I recently noticed my gym was collecting food for The Salvos and I wanted to see how easy it would be to do a food / clothing drive on a smaller scale at my office.

I chose to collect donations for The Asylum Seekers Centre in Surry Hills because it's a locally based organisation with a vision that aligns with our company’s ethos.

After an initial conversation with Fiona Hodge, a Volunteer Program Coordinator , I was sent a list of the items that would be useful to donate along with the following info:

“The Asylum Seekers Centre of New South Wales (ASC) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-government organisation providing front-line support for community-based asylum seekers living in greater metropolitan Sydney.
 

The Asylum Seekers Centre exists to support their clients - asylum seekers who already live in New South Wales having fled persecution or other dangers in the countries they have come from. They are seeking protection and a new life in Australia. During this time, many asylum seekers often have no right to work which means that they cannot access Medicare and they are almost completely reliant on the support of organisations like ourselves. These are people who are living legally in the community but who sometimes desperately require assistance with homelessness, health issues, legal guidance and even food.
 

The Centre receives no Federal or State Government funding. They are entirely reliant on grants and donations from supporters as well as an extensive network of volunteers and pro-bono service providers.”

I then set up a space in the studio for the donations (clothing, food and toiletries) and created a sign outlining the history behind the Centre and a list of what people should donate. I also communicated this info through the company email, and  announced the start of the drive at our Monday morning team meeting.

To get the ball rolling, I donated a week of our company's grocery allowance. This meant that by the time the drive launched, I had a selection of items already on display.

It took a few sms's in the morning to get people to remember to bring stuff in, but it's been on for about one and half weeks now and we already have a huge amount of clothes, food and toiletries ready for donation.

At the end of this week I will load up a goget car and drive it up the road to the centre - Easy.
Everyone can and should try this!
 
Here are the steps:
1. Pick a charity / organisation that you're passionate about and you think will fit well with your organisation
2. Call the charity / organisation, let them know what you're doing and find out what they'd like you to collect in donations.
3. Set up a space in the office that is visible to all staff so they remember it's on and they can watch the pile of donations grow
4. Send out an email with some info on the charity / organisation, why your company should get behind it and what kind of donations you're looking for. It's also important to set a goal (ie. cover a certain area / collect a certain weight in donations etc) and a finish date.