It’s not always easy or efficient to collect canned goods and pantry staples from friends, family, and colleagues. But a growing number of our neighbors need your help to put food on the table. When you host a digital food drive, you can engage your community from far and wide to help provide meals for thousands of people in our region.
If you want to help make a difference for people struggling with hunger and food insecurity, these 5 tips can make hosting a digital food drive an easy and convenient way to provide support:
1) Prepare the details.
Once you choose the name, fundraising goal, and duration of your digital food drive, you can get a fundraising page up in about 10 minutes! Simply visit our digital food drive site and click on “Become A Fundraiser” to get started.
We recommend running your campaign for at least one month, and remember that you can extend your campaign at any time. It can also be helpful to communicate your goal in meals that the funds will provide. Every $1 raised provides 2 meals to neighbors in need! For example, this means that achieving a goal of $1,000 will turn into 2,000 meals for kids, families, and seniors.
2) Raise awareness by stating the problem.
Prospective supporters of your digital food drive are more likely to donate when it’s easy to understand the problem at hand, and one of the hard facts about hunger is that it’s much more widespread than many people realize. You can use some of these key facts about hunger in our region to help communicate the importance of your efforts.
- Currently there are nearly half a million people in our region who don’t always know where their next meal will come from.
- 1/3 of those experiencing food insecurity in our region are children.
- The food bank is distributing more food than ever before to meet current demand. This year, we expect to distribute the food for 45 million meals – 50% more than pre-pandemic.
3) Tell your campaign story.
The most effective campaigns have a personal touch. Our digital food drive site comes with pre-populated text, which can be useful when you need to get your page up and running, but it’s important you return to flesh out your text later. After your page is published, take some time to consider bringing the story full circle by explaining your campaign’s ‘why’.
Here are some questions to address on your campaign page:
- Why hold a digital food drive now?
- Why is raising money for the food bank meaningful to you? Do you have a personal anecdote to share?
- If you’re creating a food drive on behalf of a company, why did your company decided to support the food bank?
4) Spread the word!
Make sure to share the link to your digital food drive with your entire network, and encourage your participants to do the same. Many people want to help but some aren’t sure how. A simple email or share on social media can help your campaign reach more people, and seeing others supporting your cause can encourage new viewers to do the same.
5) Show your impact through regular updates.
Supporters want to understand how their dollars will be spent. Translating the impact of your campaign as it goes on helps individuals stay connected and involved. Now that you know that every $1 provides 2 meals, you might consider regularly updating and thanking your supporters with the number of meals they’ve been able to provide to those in need.
Start your digital food drive today!
For assistance getting started, contact Elspeth Suber at esuber@capitalareafoodbank.org.