Savers Fundrive- What We Learned

DOs

Plan Ahead. You need to think about it months in advance. We felt rushed with 6 weeks from start to finish.

Have plenty of strong help. We had 4-5 women with bad backs and 2 really strong people and it was barely enough.

Have a back up plan. We planned on using 2 SUVS with flatsbeds and one driver got hurt days before dropoff. We had no choice but to rent a a UHaul. It was expensive, but really the best option.

Ask for donated storage space, uhaul discount or trailer

Do use a dolly to load boxes.

Put odd shaped items in the overhang area and load boxes then bags.

Allow at least 2hrs to unload at the location.

Click here to learn more

Want to Try It? Click Here!

Use our link to get get started! And keep in mind to learn from our mistakes. We will try it again!

Weight Matters

They do reject items. Like they didn't take hand saws and a leaf blower and a large glass light that was to be hard wired. They had a bin of rejected items where we dropped off.

Clothes paid us 20 cents a pound

Households paid us 2 cents a pound

I think books paid 2 cents a pound also. Those amounts may change or be different by area or

Jeans and blankets are heavy!

Try to get boxes that are all the same size. They stacked so much easier. One helper got us some from a local factory! Thank you Silgan! She cut handles in the sides with a box knife.

https://share.fundrive.savers.com/franklincountyhistorical

DON"T

Expect people to bring things as listed on the sheet. They will mix things together and put clothes in boxes, and household in bags.

Rush yourself. It is physically hard.

Don't overpack boxes and make them super heavy. Easier to move 10 lighter boxes than 5 super heavy ones.

Why We Did It

We did this to raise money for our building while helping our own members and community residents clean out unwanted stuff and make room in their homes for more important items. We thought it would be a win win and it was to an extent. It was just rushed and not well thought out due to some miscommunications, but we learned and we did make a profit, but it was hard work for us ladies and one guy. If you factor in renting a Uhaul and if you have to pay for storage space, which was given to us by a member, but was barely big enough for the amount we collected, It would not have been a large profit for the time involved. We ended up making a little over $600 including a bonus for having 75 boxes of household stuff and 1000lbs of clothing. We stuffed a 15' Uhaul to the max. and that cost was $127 plus $50 in gas roundtrip.

The storage space we had was full about 5' high and it was a 10x12 room.

Plan ahead, get people to commit to helping and donating. We had many people say they would donate that didn't show on drop off days or were sick. But most importantly, understand the physical demands. We also did not know until the night before that we had to unload ourselves. We had one helper from Savers that was there. Oh also, you do not pull into the normal drop off line. they didn't tell us this either. We even called ahead and were not told this. It was hard to navigate a big Uhaul through the drop off and then we had to go around to the back of the building.

Ask lots of questions. Get it in writing before you sign the contract. Don't let them rush you. Really be sure you can physically handle it and have space to store it while you collect it.

The direct deposit was quick. We had our total by the next day and deposit posted and cleared within a week.

https://share.fundrive.savers.com/franklincountyhistorical