Summary of lessons learned

Back to: Help a Child, Help a Family Organiser’s Course

Let’s quickly recap what we’ve learned about ALAP collections.

The ALAP ( Help a Child, Help a Family) collection is a charity collection run by Lions clubs to collect goods for families with children in need. The collection is run by a Lions club, which, together with partners such as churches and aid organisations, delivers the donated items. The collection is an easy way to help and inspire people to volunteer.

Planning and implementing the collection

It’s a good idea to plan carefully and take small steps at a time. The first step is to agree on a collection location with the shopkeeper and secure a distribution channel for the donations. Marketing is also important – the collection should be advertised in local media, on shop notice boards and on social media. However, you can start without marketing and do it later. It is important to plan the schedule, volunteer roles and logistics of the event in advance.

Volunteer roles and organisation

To ensure the smooth running of the collection, a sufficient number of volunteers are needed for the different tasks:

• Flyer distributors at the shop door to welcome customers and briefly inform them about the collection.
• Donation recipients, who receive and sort donated items.
• Marketing managers, who will spread the word about the collection before and after the event.
• The collection manager, who will organise the event and deal with any problems that may arise.

Preparing the collection point and materials

The collection point should be clearly marked and located in a visible place, e.g. near the cash desks or an outdoor collection point in a visible place near the front door of the shop. It can be set up either with a table borrowed from the trader, with your own event tent and tables, or by using shopping trolleys to collect donations. A well-made collection point and visible promotional materials such as posters and roll-ups will help customers to identify the collection.

Encountering and guiding donors

Encouraging donors is a key part of the collection process. Provide customers with a clear list of items that are needed right now, such as canned goods, dry food and hygiene products. Friendly and open interaction with store customers is also important – thanking donors and briefly telling them about Lions activities can inspire them to participate in future events or even join a Lions club

Sorting and distributing items

After the collection, donations should be delivered to the distribution channel according to the agreed schedule. Distributors can pick up the items directly from the collection point or they can be delivered by volunteers. It is important to agree in advance how the donations are to be sorted so that they can be stored and distributed as efficiently as possible.

Reporting the collection

Reporting on the Lions portal is important to give visibility to the work done and to measure where future investments in activities are worthwhile. After the collection, the number of participants, the hours spent and the number of donations collected should be recorded. This information will also help to improve future collections.

Sharing information and engaging the community

After the collection, it is a good idea to communicate its success to local media and on social media. Donors can also be offered the opportunity to follow future events by joining the Lions seuraa.lions.fi WhatsApp group, where they can find out about new volunteer opportunities.

Thank you for doing good! All the best for ALAP collections.

We Lions are always helping each other. Ask your district service coordinator or a club that already collects. They can give you advice and help with your first collection. They can also help you get Lions from other clubs involved.

Task 1: Go through this course and its exercises. Mark each lesson as completed by clicking on the ‘MARK AS COMPLETED’ button and you will receive a certificate of completion by email. Add it to your LinkedIn profile and CV.

Task 2: Take part in an ALAP collection organised by another club and you will learn how to do the collection in a practical way.

Task 3: Sharing your knowledge is passing it on to others, so tell other Lions about this training and recommend that they take it. Go to the course homepage and share it with friends and acquaintances. Thank you in advance 👏.

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