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.

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

Follow this link to create a Facebook fundraiser for WIlling Hands. Your 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, and click “create.” 

Facebook will take care of donating the funds you raise directly to Willing Hands, and we will send you a thank you note!

Donate proceeds from a sale or event.

If you are part of a community organization, club, or religious community that is 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, 98 Church St. Norwich, VT 05055 or by contacting Krista Karlson at krista@willinghands.org. We’ll send you a tax receipt and thank you note!

Create a Team Willing Hands 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 “Pennies for Change” program raised over a million dollars for Upper Valley nonprofits (including Willing Hands) between 2016 and 2021!

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 time of purchase.
  • 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 becoming a sponsor, please reach out to Sara Cavin at sara@willinghands.org.

Something else!

Have another idea of how to support Willing Hands? We’d love to discuss it with you!

Fundraising Resources

How to Talk About Willing Hands

5 things to tell someone who has never heard of Willing Hands 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 over over 80 recipient sites, where it is then made available to families and individuals experiencing food insecurity. 
  2. Willing Hands’ mission is to end hunger by reducing food waste. Our model is to “recover” food that would not otherwise be eaten, such as unsold produce from grocery stores, or vegetables gleaned from farmer’s fields. The USDA estimates that 30 to 40% of food in the US goes to waste. By utilizing food that has already been produced, we are reducing demand for additional food production and therefore preventing the emission of CO2. 
  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. Anyone can come out to volunteer – you can join us once, or all season! You can also donate produce from your home garden, 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 Fundraising Spotlight

In the fall of 2021, Wendell and his neighbor Ginny began making and selling bird houses and feeders to keep our local birds happy. They donated their proceeds to WIlling Hands. Thanks Wendell and Ginny!
In 2020 and 2021, Hypertherm associates donated their time to help build a greenhouse on site at the Willing Hands Facility in Norwich. Thank you Hypertherm!
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