Community Fundraising

One of the best ways to support Willing Hands is to build community awareness and raise money through fundraisers carried out by community members—that’s you! 

Check out the various ways you, your community group, or your business can fundraise for Willing Hands. If you have a unique idea on how to support us, we’d love to discuss it with you!

Friendraising

Even better than fundraising, friendraising is helping us grow our community by sharing what you love about Willing Hands with others. Friendraising can look like:

  • Explaining Willing Hands’ work and mission in conversation with a friend or neighbor.
  • Inviting a friend or colleague to join you in volunteering at a Willing Hands garden or gleaning session.
  • Sharing Willing Hands’ Facebook or Instagram posts that you think might be of interest to your friends.
  • Encouraging your friends to join you in making a financial donation to Willing Hands, or to make a donation in your name as a birthday or holiday gift. 

Host a Facebook Fundraiser

A Facebook fundraiser can be a great way for your friends to help you celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or other life event.

  • Set a goal for how much money you’d like to raise. (Starting with a small goal is a good idea. If your fundraiser earns more, that’s great! It always feels good to exceed your goal.)
  • Pick an end date for your fundraiser. Facebook suggests running your fundraiser for two weeks. 
  • Tell your friends a little about why you think Willing Hands is a worthy cause when you share it with them. 

Facebook will take care of donating the funds you raise directly to Willing Hands!

Donate Proceeds From a Sale or Event.

If you are part of an organization, club, or religious community interested in supporting Willing Hands, consider hosting a bake or rummage sale, or donating a portion of the profits from a performance to Willing Hands. 

  • Post a sign at your event explaining that you are donating your proceeds to Willing Hands.
  • At the end of your sale, you can donate your proceeds by sending a check to Willing Hands, 198 Church St. Norwich, VT 05055. We’ll send you a tax receipt and thank you note!

Create a Team for Your Next Running or Bike Race

With enough advanced notice, you can purchase a custom Willing Hands bike jersey or t-shirt.

Start a Round-Up Program

If you run a retail business, give your customers an opportunity to contribute to Willing Hands by rounding up their purchases to the nearest dollar amount at the register. It’s a great way to spread the word about Willing Hands, and the donations can really add up! 

The Co-op Food Store’s round-up program “Pennies for Change” has raised over a million dollars for Upper Valley nonprofits, including Willing Hands, since its inception!

To run a round-up program:

  • Follow the directions for your point of sale system to set up an option for rounding up purchases (this is a common feature). 
  • Have your store clerks ask customers if they would like to round up their purchases at the point of sale.
  • Post a sign near the register so your customers can learn more about Willing Hands.
  • Donate the funds you raise by the end of the calendar year. Your gift is tax-deductible!

Support a Specific Project or Event

If your business is interested in helping Willing Hands complete an upcoming project through volunteer time, funding, or in-kind donations, or by becoming a sponsor, please contact us at info@willinghands.org.

How to talk about Willing Hands

Five things to tell someone who has never heard of us or wants to know more about what we do:

  1. Willing Hands is the primary source of perishable food to most Upper Valley food pantries. We deliver fresh food weekly to approximately 80 recipient sites, where it is then made available to families and individuals experiencing food insecurity. 
  2. Willing Hands’ mission is to reduce food waste and expand equitable and reliable access to fresh food. Our model is to “recover” food that would not otherwise be eaten, such as unsold produce from grocery stores or vegetables grown at local farms. The USDA estimates that 30% to 40% of food in the US goes to waste. Reducing food waste is Willing Hands’ most impactful opportunity to mitigate the climate crisis and strengthen the community. 
  3. Willing Hands relies on hundreds of volunteers. Volunteers help with every aspect of Willing Hands’ work, including driving our delivery trucks, participating in gleans, and working in our gardens where we grow extra produce. 
  4. There are so many ways to participate in our work. We strive to keep our volunteer opportunities flexible and welcome anyone who is interested in volunteering to join us. Community members can donate produce from their home gardens, donate a CSA from a local farm, or make a financial contribution to support our work.
  5. Willing Hands’ work is about building a healthy community. This means helping our neighbors access nutritious food and helping build connection and understanding between all residents of the Upper Valley!

Community Contributor Spotlight

A child outside on a sunny day building a birdhouse
Wendell and his neighbor Ginny began making and selling birdhouses and feeders to keep local birds happy. They donated their proceeds to Willing Hands. Thanks, Wendell and Ginny!
A group of volunteers are outside with greenhouse framing behind them.
Hypertherm Associates donated their time to help build a greenhouse at the Willing Hands Facility in Norwich. Thank you, Hypertherm Associates!
A white man smiles at the camera as he is putting bags of vegetables in an industrial refrigerator.
The Eastman Community Gardeners have been growing and donating fresh produce from their gardens since the inception of the Grow A Row program. David G. organizes the community effort and delivers their goodies every week. Thank you, David and Eastman Community Gardeners!

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