How the Lamoille Family Center Turned Community Support Into a Fully Supplied Holiday Project.

Lamoille County community members have been coming together for the last 45 years to ensure that over 430 children have a happy holiday season. But behind the scenes, it was up to The Lamoille Family Center to supplement the remaining gifts with funds from their bottom line. “We would have to fill in the blanks of what wasn’t donated by people in the community by driving to Barre or Burlington each night of the Holiday Project and spending $1000 to $2000 a night.” 

When Julia, the Director of Development and Communication, proposed a new fundraising tool, everything changed. “Using GiftDrive this year, we didn't go to the store. It saved us at least $6000 in shopping that we would have done out of our own budget.”

Be specific about your needs.

Serving 436 children for the holiday season proved difficult when living in a rural county. Julia would drive to Barre or Burlington each night of the Holiday Project to fill in the donated gaps. “The biggest challenges are access to the items that kids ask for. You know, Lamoille County has a limited amount of stores that sell gifts for kids.” 

After being encouraged by other development experts in her non-profit world, Julia created a GiftDrive for the holiday project. Instead of hoping for donations of needed items, she was able to fill the drive with items she typically would have had to purchase with the Family Center’s funds. “It was way more effective than scrambling and running around at the last minute. It made us all feel much more prepared.”

Connect with your community. 

Julia was determined to keep local businesses that support the Holiday Project in the loop. One longstanding partner, the Lamoille Area Board of Realtors, had traditionally collected toy donations at the annual Christmas party to benefit the Family Center. This year, in addition to encouraging attendees to bring a toy to the party, the board shared a link to the Holiday Project’s GiftDrive page for those who could not attend. “And she said to them, if you can't make it, you can go to this online site. And we got a ton of donations through that too. So that was really awesome.”

By pairing the classic donation drive collection with a digital option, Julia was able to stay connected to her community while also increasing overall contributions to the drive. 

Expand your reach.

Julia realized that there were more ways to connect with her community than relying solely on traditional, in-person donation methods. In previous years, long-time supporters who were out-of-state had limited ways to participate. “We do have donors that live out of Vermont for the winter and so now this gives them an opportunity to donate and just it expanded the access to donors” By offering a virtual way to give, she made it possible for seasonal residents to remain engaged in their local community. 

To increase visibility, Julia promoted the drive across multiple platforms that she knew the Family Center’s donors would see. “I put it on social media, on our website, and on Front Porch Forum, and then I put an ad or a newspaper article in the two local papers. The responses have all been great.”  

Julia’s strategies proved successful, collecting over 400 items valued at nearly $8,000. Her story is a great example of how giving donors more ways to give can create a huge impact, not only bringing in more gifts for children, but strengthening the organization as a whole. “Not having to use that money that we were budgeting for extra toys is going to be so helpful…we're going to be able to move that funding to the bottom line which will make our deficit less when we wrap up our fiscal year.”