Sponsor A Child

Sponsor A Child

Sponsoring and shopping for a child aged 5 to 11 is a fun and rewarding experience! Here’s how it works…

Decide how many children you will sponsor.

It costs about $200 per child for clothing and school supplies.
If you are sponsoring a child with co-workers or friends, you may find that some folks may want to donate funds and have you do the shopping OR some folks may want to shop for one or two articles from the child's profile.

Select an organization from the “Agency List” to contact for a profile of a child.

Social workers from local social service agencies qualify children to participate in the program and develop a profile of each child (see “Profile” document).
The profile lists the name, age, size, favorite colors and style preferences to guide your shopping.
The contact person from the agency will send you as many profiles as you request.
Check the profile when you receive it. If it is unclear or a size appears to be wrong, contact the agency for clarification. If the child is very hard to fit, ask for another profile. (Don’t worry, hard to fit children will attend one of our in-store “shopping nights” to try on clothing to ensure a good fit.)
Make copies of the profiles - for your records, to hand out to your volunteer shoppers, and to include in the packages for the children for easy identification.

Solicit Contributions

Some people send out emails, set up a table in their cafeteria to solicit contributions or sponsorships or have inter-departmental challenges. Some have “Jeans Days” at the office. Some bosses even offer to match the contributions collected from employees!
See the “Looking for an Opportunity…” flyer or develop your own to advertise your campaign.

Monetary Contributions

Cash contributions can be used by you to purchase clothing or can be donated to support the “Shopping With A Teen” or “SWAT” Nights.

Clothing and School Supplies Contributions
Volunteers who are buying all the clothing for a child should receive a copy of the profile, the “Clothing List”, the “School Supply List” and your deadline information. If you are dividing a profile between shoppers, fill out the name of the shopper on the “Clothing Pledge Record” document and staple it to a copy of the profile for your records.... it helps you keep track of who is buying what!

Receipts
Be sure to track all donations for your records. You need to issue a receipt for all cash donations and for checks and clothing donations received with a value over $250. (Note make copies of all receipts issued. When the drive is completed, you need to send a copy of the receipts to BTS at PO Box 304, White Plains, NY 10605). Checks should be issued to “Back-to-School Clothes for Kids”. If you need the check cashed in order to purchase clothing, call Mary Cullen at 914-697-2746

Shopping Discounts – see “Shopping Discounts” for information about stores that extend discounts to us.

Paying Sales Tax - see “Paying Sales Tax” for information about paying sales tax.

Prepare Contributions for Delivery

Each child’s clothing should be packaged separately and labeled with the child’s name.
Be sure to include a copy of the profile in the package or tape it to the outside! (We’ve found using “Fed Ex Plastic Sleeves” work great – adhere it to the outside of package and slip the profile in it.)
Include a copy of the “Good Luck in School” flyer stapled to a self-addressed stamped envelope to facilitate receiving a “thank you” note from the children.
Contact the social worker or program coordinator to arrange for dropping off the packages.

Wrap Up

Thank all volunteers and donors and provide information about the success of the campaign. See the sample from “Westchester Real Estate” for ideas.
Remember - send copies of all receipts issued to donors to Back-to-School Clothes for Kids.
Hopefully some thank you notes will arrive that are wonderful to share with all participants. As you can guess, some children do not respond for a variety of reasons. You can be sure though, that every contribution of clothing, time and money really helps a child in distress.

Help

Email info@laserhospital.net or call us at 914-576-6053 if you need help or have any questions! We can put you in touch with people who have been participating in the drive for some time and are happy to help!

Please contact us for more information about how you can help:

Phone 914-576-6053

To Donate Using PayPal or Credit Card:

To Donate by Mail:

Back-to-School Clothes for Kids, PO Box 304, White Plains, NY 10605