the bin. It was awesome. Some kids even through in piggy bank type change.

Here is the catch. On Christmas eve around 10 pm, two little local idiots walked up when no cars were around and grabbed the bin, and ran off, with all the donations from that night, and it was very busy earlier that night, so we don't know what the got away with.

The frustrating thing is that I have video cameras, and was only able to get their legs in the picture, and I actually watched it happen on the camera, but by the time we got outside, they were long gone.

Even with this bummer, we still put out a donation bin the rest of the next week, we just put it up by the front porch and made sure the camera was covering it completely.

Do you have to do a donation thing, nope.

Is it worth it if you do, yup.

We found out they really needed the money this year. The cash and food were both a big help, and it really did not take a lot of effort, other than bringing it in and out each night.

We will take donations again this year, but we will have it up near the porch, and much more secure for the food, and we are going to have a secure cash box also.

It is just something that I enjoy doing. When planning last year's display, I was on both sides of collecting or not before the whole event. Then I decided anything I can do to help something I believe in is worth it. Even if we got $5 the whole time.

We did have a lot of people tell us they liked being able to donate because they got so much out of the show and enjoyed it. Plus it was cheaper than a movie!

This past week a customer called up and said, you guys are the ones who had the lights? Well we loved them, and the kids made us drive over there every night. It was some of the best family time we have had in years.

That plus knowing we helped out the soup kitchen, really makes it all worth it.

[Dave Batzdorf]

2010 was the first season for "donations" for us. We have been up and running for 5 seasons. We started with Halloween. I had two signs made up "accepting non-perishable donations for the food pantry. We collected 10 boxes of food and about $500 - just in the two weeks that we were doing it. I too set out a bin in a garden wagon with a few strings of lights on it. Again, food and monies were in the bin.

For Christmas we did the same thing, rolled out the wagon with a Coleman cooler that I locked to the wagon. I just set in a donation can for the monies. To keep track of opening the cooler lid, I put in a wireless driveway alert (Harbor Freight). Worked slick. The alert goes off, I check the camera and go out to retrieve any goodies. This was generally when I needed a break for the NH weather (yea, wuss!)

But most of the times from 6 to about 9-ish, I was outside greeting the cars and passing out candy canes. I was really surprised at how well that was received. Most of the folks wanted to know the three basic questions; how long to setup, where do you store it all and how do you do it. This is how I received most of my monies and food baggies.

One thing the wifey and I noted – it was a lot of work. I got a lot of exercise walking up and down the street passing out the candy canes – but it was really worth it to see the kids in the back seat all wide-eyed staring at the lights. The local food pantry was extremely grateful and we will do it again for the 2011 season. I also will be building some type of lockable donation thingy – possibly a pvc candy cane bolted to the mailbox.

Bottom line – go with what you want to do. I hate to say it this way, but let your heart tell you. Pick you charity/cause and be happy.

[NickByrd]

Just look at these responses... there is no right or wrong answer.

I have been struggling with the same decission that you are and I have about 90% settled on not doing a donation box.

The one experience that tipped my scale was that I was at another display (which had a donation box) and I didn't have any cash. I left feeling bad about not donating and felt obligated to leave money to watch. I watched his display several times through the season so I paid everytime.

I don't want people leaving my display with that particular feeling, so I am probably not doing a box (at least for now).

What I am thinking about doing is making the display in honor of a charity. I may do an announcement to honor that charity and try and raise awareness for the charity. Then they can look it up or not, but the box in they yard felt a bit pushy (just my opinion).

[Jim Saul]

We did the collection thing for the first time this year. This was also our first year with lightorama. Every year people asked me if I was taking donations, so we decided to try it this year.

I dont know if it is just the town I'm in, or if I picked the wrong charity, but from thanksgiving to new years we raised $74.50.

Now on the on hand, wow that stinks compared to the amounts everyone else talks about, but on the other hand, that is $75 more than the charity had before.

[RaceMedic]

This was our first year doing a display and we approached our local hospital foundation ( we are a small town ).

We added their logo to the front of the donation box and they actually helped to promote our show.

We raised just over $1,500.00 in 5 weeks.

Dave

[jim6918]

I've said this before, I think a donation box is a good thing if it works within the confines of your display, traffic patterns and pedestrian safety. Don't have one just because you feel the need. I live in a tight residential area with houses on both sides and across the street. There is traffic coming from both directions. The traffic and parking is already so bad occasionally that I just can't envision a donation box. I can see it now; mom or dad hands money to little Suzie or Johnnie and tells them to jump out of the car to put the money in the donation box. Then Suzie or Johnnie gets smacked by a driver coming from the opposite direction or running between cars. If I had a situation where the traffic all flowed in one direction and people could drive next to the box like a mail drop box, I might consider it.

[Texas Griswolds]

Last year was our first time to do a donation event and we didn't get much. This year we did it again and it went better. We had Santa out 2 nights and the kids could take pictures with him. We donated all the money to a church.