How $1 Equals $10 at Food Bank of the Rockies

Friday, October 2, Food Bank of the Rockies had their 2009 Agency Conference – an event designed for the agencies that receive food from the Food Bank and distribute it to the end client. Janie Gianotsos, Director of Marketing, and I presented a Social Media for Nonprofits seminar. I thought I had gone there to teach nonprofits how to use social media in their fund-raising and publicity efforts. Instead I learned so much.

One of the speakers, John Arnold, Executive Director at Feeding America West Michigan presented a most passionate speech: Charity Food Programs That Can End Hunger In America. He even had proof from some of the counties that his program support, have ended hunger. So many statistics and facts were included in his presentation of how things have changed positively over the years as they started studying and doing things differently.

A year ago, I felt so fortunate that I was able to connect a marketing firm and a local food pantry together for a food drive. The drive was so successful, they gathered enough cans to last four months – or so I thought it was so successful. I wish I had listened to Mr. Arnold’s speech before this because if there had been some way to collect cash donations instead of food donations, the food pantry could have had 10 times what they collected – that could have been 40 months or over three years worth!

If you donate money versus canned goods, food pantries are able to buy so much more, according to Mr. Arnold. Let’s say that a person buys $5 worth of canned foods at a grocery store and donates it. If they had given $5 as a cash or credit card donation to Food Bank of the Rockies or the nonprofits they distribute food to, they could have used this $5 donation to purchase up to $50 worth of food from their suppliers including the same grocery stores that the person had bought the canned food from. What an amazing thing. 

Donating a grocery bag like this could result in 10 grocery bags if you donated cash instead.

Mr. Arnold did realize that people feel good about bringing a tangible item for a food drive and suggested everyone rinsing the cans and putting the money in them instead. There has to be a creative way – how about envelopes or recycles boxes with a picture of cans? And he is not saying that food drives should end. He is educating people how cash goes so much further. Same thing that the great folks at Denver Food Bank of the Rockies say.

So, yes, I was honored and happy to teach Social Media 101 with Janie Gianotsos and I hope that the nonprofits we presented to are able to incorporate some of the social media marketing techniques we suggested: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., into their marketing efforts. But I also feel so good about learning so much on how to really help food pantries. The next time I think of taking cans to a drive, I’ll take cash instead.

Visit Food Bank of the Rockies for more information. You can also visit their donation page to help this wonderful organization.